NOVA EYE MEDICAL LTD (EYE) - Interventional Glaucoma Explained Artwork

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NOVA EYE MEDICAL LTD (EYE) - Interventional Glaucoma Explained

September 08, 2026 • Andrew Musgrave

0:00 | 9:25

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ASX Investment Opportunity - Nova Eye Medical Ltd (ASX:EYE)

One of the biggest surprises in eye health is how often cataracts and glaucoma overlap, and what that means for treatment choices. We’re joined by Tom Spurling, Managing Director of Nova Eye Medical, to unpack interventional glaucoma and the iTrack™ Advance platform, including why “treat earlier” can be a very different patient journey compared with years of glaucoma eye drops and the risks of waiting until the disease is severe.

We talk through how iTrack™ Advance can be performed during cataract surgery, the world’s most common operation, and why that channel matters so much for adoption in the US. Tom also explains Nova Eye Medical’s competitive stance in the minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS) market: a tissue-sparing, implant-free approach versus alternatives that cut tissue, bypass pathways, or leave an implant behind. It’s a clear lens on how clinicians make choices when patient safety, outcomes, and simplicity all compete for attention.

On the numbers, we cover FY26 sales growth, expanding gross margins, and what positive EBITDA signals about operating leverage as the business scales. We also look at the market runway in the US, the logic behind FY27 guidance, and where international growth could come from next, including Europe and the longer-term potential of China.

If you care about ASX healthcare stocks, medtech commercial execution, or the future of glaucoma treatment, hit subscribe, share the episode with a mate, and leave us a review so more people can find ASX Briefs.

Andrew Musgrave

Welcome again to ASX Briefs, and today we welcome back Tom Spurling, the Managing Director of Nova Eye Medical Limited, a medical technology company that develops, manufactures, and sells a portfolio of proprietary ophthalmic treatment technologies, including the iTrack™ Advance. Tom, great to have you with me again and welcome back to the ASX Briefs podcast.

Tom Spurling

Thanks for having me, Andrew.

Andrew Musgrave

Tom, for listeners that may be new to Nova Eye Medical, could you give us a brief overview of the business, the iTrack™ Advance platform, and what interventional glaucoma actually means for a patient?

Tom Spurling

Yes, so Andrew, we have a couple of devices that are for treating glaucoma. Glaucoma can't be cured, but the idea is to stave off the effects of glaucoma, which glaucoma is basically a buildup of pressure in the eye, blockages that give rise to high pressure, which can untreated crush the optic nerve and lead to blindness. Our device clears those blockages. Interventional glaucoma is about treating the disease before it gets too bad. The standard of care has been for many years, patients taking eye drops. Those drops over a long period of time, people don't take them very well, and they can be long-term bad for the eye. So, our idea, well the idea of interventional glaucoma is a minimally invasive surgery earlier in the disease rather than having to put a patient on drops for a long time for radical surgery down the track.

Andrew Musgrave

You recently released your FY26 results to the market and confirmed the numbers you gave the market in July. FY26 total sales were 23.7 million US dollars, up 26% in constant currency, with sales excluding China up 29% to US 22.7 million and above the midpoint of your upgraded guidance. That is the fourth consecutive year of growth above 25% in constant currency. So how pleased are you with that outcome?

Tom Spurling

We are very proud and pleased of that fourth year of more than 25% growth measured in US dollars. It's testimony to the quality of our product and the team that we have putting it in front of doctors. We have a great product, and it's also testimony to the rather large market we're trying to access and the large opportunity we have here at Nova Eye.

Andrew Musgrave

You also delivered your first half of positive EBITDA in the first half of FY26 against a guidance of break-even, with gross margin lifting to 73% in the half and 72% for the full year. Is that the point where operating leverage starts to show?

Tom Spurling

We've provided a lot of information to our shareholders showing now that as we get to this scale, you know, 24 million, a couple of million dollars sales a month, we are getting leverage on our fixed costs and our sales and marketing costs, which do rise a little bit with sales, but there's a widening, a gap being created. And we have seen that, it's evident in the second half, and we see that as continuing into the future. We believe that a company with 25% growth or more and positive EBITDA on the bottom will be very valuable.

Andrew Musgrave

Now you've had strong US momentum and strong USA growth. So, is that more your own execution or is the market moving underneath you?

Tom Spurling

Well, by all the statistics that we have, our growth exceeds the market rate of growth. Personally, I believe we're the fastest growing Glaucoma company in the world. I don't really have any independent advice of that, just my own calculations. So, we think that there is the whole story around our business, which is our business has been driven by the very important fact that one in five people who present for a cataract surgery, the world's most common surgery, also have glaucoma. That provides a lot of opportunities for our doctors to treat patients.

Andrew Musgrave

Okay, and the iTrack™ Advance can be performed during cataract surgery, as you mentioned. So, how central is that cataract surgeon channel to the US growth you are reporting?

Tom Spurling

We have a beautiful device and cataract surgeons, some perform a lot of surgery, and more of them are seeing the benefit of rather than staying away from the glaucoma therapy, seeing the opportunity to help their patients by performing the surgery at the same time as cataract surgery. In fact, very interestingly, there was a paper just published where the refractive outcomes, that means the quality of vision that people that have cataract surgery with iTrack™ at the same time, there were better outputs, better vision quality, which is surprising, but it shows that the patient, a happy patient is a happy doctor. And so, our device fits well.

Andrew Musgrave

Now, looking at the competition in the market, there are several devices competing for that procedure. Others bypass the drainage pathway, remove tissues, or leave an implant behind. So, how do you position iTrack™ Advance in front of a surgeon choosing between them?

Tom Spurling

Yes, well, absolutely. We are the tissue-sparing, implant-free solution. That is the front and centre of the pitch that we give to our doctors. It makes sense to me and most people I speak to that if you have a choice between cutting tissue or having a bit of metal or plastic stuck in your eye, you'd surely prefer to have an implant-free tissue-sparing approach. And that is how pretty much how doctors see it. So, we that's how we compete because we are the device that's tissue-sparing and implant-free.

Andrew Musgrave

And touching now on the US growth runway, you estimate 30 to 35,000 mild to moderate glaucoma surgical procedures a month in the USA, and eye track currently accounts for around 4% of them. With the global interventional glaucoma market at roughly US $900 million and forecast to keep growing, how much runway is genuinely in front of you?

Tom Spurling

So, on this, I'm very, I think this stat really drives the potential of Nova Eye. 4% is a tiny market share. And imagine if it was 8%. That means our revenue is double where it is today. And 8% still only a tiny market share. The message I would like our current shareholders and prospective shareholders to get is we have a very large runway just in the United States to improve our position and so it's a very exciting opportunity we have.

Andrew Musgrave

Touching now on your FY27 guidance, you have guided to sales excluding China of US 26 million to US 31 million, implying a 15% to 37% growth in US dollars, plus a positive EBITDA for the full year. So, what underwrites those numbers?

Tom Spurling

So, we are looking backwards. You don't promise things in words, you demonstrate them and then let the people make their own decisions. And so, we're showing that with the operating leverage, we're making a profit in the second half and that we've hit consistently hit that 25% growth. So, we believe we've got the scale, we've got the model right and now it's to gently scale it or carefully scale it so that we can continue to grow the top line and report a profit, which is I think what our shareholders want.

Andrew Musgrave

If we now look outside of the USA, what are some of the other jurisdictions that you think are good opportunities for Nova Eye?

Tom Spurling

Well, currently we have a nice revenue stream in Germany. Outside the USA, the interventional glaucoma market is still in its, or interventional glaucoma movement is still in its early stages. But we do well in Germany and that's growing nicely. We like Poland and the UK, we do pretty well in. We also have a presence with a distribution partner in China. China can be a bit complicated with the tariffs and things, but there's a very large potential market in China, and we have an approved device. We've done the hard yards with the Chinese medical device approval authority, and so we think China is a big future.

Andrew Musgrave

And finally, Tom, with four straight years of 25% plus growth in constant currency, a first positive EBITDA half year behind you, and the US business compounding every quarter, how would you describe Nova Eye Medical's priorities for the year ahead?

Tom Spurling

Well, our priority is to deliver on that guidance, to show our existing and potential shareholders that they can be part of a growing profitable company in a very large market. So, delivering on every quarter, delivering on those promises that we've made our shareholders is our priority.

Andrew Musgrave

All right, Tom. Well, it's been great to chat again. So, thanks for your time, and we look forward to further updates in the upcoming months.

Tom Spurling

Thank you very much for having me.

Andrew Musgrave

That concludes this episode of ASX Briefs. Don't forget to subscribe, and we look forward to catching you on our next episode.