Sight Sciences has raised $10 million and lured an executive away from Alcon to drive growth of its ophthalmic medical device business. The Menlo Park, California-based company will use the resources to step up commercialization and further development of its dry eye and surgical devices.
Existing investor Allegro Investment Fund led the round with support from all the other financiers that helped Sight Sciences to its $7 million series B last year. Since then, Sight Sciences has made good on its promise to build out its management team by making a slew of appointments across its clinical, regulatory, medical, sales, manufacturing and quality departments.
Sight Sciences unveiled its latest hire, Shawn O'Neil, alongside of news of the series C. O'Neil has signed up to work as SVP of sales and marketing, giving him a central role in the company’s attempts to build its U.S. commercial team and make a success of its products.
O’Neil joins Sight Sciences after more than 20 years at Novartis’ Alcon, where he rose to the role of head of sales and marketing, surgical glaucoma. In his time at Alcon, O’Neil helped to introduce multiple devices to the market, experience that his new employer will put to use.
“Shawn brings a wealth of valuable industry knowledge and an extensive professional network,” Sight Sciences CEO Paul Badawi said in a statement. “He is perfectly suited to lead our upcoming product launches and commercial scale-up and will make a substantial impact in creating value for all Sight Sciences stakeholders—patients, providers, payors, and shareholders.”
O’Neil is one of the number of people to leave Alcon this year. Many of the departees worked at the drug unit that was absorbed into Novartis as part of restructuring program last year. But O’Neil comes from the device side of the company that continues to operate under the Alcon brand.
The devices now under O’Neil’s purview include two surgical technologies, TRAB 360 and VISCO 360, and a heat therapy treatment for dry eye, TearCare.