VCs have funded at least a dozen start-ups working in presbyopia, including C&C Vision, whose founder Stuart Cumming has been quietly working on an accomodating intraocular lens for more than ten years. With the FDA's Ophthalmic Devices Panel unanimously recommending premarket approval of C&C Vision's CrystaLens accommodating intraocular lens for cataract patients, his firm is very close to being able to reap a first-mover advantage in this new market.

Phakic intraocular lenses may offer solutions for patients that suffer from high degrees of myopia or hyperopia, Medennium Inc. 's PRL, in phase II clinical trials, is a posterior phakic intraocular lens.

For the ultimate in convenience, hundreds of thousands of nearsighted and farsighted patients are turning to refractive surgery, or surgical vision correction procedures that promise a permanent alternative to glasses. New companies that wish to grab a portion of the $12 billion US market for vision correction are avoiding the crowded and competitive excimer laser business, with technologies that treat patients that LASIK (laser in-situ keratomileusis) doesn't serve well.