When the cornea, the clear front of the eye, is scarred, the usual fix is a donor transplant, and some patients' transplants fail again and again. CorNeat Vision, an Israeli company founded by ophthalmologist Gilad Litvin and engineer Almog Aley-Raz, developed the CorNeat KPro: a synthetic lens held in place by a skirt of material designed to grow into the eye's own tissue, so it needs no donor tissue at all.
The European Innovation Council granted €2,422,519 towards a €3.48 million project to run the trials needed for approval and to build production. Some results were remarkable, including patients who regained sight after repeated failed transplants. But in May 2026 CorNeat terminated the trial designed to win FDA clearance and a CE mark, after safety findings in which the device became exposed.
Company file
- Legal entity
- CorNeat Vision Ltd., Israel
- Co-founders
- Gilad Litvin (CMO, inventor), Almog Aley-Raz (CEO)
- Product
- CorNeat KPro synthetic cornea (investigational)
- Platform
- EverMatrix tissue-integrating material
- Other support
- US Army project award
- Trials
- First-in-human, 10 patients (ended 2023); RESEE, 15 patients (terminated 2026)
- EIC project
- RESEE, 1 Feb 2022 to 31 Aug 2024, closed
- EIC funding
- Grant only
Where CorNeat Stands Today
According to ClinicalTrials.gov, CorNeat's trial of the KPro, started in June 2024 at sites in Canada, France, Israel and the Netherlands, was terminated with 15 patients enrolled; its record was updated on 7 May 2026. The stated reason: "The study was voluntarily terminated by the sponsor following emerging safety findings, including device exposure associated with conjunctival retraction. Enrollment was halted to allow further evaluation and optimization of the device and procedure."
Eight months earlier, in September 2025, the company had announced 50% enrolment in the same trial, described as designed to enable FDA 510(k) clearance and CE marking, and a patient blinded by shingles who regained 20/20 vision. It planned to add US sites in 2026. We found no public statement from the company about the termination.
The Technology: A Cornea That Grows In
CorNeat's device is designed to need no donor tissue. It uses an electrospun skirt of a synthetic material the company calls EverMatrix, meant to integrate permanently with the surrounding eye tissue. During the EIC project, the CORDIS report says, the company made the skirt thinner to integrate faster and perforated it to improve adherence of the conjunctiva, the thin tissue covering the white of the eye. The 2026 safety finding involves that same tissue pulling back and exposing the device.
"The surgical procedure was straight forward and the result exceeded all of our expectations."
Irit Bahar, Rabin Medical Center, on the first implant, via Eyewire+, January 2021What the EIC Project Promised, and What CORDIS Shows
RESEE aimed to take the KPro to commercialisation: clinical trials and a usability study for regulatory approval, scaled manufacturing, infrastructure for first sales, and education of surgeons. The CORDIS report says the company completed a first-in-human study in 10 patients, "most of whom were previously defined as terminally blind", including one who had had four failed transplants and another with six. It built a robotic cell for the skirt, able to make about 200 devices a day, in a new cleanroom, and started a second trial with the improved device.
- First-in-human evidenceDelivered10 patients, some with lasting restored vision, per CORDIS.
- Scaled manufacturingDeliveredRobotic line for about 200 devices a day.
- Trial for regulatory approvalTerminatedStopped in 2026 after device exposure in some eyes.
- First salesNot achievedNo approval in any market found.
What Has Happened Since the Award
The Money
The EIC award was grant only. Besides it, the company cites a US Army project award. We found no announced private funding round with an amount in reliable sources, and no public accounts.
What cannot be checked
How many patients were affected by device exposure, what the company plans next, and how it is financed are not public.
Why Europe Should Care
The EIC funded a non-EU company, which Horizon Europe allows for associated countries such as Israel, and the trial it paid to prepare ran largely at European centres in France and the Netherlands. The outcome is a reminder that medical breakthroughs can fail at the clinical stage even after striking early results.
What the project promised
A synthetic cornea brought to approval and first sales, with scaled production.
What the record shows
Striking individual results and a production line, then an approval trial halted after safety findings.
The Verdict
A breakthrough that hit a safety wall
The EIC project delivered the first-in-human study and a factory-scale production line, and some patients got their sight back. But the device modifications made during the project did not prevent the problem that stopped the next trial: the eye's surface pulling back from the implant. Until CorNeat explains its fix and restarts, the path to approval is closed.
CorNeat Vision has not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on public records, company statements, clinical registry data and EU project data, linked throughout.
