Second Sight Announces Dr. Robert Greenberg, Chairman, Inducted as a National Academy of Inventors Fellow

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-Highest Professional Distinction Accorded to Inventors Demonstrating a Prolific Spirit of Innovation-

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 that are intended to provide some useful vision to blind patients, announced that Dr. Robert Greenberg, Chairman, will be inducted as a National Academy of Inventors (NAI) Fellow at a ceremony to be held this evening at the Sixth Annual Conference of the National Academy of Inventors at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum in Boston, Massachusetts.

“On behalf of the Board of Directors and the entire team at Second Sight, we congratulate Bob for his distinguished and profound contributions to science, technology, and medicine, which have advanced our understanding of the tremendous potential of technology to restore vision and enabled blind individuals with Retinitis Pigmentosa to regain some useful vision,” said Will McGuire, President and CEO of the Company.

Election to NAI Fellow status is the highest professional distinction accorded to inventors who have demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development, and welfare of society. According to the 2016 NAI Activities Report, published in July 2016, NAI Fellows have generated more than 8,500 licensed technologies and companies and created more than 1.1 million jobs, with over $100 billion in revenue generated based on their discoveries.

Those elected to the rank of NAI Fellow are named inventors on U.S. patents and were nominated by their peers for outstanding contributions to innovation in areas such as patents and licensing, innovative discovery and technology, significant impact on society, and support and enhancement of innovation.

As of December 31, 2016, Second Sight had 381 issued patents and 126 pending patent applications worldwide, with over 350 issued patents and over 100 pending applications naming Dr. Greenberg as an inventor.

About the 2016 NAI Fellows

The 2016 NAI Fellows evaluated by the 2016 Selection Committee included 19 members, comprised of NAI Fellows, recipients of U.S. National Medals, National Inventors Hall of Fame inductees, members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and senior officials from the USPTO, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Association of American Universities, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, Association of University Technology Managers, and National Inventors Hall of Fame, among other organizations.

Included among all NAI Fellows are more than 94 presidents and senior leaders of research universities and non-profit research institutes; 376 members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; 28 inductees of the National Inventors Hall of Fame; 45 recipients of the U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation and U.S. National Medal of Science; 28 Nobel Laureates, 216 AAAS Fellows; 126 IEEE Fellows; and 116 Fellows of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, among other awards and distinctions.

With the election of the 2016 class, there are now 757 NAI Fellows. The 2016 Fellows are named inventors on 5,437 issued U.S. patents, bringing the collective patents held by all NAI Fellows to more than 26,000 issued U.S. patents.

Complete list of NAI Fellows: http://Academyofinventors.org/search-fellows.asp.

About the National Academy of Inventors

The National Academy of Inventors is a 501(c)(3) non-profit member organization comprising U.S. and international universities, and governmental and non-profit research institutes, with over 3,000 individual inventor members and Fellows spanning more than 240 institutions, and growing rapidly. It was founded in 2010 to recognize and encourage inventors with patents issued from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, to enhance the visibility of academic technology and innovation, encourage the disclosure of intellectual property, educate and mentor innovative students, and translate the inventions of its members to benefit society. The NAI publishes the multidisciplinary journal, Technology and Innovation, Journal of the National Academy of Inventors.

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 stimulate the retina's remaining cells, intending to result in the perception of patterns of light in the brain. The patient must learn to interpret these visual patterns, having the potential to regain some visual function. The Argus II was 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 the Orion™ I Visual Cortical Prosthesis System

Second Sight is currently developing the Orion I System. A proof-of-concept clinical trial demonstrating the viability of stimulation of the human visual cortex began in Q4 2016 at UCLA. First-in-man clinical studies with the Orion I are planned in 2017. Like Argus II, the idea behind Second Sight’s Orion I System is to convert images captured by a miniature video camera mounted on the patient's glasses into a series of small electrical pulses. The Orion I System is designed to transmit these electrical pulses wirelessly to an array of electrodes implanted on the surface of the visual cortex, intended to result in the perception of patterns of light. By bypassing the retina and optic nerve and directly stimulating the visual cortex, a cortical prosthesis system has the potential to restore useful vision to patients completely blinded due to many reasons, including glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, or forms of cancer and trauma.

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 manufactures the Argus® II Retinal Prosthesis System. Second Sight is currently underway 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 System that is intended to restore some vision to individuals who are blind due to most causes other than preventable or treatable conditions. U.S. Headquarters are in Sylmar, CA, and European Headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland. For more information, visit www.secondsight.com.

Safe Harbor

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 16, 2017, 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.

Investor Relations:
Institutional Investors
In-Site Communications, Inc.
Lisa Wilson, 212-452-2793
President
lwilson@insitecony.com
or
Individual Investors
MZ North America
Greg Falesnik, 949-385-6449
Managing Director
greg.falesnik@mzgroup.us

Source: Second Sight Medical Products, Inc.

Released April 6, 2017