Second Sight Medical Products, Inc. Announces Completion of Oversubscribed Rights Offering

SYLMAR, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Second Sight Medical Products, Inc. (NASDAQ:EYES) (“Second Sight” or
“the Company”), a developer, manufacturer and marketer of implantable
visual prosthetics to provide some useful vision to blind patients,
today announced that it has completed its previously announced rights
offering to shareholders of record on May 13, 2016. The rights offering
was oversubscribed. Second Sight will retain $19.8 million of the
subscriptions received, with subscriptions over that amount being
returned to investors. Pursuant to the rights offering, Second Sight
will issue approximately 6.0 million shares of the Company’s common
stock at $3.315 per share, which is equal to 85% the closing price per
share of $3.90 on the Nasdaq on May 31, 2016. Net proceeds, after
deduction of fees and expenses, are expected to be approximately $19.4
million.
Second Sight plans to use the proceeds from the rights offering to
continue funding the ongoing post-market clinical study of the Argus® II
Retinal Prosthesis Systems (“Argus II”), to assess the safety and
efficacy of the Argus II for the treatment of Dry-Age-Related Macular
Degeneration and to further expand domestic and international markets
for the Argus II. In addition, Second Sight plans to continue funding
the ongoing development of the Orion™ I Visual Cortical Prosthesis, a
visual prosthesis for cortical stimulation, that the Company expects,
may be able to treat nearly all forms of blindness. The financing will
also provide for other general corporate purposes, including working
capital, research and development, business development and operational
purposes. Broadridge Corporate Issuer Solutions, Inc. acted as the
subscription agent and as the information agent.
The rights offering was made pursuant to a registration statement on
Form S-1 filed by Second Sight with the Securities and Exchange
Commission (“SEC”) and declared effective by the SEC on May 9, 2016.
Copies of the prospectus relating to and describing the terms of the
rights offering are available on the SEC’s web site at https://www.sec.gov.
Copies of the prospectus relating to these securities may also be
obtained from Broadridge Corporate Issuer Solutions, Inc., the Company’s
information agent for the rights offering, by calling (855) 793-5068
(toll-free) or emailing shareholder@broadridge.com.
This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the
solicitation of an offer to buy these securities, nor will there be any
sale of these securities in any state or other jurisdiction in which
such offer, solicitation or sale is not permitted.
About the Argus II® Retinal Prosthesis System
Second Sight’s Argus II System provides electrical stimulation that
bypasses the defunct retinal cells and stimulates remaining viable cells
inducing visual perception in individuals with severe to profound
Retinitis Pigmentosa. The Argus II works by converting images captured
by a miniature video camera mounted on the patient’s glasses into a
series of small electrical pulses, which are transmitted wirelessly to
an array of electrodes implanted on the surface of the retina. These
pulses are intended to stimulate the retina’s remaining cells, resulting
in the perception of patterns of light in the brain. The patient then
learns to interpret these visual patterns, thereby regaining some visual
function. The Argus II is the first artificial retina to receive
widespread approval, and is offered at approved centers in Canada,
France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Switzerland,
Turkey, United Kingdom, and the U.S.
About Second Sight
Second Sight’s mission is to develop, manufacture and market innovative
implantable visual prosthetics to enable blind individuals to achieve
greater independence. Second Sight has developed and now manufactures
and markets the Argus® II Retinal Prosthesis System. Enrollment has been
completed in a trial to test the safety and utility of the Argus II in
individuals with Dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration. Second Sight is
also developing the Orion™ I Visual Cortical Prosthesis to restore some
vision to individuals who are blind due to causes other than preventable
or treatable conditions. U.S. Headquarters are in Sylmar, California,
and European Headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland. For more
information, visit www.secondsight.com.
Cautionary Statement Relating to Forward – Looking Information for
the Purpose of “Safe Harbor” Provisions of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the
meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and
Section 21E of the Securities Exchange and Exchange Act of 1934, as
amended, which are intended to be covered by the “safe harbor” created
by those sections. All statements in this release that are not based on
historical fact are “forward looking statements.” These statements may
be identified by words such as “estimates,” “anticipates,” “projects,”
“plans,” or “planned,” “seeks,” “may,” “will,” “expects,” “intends,”
“believes,” “should” and similar expressions or the negative versions
thereof and which also may be identified by their context. All
statements that address operating performance or events or developments
that Second Sight expects or anticipates will occur in the future are
forward-looking statements. While management has based any forward
looking statements included in this release on its current expectations,
the information on which such expectations were based may change.
Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties
which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the
forward-looking statements, as a result of various factors including
those risks and uncertainties described in the Risk Factors and in
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results
of Operations sections of our Annual Report on Form 10-K as filed
on March 11, 2016 and our other reports filed from time to time with
the Securities and Exchange Commission. We urge you to consider those
risks and uncertainties in evaluating our forward-looking statements. We
caution readers not to place undue reliance upon any such
forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. Except
as otherwise required by the federal securities laws, we disclaim any
obligation or undertaking to publicly release any updates or revisions
to any forward-looking statement contained herein (or elsewhere) to
reflect any change in our expectations with regard thereto or any change
in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is
based. You should however review additional disclosures we make in our
registration statement on Form S-1 for this offering that has been filed
with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as our Annual
Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports
on Form 8-K.