11 Jun 2025
First commercially available iterations of PhotonUVC Vet, novel handheld device delivering contactless five-second UV light treatment into the eye, set to reach practices this month.
Chris Simpson
Job Title
The PhotonUVC Vet, by Photon Therapeutics.
A cutting-edge UVC light treatment for corneal infections could eventually remove the need for antibiotics, according to a vet helping to bring it to market.
The first commercially available iterations of PhotonUVC Vet, a novel handheld device that delivers a contactless five-second ultraviolet light treatment into the eye, will reach practices this month.
Photon Therapeutics, which developed the product, was founded by two human ophthalmologists and is also exploring the device’s potential applications in human medicine.
Chief executive and veterinary surgeon Mark Leddy said: “The future is super exciting, and the future hopefully will be to reduce [antibiotic usage]. We’re on a mission, ultimately, to remove the need for antibiotics.”
The UVC light used in the treatment selectively targets single-celled organisms while leaving animal cells unharmed.
Dr Leddy said the treatment has “proved good efficacy against all the viruses, bacteria and fungi,” notably including “all of the bacteria that have resistance to traditional antimicrobials”.
He added: “There is no acquired resistance to UVC.”
On PhotoUVC Vet, Dr Leddy said: “We have an antimicrobial, which potentially, if we use it, we won’t create resistance to it.
“And what we know is, if we stop using traditional antibiotics or we reduce their usage, we can reduce the acquisition of resistance, and that’s becoming more important.”
Prototypes of the device have been distributed to ophthalmology experts around the world to run more comprehensive studies and validate their work, but Dr Leddy said in small models in laboratory conditions “we have shown that the treatment is at least as effective as high frequency antibiotic drops”.
Dr Leddy said the treatment will help reduce the bacterial load and could ease the burden on clients who may struggle to administer eye drops, although it should still be used in conjunction with antibiotics for the time being. PhotonUVC is said to be safe to use on younger and older animals, which are most susceptible to corneal infections.
Photon Therapeutics is actively looking at other applications for the technology beyond just treating the eyes, Dr Leddy added, although due to the limited depth the UVC can penetrate, it may only be able to treat “relatively superficial” conditions.
The product launched for pre-orders at the London Vet Show in November last year, and manufacturing of the final production version began in May ahead of distribution in June.
Dr Leddy said the uptake across the veterinary sector is “quite remarkable,” with orders from the US, Spain, Italy, China and Peru.
Studies on the device’s use in humans are set to begin in the coming weeks, firstly to verify healthy adult eyes can tolerate the treatment before treating patients with infectious keratitis later in the year.
Dr Leddy said: “Our vision is for this device to be in the reach of every person, either vet or human clinician, who treats infectious keratitis.
“We want it to be with every first-line practitioner, every optometrist and we want it to be the go-to first-line treatment.
“It’s been built such that it could be picked up by a non-ophthalmologist, a trained nurse with five minutes’ training, a trained vet with five minutes’ training, and just pick it up and use it and it to be easy, safe and, most importantly, not stressful for the animal, either.”
