Entrepreneur Hall of Fame Bill Burns

Bill Burns

Encore Vision

Photos from Top 100 2016 award this year.

Fact Box

Encore Vision Inc

- FWBP Digital Partners -

1120 South Freeway

Suite 118

Fort Worth 76104

http://encorevisioninc.com

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817-454-9049

Encore Vision Inc.’s Bill Burns has been working on a product that could solve a problem that has plagued humans for centuries.

Now, after about a decade of work, he appears within sight of realizing that goal.

The Fort Worth startup has developed an eye-drop treatment for presbyopia, the hardening of a lens in the eye that frequently leads to the need for reading glasses. The condition affects more than 1 billion people worldwide according some estimates, primarily impacting quality of life issues.

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The company said in May that the study of its EV06 solution, aimed at softening the lens in the eye that tends to stiffen with age, met both primary safety and efficacy outcomes, with a significant improvement in near vision observed in the 75-subject study group.

Details were presented at the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons Symposium in New Orleans earlier in May.

“We are encouraged by the positive safety and efficacy outcomes observed throughout the study in patients treated with EV06,” said Burns, Encore’s president and chief executive officer.

Burns launched Encore in 2006, working through the TECH Fort Worth business incubator. That was following a 20-year career at Fort Worth’s Alcon Laboratories. At Alcon, Burns held a number of executive positions, including vice president for worldwide marketing for pharmaceutical and consumer products. Prior to Alcon, Burns worked at Bristol Myers Squibb and at Norwich-Eaton Laboratories, now a Proctor & Gamble company.

The potential for Encore’s product is huge. There are no current medical treatments for presbyopia and surgical approaches to treat presbyopia have not made significant market penetration, according to Burns. The condition affects greater than 90 percent of individuals over the age of 40 with an estimated 1.8 billion impacted worldwide. About 120 million Americans require vision correction for presbyopia. Treating just those with early onset presbyopia represents a market size in the tens of millions, according to the company.

Encore has received funding from the Cowtown Angels investor network in Fort Worth and support from other groups including Bios Partners, a Fort Worth venture capital equity firm.

“We’re on our way,” said Burns. – Robert Francis

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received? We have two ears and one mouth for a reason – listen at least twice as much as you talk!

What advice would you give an entrepreneur? Find the right people with the right skills and give them the freedom to get the job done.