Coherent, Inc. (Santa Clara, CA) (Nasdaq: COHR) has now shipped over 10,000 lasers into ophthalmic therapeutic applications as a market leading OEM supplier to a worldwide customer base. These lasers include a mixture of pulsed excimer ultraviolet lasers for LASIK vision correction, and continuous wave (CW) solid-state lasers with green or yellow output for use in photocoagulation to treat wet-form age related macular degeneration (AMD). These impressive sales numbers confirm Coherent's leadership and commitment in both these important medical laser therapeutic applications. Moreover, the company also notes continued strong sales performance in other areas of the ophthalmic market, namely, lasers for diagnostic applications such as retinal scanning.
Matthias Schulze, Segment Marketing Director explains, "These impressive sales numbers are a testament to the successful implementation of our strategy of combining technical innovation and superior performance with strong symbiotic partnerships with key customers in the medical field. This approach results in an excellent match between the performance and reliability of our products and the unique needs of target applications. For example, our excimer lasers are the preferred light source for LASIK because they offer higher beam uniformity than competitive products, a critical parameter in this application. And, in photocoagulation, we now supply green lasers at the long-used 532 nm wavelength as well as our award winning Genesis lasers at 577 nm, developed specifically to match the wavelength needs of this application."
Schulze adds, "Vision has a large and direct impact on a patient's quality of life, which is why Coherent is proud to have supported ophthalmic applications for nearly our entire 46 year history. For example, a now rarely used ophthalmic procedure called laser trabeculoplasty was one of the very first commercial laser applications, and Coherent successfully supplied ion lasers for this use."
Matthias Schulze, Segment Marketing Director explains, "These impressive sales numbers are a testament to the successful implementation of our strategy of combining technical innovation and superior performance with strong symbiotic partnerships with key customers in the medical field. This approach results in an excellent match between the performance and reliability of our products and the unique needs of target applications. For example, our excimer lasers are the preferred light source for LASIK because they offer higher beam uniformity than competitive products, a critical parameter in this application. And, in photocoagulation, we now supply green lasers at the long-used 532 nm wavelength as well as our award winning Genesis lasers at 577 nm, developed specifically to match the wavelength needs of this application."
Schulze adds, "Vision has a large and direct impact on a patient's quality of life, which is why Coherent is proud to have supported ophthalmic applications for nearly our entire 46 year history. For example, a now rarely used ophthalmic procedure called laser trabeculoplasty was one of the very first commercial laser applications, and Coherent successfully supplied ion lasers for this use."
