424B3 1 s105249_424b3.htm 424B3

Filed Pursuant to Rule 424(B)(3)

Registration Statement No. 333-215463

Up to 15,000,000 Units
Consisting of an Aggregate of Up to 15,000,000 Shares of Common Stock
and Warrants to Purchase Up to 15,000,000 Shares of Common Stock
at a price per unit which will be the lower of $2.00 or

the closing price of our shares on the Expiration Date

We are distributing to holders of our common stock, at no charge, non-transferable subscription rights to purchase units. Each unit, which we refer to as a Unit, consists of one share of common stock and a warrant representing the right to purchase one share of common stock, which we refer to as the Warrants. We refer to the offering that is the subject of this prospectus as the Rights Offering.

In the Rights Offering, you will receive the right (“Subscription Rights”) to invest $0.47 for each share of common stock you own at 5:00 p.m. New York City time on February 10, 2017, the record date of the Rights Offering, or the Record Date. The common stock and the Warrants comprising the Units will separate upon the effectiveness of the exercise of the rights and will be issued as separate securities. We intend to list the Warrants for trading on the Nasdaq Capital Market, although we cannot assure you that the listing agreement will be approved. The Subscription Rights will not be tradable.

Each Subscription Right entitles you to invest $0.47 toward the purchase of Units at a subscription price per Unit of the lesser of $2.00 or the closing price of our shares on the Expiration Date of this offering, which we refer to as the Subscription Price. Each Warrant entitles the holder for a term of five years to purchase one share of common stock at an exercise price equal to the Subscription Price. The Subscription Rights will expire if they are not exercised by 5:00 p.m. New York City time on March 6, 2017, which we refer to as the Expiration Date. Once made, all exercises of Subscription Rights are irrevocable.

If you exercise your Basic Subscription Rights in full, and other shareholders do not fully exercise their Basic Subscription Rights, you will be entitled to an over-subscription privilege to purchase a portion of the unsubscribed Units at the Subscription Price, subject to proration and ownership limitations, which we refer to as the Over-Subscription Privilege. Each Subscription Right consists of a Basic Subscription Right and an Over-Subscription Privilege. The number of Units that you will obtain will equal the accepted dollar amount of your investment divided by the Subscription Price rounded down to the nearest whole Unit. If all the Subscription Rights are exercised, the total gross proceeds to us from the sale of Units offered in the Rights Offering would be approximately $20.1 million.

We have the option to extend the Rights Offering and the period for exercising your subscription rights for a period not to exceed 30 days, although we do not presently intend to do so.

We have no dealer-manager for this offering and have not entered into any other standby purchase agreement or other similar arrangement in connection with the Rights Offering. The Rights Offering is being conducted on a best-efforts basis and there is no minimum amount necessary to be received in order for us to close the Rights Offering.

Investing in our securities involves a high degree of risk. See “Risk Factors” beginning on page 33 of this prospectus. You should carefully consider these risk factors, as well as the other information contained in this prospectus, before you invest.

Broadridge Inc. will serve as the Subscription Agent for the Rights Offering. The Subscription Agent will hold the funds we receive from subscribers until we complete, abandon or terminate the Rights Offering. Broadridge Inc. will also serve as Information Agent for the Rights Offering. If you want to participate in this Rights Offering and you are the record holder of your shares, we recommend that you submit your subscription documents to the Subscription Agent well before the deadline. If you want to participate in this Rights Offering and you hold shares through your broker, dealer, bank, or other nominee, you should promptly contact your broker, dealer, bank, or other nominee and submit your subscription documents in accordance with the instructions and within the time period provided by your broker, dealer, bank, or other nominee. See “The Rights Offering – The Subscription Rights.”

Our Board of Directors reserves the right to terminate the Rights Offering for any reason at any time before the closing of the Rights Offering. If we terminate the Rights Offering, all subscription payments received will be returned within 10 business days, without interest or penalty. The Subscription Price will be determined on the Expiration Date based on the closing price of our common stock as quoted on Nasdaq, and will be the lesser of $2.00 or the closing price of our shares on the Expiration Date. The Subscription Agent will confirm the number of Units to be received by each shareholder who has properly subscribed for Units in this Rights Offering, and will issue refunds to subscribers as may be appropriate within about three business days following the Expiration Date.

Our common stock is listed on The Nasdaq Capital Market, or Nasdaq, under the symbol “EYES.” On January 25, 2017, the last reported sale price of our common stock was $1.37 per share. The subscription rights may not be sold, transferred or assigned and will not be listed for trading on the Nasdaq or any other stock exchange or market. You are urged to obtain a current price quote for our common stock before exercising your Subscription Rights.

Our Board of Directors makes no recommendation regarding your exercise of the Subscription Rights. You will not be able to determine the Subscription Price until after expiration of the Rights Offering and accordingly you will not be able to know the number of Units you might receive or the amount of any refund that may be due to you until after the Expiration Date. You should carefully consider whether to exercise your Subscription Rights before the Expiration Date. You may not revoke or revise any exercises of Subscription Rights once made.

Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state securities commission has approved or disapproved of these securities or passed upon the adequacy or accuracy of this prospectus. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.

The date of this Prospectus February 3, 2017

Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS


		Page
Questions and Answers Relating to the Rights Offering		5
Prospectus Summary		13
Summary of the Rights Offering		27
Risk Factors		33
Forward-Looking Statements		50
Market and Industry Data		51
Business		51
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations		63
Management		84
Executive Compensation		90
Use of Proceeds		94
Capitalization		95
Dilution		96
Market Price of our Common Stock and Related Shareholder Matters		97
Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management		97
Dividend Policy		99
The Rights Offering		99
Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Consequences		108
Description of Securities		116
Plan of Distribution		119
Experts		120
Legal Matters		120
Where You Can Find More Information		120
Disclosure of Commission Position on Indemnification for Securities Act Liability		121
Index to Consolidated Financial Statements		F-1

ABOUT THIS PROSPECTUS

The registration statement we filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, includes exhibits that provide more detail of the matters discussed in this prospectus. You should read this prospectus and the related exhibits filed with the SEC, together with the additional information described under the headings “Where You Can Find More Information” before making your investment decision.

You should rely only on the information provided in this prospectus or in a prospectus supplement or amendment thereto. We have not authorized anyone else to provide you with different information. If anyone provides you with different or inconsistent information, you should not rely on it. We are not making an offer to sell these securities in any state where the offer or sale is not permitted. You should assume that the information in this prospectus is accurate only as of the date hereof. Our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may have changed since that date.

Unless the context otherwise requires, references in this prospectus to “Second Sight,” “the Company,” “we,” “us” and “our” refer to Second Sight Medical Products, Inc. Second Sight^®, the Second Sight logo, FLORA^®, and Argus^®are registered trademarks, and Orion is a trademark of Second Sight Medical Products. Inc. Argus and Orion are referred to throughout this prospectus as Argus II and Orion I, respectively. All other product and company names are trademarks of their respective owners.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS RELATING TO THE RIGHTS OFFERING

The following are examples of what we anticipate will be common questions about the Rights Offering. The answers are based on selected information included elsewhere in this prospectus. The following questions and answers do not contain all of the information that may be important to you and may not address all of the questions that you may have about the Rights Offering. This prospectus contains more detailed descriptions of the terms and conditions of the Rights Offering and provide additional information about us and our business, including significant risks related to the Rights Offering, the Units offered hereby, common stock and warrants underlying the Units, and our business. We urge you to read this entire prospectus.

Why are we conducting the Rights Offering?

We are conducting the Rights Offering to raise additional capital:

to improve performance of the Argus II so as to allow treatment of better-sighted RP patients and thereby enlarge our current markets;

to continue funding the ongoing development of Orion I, a visual prosthesis for cortical stimulation that we expect will be able to treat nearly all forms of blindness;

to continue funding the ongoing clinical study of Argus II in patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD); and

for general corporate purposes, including working capital, research and development, business development and operational purposes.

What is the Rights Offering?

We are distributing, at no charge, to record holders of our common stock, non-transferable Subscription Rights to purchase Units at the lesser of $2.00 or the closing price of our share on the Expiration Date, per Unit, which we refer to as the Subscription Price. Each Unit consists of one share of common stock and a Warrant representing the right to purchase one share of common stock at an exercise price equal to the Subscription Price. Each Warrant expires five years from the Expiration Date. The Subscription Rights will not be tradable. We intend to list the Warrants for trading on Nasdaq, but we cannot assure you that our listing application will be approved. Even if our listing application is approved, we cannot guarantee that a trading market for the Warrants will develop.

Holders of our shares have the right to invest $0.47 for each share of common stock owned at 5:00 p.m., New York City Time, on February 10, 2017 or the Record Date. Upon valid exercise of the Subscription Rights, the common stock and Warrants included in the Units will separate and will be issued as separate securities. You will receive Subscription Rights for each share of common stock that you owned as of 5:00 p.m. Eastern time on the Record Date.

What are the Basic Subscription Rights?

For each whole share of common stock you owned as of the Record Date, you will receive Subscription Rights which give you the opportunity to invest $0.47 for each share of our common stock that you owned on the Record Date. Each Unit consists of one share of our common stock and a five-year Warrant to purchase one additional share of our common stock at an exercise price equal to the Subscription Price. For example, if you owned 1,000 shares of our common stock as of the Record Date, you would have the right to invest $0.47 for each share of Common Stock you own as of the Record Date, or $470, at the Subscription Price. If you invest $470, and if on the Expiration Date the closing price of our common stock as reported by Nasdaq is $2.03 per share, the Subscription Price will be $2.00 (which constitutes the lesser of $2.00 or the closing price per share on the Expiration Date), you would receive 235 Units consisting in the aggregate of 235 shares of our common stock and Warrants to purchase 235 shares of our common stock. If you invest $470, and on the Expiration Date the closing price of our common stock is $1.53 per share, the Subscription Price will be $1.53 and you would receive a rounded down 307 Units and a refund of $0.29. You may exercise all or a portion of your Basic Subscription Rights or you may choose not to exercise any Basic Subscription Rights at all. Subscription Rights may only be exercised in aggregate for whole numbers of shares of our common stock; no fractional shares of our common stock or warrants exercisable for fractional shares will be issued in the Rights Offering.

If you are a record holder, the amount that you may invest pursuant to your Basic Subscription Rights is indicated on the enclosed Rights Certificate. If you hold your shares in the name of a broker, dealer, bank, or other nominee who uses the services of the Depository Trust Company, or DTC, you will not receive a Rights Certificate. Instead, DTC will issue one Subscription Right to your nominee record holder for each share of our common stock that you own as of the Record Date. If you are not contacted by your nominee, you should contact your nominee as soon as possible.

What is the Over-Subscription Privilege?

If you exercise your Basic Subscription Rights in full, you may also choose to exercise your Over-Subscription Privilege to invest additional amounts that the other record holders do not subscribe for through the exercise of their Basic Subscription Rights. You should indicate on your Rights Certificate, or the form provided by your nominee if your shares are held in the name of a nominee, how much of an additional investment you would like to make pursuant to your Over-Subscription Privilege.

Subject to stock ownership limitations, if a sufficient number of Units is available after determining the Subscription Price, we will seek to honor your Over-Subscription request in full. If Over-Subscription requests result in exceeding the amounts available for investment, however, we will allocate the available Units pro-rata among the record holders exercising the Over-Subscription Privilege in proportion to the number of shares of our common stock each of those record holders owned on the Record Date. If this pro rata allocation results in any shareholder receiving a greater number of Units at the Subscription Price than the shareholder subscribed and paid for pursuant to the exercise of the Over-Subscription Privilege, then such shareholder will be allocated only that number of Units at the Subscription Price for which the shareholder was entitled to oversubscribe, and the remaining Units will be allocated among all other shareholders exercising and investing in the Over-Subscription Privilege on the same pro rata basis described above. The proration process will be repeated until all Units have been allocated or all over-subscription exercises have been fulfilled, whichever occurs earlier. Although Gregg Williams, a member of our Board of Directors has advised us that he intends to exercise Subscription Rights, including Over-Subscription Privileges subject to availability, to acquire Units at the Subscription Price, for an aggregate investment of up to $10 million, Mr. Williams is under no obligation to do so. Mr. Williams, at his discretion, may seek to subscribe for more or less than the foregoing amount. The exact number of Units which Gregg Williams may acquire will be subject to allocations of Units pro rata among the record holders exercising the Over-Subscription Privilege as indicated above.

To properly exercise your Over-Subscription Privilege, you must deliver to the Subscription Agent the subscription payment related to your Over-Subscription Privilege before the Rights Offering expires. Because we will not know the total number of Units that may be issued prior to the expiration of the rights offering, if you wish to maximize the number of Units you purchase pursuant to your Over-Subscription Privilege, you will need to deliver payment in an amount equal to the aggregate subscription price for the maximum amount you wish to invest at the Subscription Price, assuming that no shareholder other than you has exercised Basic Subscription Privileges and Over-Subscription Privileges.

Fractional Units resulting from the exercise of the Subscription Rights will be eliminated by rounding down to the nearest whole Unit, with the total subscription payment being adjusted accordingly. See “The Rights Offering—The Subscription Rights—Over-Subscription Privilege.” To the extent your investment amount results in exercising your Over-Subscription Privilege for an amount of Units that exceeds the number of unsubscribed Units available to you at the Subscription Price, any excess subscription payments will be returned to you approximately within 10 business days after the expiration of the Rights Offering, without interest or penalty.

Broadridge Inc., our Subscription Agent, will determine the Over-Subscription allocation based on the formula described above.

What are the limitations on the exercise of the Basic Subscription Rights and Over-Subscription Privilege?

In the event that the exercise by a shareholder of the Basic Subscription Right or the Over-Subscription Privilege could, as determined by the Company in its sole discretion, potentially result in a limitation on the Company’s ability to use net operating losses, tax credits and other tax attributes, which we refer to as the “Tax Attributes,” under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, which we refer to as the “Code”, and rules promulgated by the Internal Revenue Service, the Company may, but is under no obligation to, reduce the exercise by such shareholder of the Basic Subscription Right and/or the Over-Subscription Privilege to such number of Units as the Company in its sole discretion shall determine to be advisable in order to preserve the Company’s ability to use the Tax Attributes.

What are the terms of the Warrants?

Each Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one share of common stock for each whole share of common stock purchased in the Rights Offering at an exercise price equal to the Subscription Price for five years following the issuance of the Warrant. The Warrants will be exercisable by paying the exercise price in cash. We intend to list the Warrants for trading on Nasdaq, but we cannot assure you that our listing application will be approved. Even if our listing application is approved, we cannot guarantee that a trading market for the Warrants will develop. The Board of Directors of the Company at its discretion may call the Warrants for redemption on 30 days’ notice under certain market conditions following the two-year anniversary of this offering at a redemption price of $0.01 per warrant. Holders will be able to sell or exercise warrants prior to any announced redemption date. See “Description of Securities- Warrants Included in Units Issuable in the Rights Offering”.

Will fractional shares be issued upon exercise of Subscription Rights or upon the exercise of Warrants?

No. We will not issue fractional shares of common stock in the Rights Offering. Rights holders will only be entitled to purchase a number of Units representing a whole number of shares of common stock, rounded down to the nearest whole number of Units a holder would otherwise be entitled to purchase. Any excess subscription payments received by the Subscription Agent will be returned as soon as practicable after expiration of the Rights Offering, without interest or penalty. Similarly, no fractional shares of common stock will be issued in connection with the exercise of a Warrant.

What effect will the Rights Offering have on our outstanding common stock?

Based on 42,696,000 shares of common stock outstanding as of December 31, 2016, assuming no other transactions by us involving our common stock prior to the Expiration Date, if the Rights Offering is fully subscribed at a Subscription Price of $1.53 per Unit, which was the closing share price on January 23, 2017, we will issue approximately 13,116,000 shares of common stock to shareholders who exercise their Subscription Rights, and we will thereafter have approximately 55,812,000 shares of our common stock issued and outstanding and Warrants to purchase approximately 13,116,000 additional shares of our common stock will be outstanding (excluding currently outstanding warrants). The exact number of shares and Warrants that we will issue in this Rights Offering will depend on the number of Units that are subscribed for in the Rights Offering. In the event of further volatility and market or price declines, then notwithstanding full subscription of this Rights Offering we will sell no more than 15 million Units, which despite full subscription may result in our receiving proceeds that are not adequate for our operating needs. See “Risk Factors” and “The Rights Offering”.

How was the Subscription Price determined?

In determining how to establish the Subscription Price, the directors considered, among other things, the following factors:

the current and historical trading prices of our common stock;

the price at which shareholders might be willing to participate in the Rights Offering;

the value of the Warrant being issued as a component of the Unit;

our need for additional capital and liquidity;

the cost of capital from other sources; and

comparable precedent transactions, including the percentage of shares offered, the terms of the subscription rights being offered, the Subscription Price and the discount that the Subscription Price represented to the immediately prevailing closing prices for those offerings.

In conjunction with the review of these factors, the Board of Directors also reviewed our history and prospects, including our past and present earnings and cash requirements, our prospects for the future, the outlook for our industry and our current financial condition and further considered recent volatile markets as well as the possible continued volatility of our stock during the period commencing on the Record Date and extending through the Expiration Date. The Board of Directors believes that the Subscription Price should be designed to provide an incentive to our current shareholders to participate in the Rights Offering and exercise their Basic Subscription Rights and their Over-Subscription Privileges.

The Subscription Price does not necessarily bear any relationship to any established criteria for value. You should not consider the Subscription Price as an indication of actual value of our company or our common stock. We cannot assure you that the market price of our common stock will not decline during the Rights Offering or after the Expiration Date. You should obtain a current price quote for our common stock before exercising your Subscription Rights and make your own assessment of our business and financial condition, our prospects for the future, and the terms of this Rights Offering. Once made, all exercises of Subscription Rights are irrevocable, unless we amend the rights offering to allow for an extension of the rights offering for a period of more than 30 days or make a fundamental change to the terms of the Rights Offering set forth in this prospectus.

Am I required to exercise all of the Basic Subscription Rights I receive in the Rights Offering?

No. You may exercise any number of your Basic Subscription Rights, or you may choose not to exercise any Basic Subscription Rights. If you do not exercise any Basic Subscription Rights, the number of shares of our common stock you own will not change. However, if you choose to not exercise your Basic Subscription Rights in full, your proportionate ownership interest in our company will decrease. If you do not exercise your Basic Subscription Rights in full, you will not be entitled to exercise your Over-Subscription Privilege.

How soon must I act to exercise my Subscription Rights?

If you received a Rights Certificate and elect to exercise any or all of your Subscription Rights, the Subscription Agent must receive your completed and signed Rights Certificate and payment for both your Basic Subscription Rights and any Over-Subscription Privilege you elect to exercise, including final clearance of any uncertified check, before the Rights Offering expires on March 6, 2017, at 5:00 p.m., New York City Time. If you hold your shares in the name of a broker, dealer, custodian bank, or other nominee, your nominee may establish a deadline before the Expiration Date by which you must provide it with your instructions to exercise your Subscription Rights, along with the required subscription payment.

May I transfer my Subscription Rights?

No. The Subscription Rights may be exercised only by the shareholders to whom they are distributed, and they may not be sold, transferred, assigned or given away to anyone else, other than by operation of law. As a result, Rights Certificates may be completed only by the shareholder who receives the certificate. The Subscription Rights will not be listed for trading on any stock exchange or market and are not transferable.

Will our directors and executive officers participate in the Rights Offering?

To the extent they hold common stock as of the Record Date, our directors and executive officers will be entitled to participate in the Rights Offering on the same terms and conditions applicable to other Rights holders. While none of our directors or executive officers has entered into any binding commitment or agreement to exercise Subscription Rights received in the Rights Offering, Gregg Williams, a member of our Board of Directors and a principal shareholder of the Company, has advised us that he intends to exercise his Basic Subscription Right and anticipates, on the same basis as available to other shareholders, exercising his Over-Subscription Privileges to purchase Units at the Subscription Price for a total investment that may amount to $ 10 million. Mr. Williams, nevertheless, may seek to subscribe for more or less than this indicated amount. The actual number of Units he acquires, if any, and any amount that he invests will also be dependent on the level of shareholder participation in this offering and the amount that Mr. Williams elects to invest. Certain other directors and executive officers also have indicated an interest in participating, but no assurance of any investment amount from them can be given.

Has the Board of Directors made a recommendation to shareholders regarding the Rights Offering?

No. Our Board of Directors makes no recommendation regarding your exercise of the Subscription Rights. Shareholders who exercise Subscription Rights will incur investment risk on new money invested. We cannot predict the price at which our shares of common stock will trade after the Rights Offering. On January 25, 2017, the closing price of our common stock was $1.37 per share. The market price for our common stock may be above the Subscription Price or may be below the Subscription Price following the Expiration Date. If you exercise your Subscription Rights, you may not be able to sell the underlying shares of our common stock, or shares received from exercise of the Warrants, in the future at or above the Subscription Price. You should make your decision based on your assessment of our business and financial condition, our prospects for the future, the terms of the Rights Offering and the information contained in this prospectus. See “Risk Factors” for discussion of some of the risks involved in investing in our securities.

How do I exercise my Subscription Rights?

If you are a shareholder of record (meaning you hold your shares of our common stock in your name and not through a broker, dealer, bank, or other nominee) and you wish to participate in the Rights Offering, you must deliver a properly completed and signed Rights Certificate, together with payment of the amount you wish to invest for both your Basic Subscription Rights and any Over-Subscription Privilege you elect to exercise, to the Subscription Agent before 5:00 p.m., New York City Time, on March 6, 2017. If you are exercising your Subscription Rights through your broker, dealer, bank, or other nominee, you should promptly contact your broker, dealer, bank, or other nominee and submit your subscription documents and payment of the amount you wish to invest and subscribe for in accordance with the instructions and within the time period provided by your broker, dealer, bank or other nominee.

What if my shares are held in “street name”?

If you hold your shares of our common stock in the name of a broker, dealer, bank, or other nominee, then your broker, dealer, bank, or other nominee is the record holder of the shares you own. The record holder must exercise the Subscription Rights on your behalf. Therefore, you will need to have your record holder act for you.

If you wish to participate in this Rights Offering and purchase Units, please promptly contact the record holder of your shares. We will ask the record holder of your shares, who may be your broker, dealer, bank, or other nominee, to notify you of this Rights Offering.

What form of payment is required?

You must timely pay the full Subscription Price for the full amount you wish to invest and subscribe for pursuant to the exercise of Subscription Rights by delivering to the Subscription Agent a:

personal check drawn on a U.S. bank;

cashier’s or certified check drawn on a U.S. bank;

U.S. Postal money order; or

wire transfer.

If you send payment by personal uncertified check, payment will not be deemed to have been delivered to the Subscription Agent until the check has cleared. If your personal check has not cleared by the Expiration Date, we will not accept your Subscription.

The payment received will be applied to exercise your Subscription Rights to the fullest extent possible based on the amount of the payment received when measured against the Subscription Price after its determination.

When will I receive my new shares of common stock and Warrants?

The Subscription Agent will arrange for the issuance of the common stock and Warrants as soon as practicable after the expiration of the Rights Offering, payment for the Units subscribed for has been received, and all prorating calculations and reductions contemplated by the terms of the Rights Offering have been effected. If you hold your shares in the name of a broker, dealer, bank, or other nominee, DTC will credit your account with your nominee with the securities you purchase in the Rights Offering. If you are a holder of record of shares, all shares that you purchase in the Rights Offering together with the Warrants will be issued in book-entry, or uncertificated, form meaning that you will receive a direct registration (DRS) account statement from our transfer agent reflecting ownership of the common stock and Warrants.

After I send in my payment and Rights Certificate to the Subscription Agent, may I cancel my exercise of Subscription Rights?

No. Exercises of Subscription Rights are irrevocable unless the Rights Offering is terminated or we amend the Rights Offering to allow for an extension of the Rights Offering for a period of more than 30 days or make a fundamental change to the terms of the Rights Offering set forth in this prospectus, in which case you may cancel your subscription and receive a refund of any money you have advanced, even if you later learn information that you consider to be unfavorable to the exercise of your Subscription Rights. You should not exercise your Subscription Rights and remit any amount unless you are certain that you wish to purchase Units at the Subscription Price, a price that will not be determined until after Expiration Date. See “Risk Factors” for further discussion of the risks related to this offering.

How much will our company receive from the Rights Offering?

Assuming that Rights Offering is fully subscribed, through a combination of our shareholders exercising their Basic Subscription Rights and Over-Subscription Privileges, we estimate that the proceeds from the Rights Offering, based on shares outstanding at December 31, 2016 and a closing price per share of $1.37 on January 25, 2017, will be approximately $20.1 million, before deducting estimated expenses of $410,000 payable by us in connection with this offering. A Subscription Price of less than $1.34 per unit will result, however, in proceeds to us of less than $20.1 million even if this offering is fully subscribed. See “Rights Offering - Limitation on Purchase of Units.”

Are there risks in exercising my Subscription Rights?

Yes. The exercise of your Subscription Rights involves substantial risks. We require the proceeds of this offering to maintain our operations beyond the second quarter of 2017 and when acquiring Units you are basing your investment decision on financial results through September 30, 2016 (unaudited) and will be unable to assess our continued losses and other materially relevant information for the year ended December 31, 2016. Exercising your Subscription Rights involves the purchase of additional shares of our common stock and Warrants to purchase common stock, at a Subscription Price that will be determined as of the Expiration Date, and you should consider this investment as carefully as you would consider any other investment. We cannot assure you that the market price of our common stock will exceed the Subscription Price, nor can we assure you that the market price of our common stock will not further decline during or after the Rights Offering. We also cannot assure you that you will be able to sell shares of our common stock purchased in the Rights Offering or obtained upon the exercise of the Warrants at a price equal to or greater than the Subscription Price. In addition, you should carefully consider the risks described under the heading “Risk Factors” for discussion of some of the risks involved in investing in our securities.

Can the Board of Directors terminate or extend the Rights Offering?

Yes. Our Board of Directors may decide to terminate the Rights Offering at any time and for any reason before the expiration of the Rights Offering. We also have the right to extend the Rights Offering for additional periods in our sole discretion. We do not presently intend to extend the Rights Offering. We will notify shareholders if the Rights Offering is terminated or extended by issuing a press release.

If the Rights Offering is not completed or is terminated, extended or amended, will my subscription payment be refunded to me?

Yes. The Subscription Agent will hold all funds it receives in a segregated bank account until completion of the Rights Offering. If we do not complete the Rights Offering, all subscription payments received by the Subscription Agent will be returned within 10 business days after the termination or expiration of the Rights Offering, without interest or penalty. If we extend the Rights Offering for a period of over 30 days or make a fundamental change to the terms of the Rights Offering set forth in this prospectus, you may cancel your subscription and receive a refund of any money you have advanced.

If you own shares in “street name,” it may take longer for you to receive your subscription payment because the Subscription Agent will return payments through the record holder of your shares.

How do I exercise my Rights if I live outside the United States?

The Subscription Agent will hold Rights Certificates for shareholders having addresses outside the United States. To exercise Subscription Rights, foreign shareholders must notify the Subscription Agent and timely follow other procedures described in the section entitled “The Rights Offering – Foreign Shareholders.”

What fees or charges apply if I purchase Units in the Rights Offering?

We are not charging any fee or sales commission to issue Subscription Rights, or shares and Warrants underlying Subscription Rights, if you exercise your Subscription Rights. If you exercise your Subscription Rights through a broker, dealer, custodian bank, or other nominee, you are responsible for paying any fees your broker, dealer, bank, or other nominee may charge you.

What are the U.S. federal income tax consequences of exercising my Subscription Rights?

For U.S. federal income tax purposes, we believe you should not recognize income or loss in connection with the receipt or exercise of Subscription Rights in the Rights Offering. You should consult your tax advisor as to the tax consequences of the Rights Offering in light of your particular circumstances. For a detailed discussion, see “Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Consequences.”

To whom should I send my forms and payment?

If your shares are held in the name of a broker, dealer, bank, or other nominee, then you should send your subscription documents and subscription payment to that broker, dealer, bank, or other nominee. If you are the record holder, then you should send your subscription documents, Rights Certificate, and subscription payment to the Subscription Agent hand delivery, first class mail or courier service to:

By mail:

By hand or overnight courier:

Broadridge, Inc.

Attention: BCIS Re-Organization Dept.

P.O. Box 1317

Brentwood, New York 11717-0693

(855) 793-5068 (toll free)

Broadridge, Inc.

Attention: BCIS IWS

51 Mercedes Way

Edgewood, New York 11717

(855) 793-5068 (toll free)

You or, if applicable, your nominee are solely responsible for completing delivery to the Subscription Agent of your subscription documents, Rights Certificate and payment. You should allow sufficient time for delivery of your subscription materials to the Subscription Agent and clearance of payment before the expiration of the Rights Offering at 5:00 p.m. New York City Time on March 6, 2017.

Whom should I contact if I have other questions?

If you have other questions or need assistance, please contact the Information Agent:

Broadridge, Inc.

Attention: BCIS IWS

51 Mercedes Way

Edgewood, New York 11717

(855) 793-5068 (toll free)

PROSPECTUS SUMMARY

This summary contains basic information about us and this offering. Because it is a summary, it does not contain all of the information that you should consider before investing. Before you decide to invest in Units, you should read this entire prospectus carefully, including the section entitled “Risk Factors”.

OUR COMPANY

Overview

Second Sight was founded in 1998 with a mission to develop, manufacture, and market prosthetic devices that restore useful vision to blind individuals. Our principal offices are located in Sylmar, California, approximately 25 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. We also have an office in Lausanne, Switzerland, that manages our commercial and clinical operations in Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia-Pacific.

Our current product, the Argus^® II System, treats outer retinal degenerations, such as retinitis pigmentosa, also referred to as RP. RP is a hereditary disease, affecting an estimated 1.5 million people worldwide including about 100,000 people in the United States, that causes a progressive degeneration of the light-sensitive cells of the retina, leading to significant visual impairment and ultimately blindness. The Argus II System is the only retinal prosthesis approved in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and was the first approved retinal prosthesis in the world. By restoring a form of useful vision in patients who otherwise have total sight loss, the Argus II System can provide benefits which include:

improving patients’ orientation and mobility, such as locating doors and windows, avoiding obstacles, and following the lines of a crosswalk,

allowing patients to feel more connected with people in their surroundings, such as seeing when someone is approaching or moving away

providing patients with enjoyment from being “visual” again, such as locating the moon, tracking groups of players as they move around a field, and watching the moving streams of lights from fireworks, and

improving patients’ well-being and ability to perform activities of daily living.

The Argus II System provides an artificial form of vision that differs from the vision of people with normal sight. It does not restore normal vision and it does not reverse the progression of the disease. Results vary among patients: while the majority of patients receive significant benefit from the Argus II, some patients report receiving little or no benefit.

Our major corporate, clinical and regulatory milestones include:

In 1998, Second Sight was founded.

In 2002, we commenced clinical trials in the US for our prototype product, the Argus I retinal prosthesis.

In 2007, we commenced clinical trials in the US for the Argus II System, which later became our first commercial product.

In 2011, we received marketing approval in Europe (CE Mark) for the Argus II System.

In 2013, we received marketing approval in the United States (FDA) for the Argus II System.

In 2014, we launched the Argus II in the US, completed our initial public offering (“IPO”), and began trading on Nasdaq under the symbol “EYES.”

In 2015, we commenced a clinical trial in the UK for an expanded indication for the Argus II System in individuals with dry AMD.

In 2016, we successfully implanted and activated a wireless cortical visual prosthesis.

Currently, after more than 18 years of research and development, more than $180 million of investment and over $34 million of grants awarded in support of our technology development, we employ over 100 people in the development (research, engineering and clinical), manufacture, and commercialization of the Argus II System and future products.

Our Technology

The Argus II System employs electrical stimulation to bypass degenerated photoreceptor cells and to stimulate remaining viable retinal cells thereby inducing visual perception in blind individuals. The Argus II System works by converting video images captured by a miniature camera housed in a patient’s glasses into a series of small electrical pulses that are transmitted wirelessly to an array of electrodes that are implanted on the surface of the retina. These pulses are intended to stimulate the retina’s remaining cells, resulting in a corresponding perception of patterns of light in the brain. Following the implant surgery, patients learn to interpret these visual patterns thereby regaining some useful vision, allowing them to detect shapes of people and objects in their surroundings.

We believe the Argus II System (including its implantable components) possesses several unique technological advancements compared to other neurostimulation devices including a hermetic package with the smallest size and largest number of individually programmable electrodes, and a patented electrode material that allows high charge densities and small electrode size. Several other engineering challenges, including device reliability, extended lifetime, and a safe and effective bio-interface, were overcome during the development of the product and these solutions have been protected both by patents and by trade secrets. As of December 31, 2016, we have 381 issued patents and 126 pending patent applications worldwide. Additionally, from a competitive standpoint, the Argus II System possesses attractive technical and other features that include:

a unique patented design that allows for a demonstrated lifetime and benefit of over 9.5 years,

surgical implantation that can be performed in three to four hours using standard vitreoretinal techniques,

a relatively large field of view (20 degrees),

implanted patients can undergo MRI procedures, and

individually programmable electrodes on the prosthesis which can permit further optimization of the device after implantation

We have demonstrated the ability to design products with long-term reliability. The Argus I retinal prosthesis, a proof of concept device that was a predecessor to the Argus II, was implanted in six patients in the United States. Argus I patients were implanted an average of almost six years, with one patient having used the device for over 10 years. The Argus II System has been implanted in over 200 patients. The average implant duration for these patients is nearly three years with several users continuing to use the system almost 10 years following implantation.

We are developing another product that stimulates the visual part of the brain rather than the retina, which we refer to as the Orion I visual prosthesis system. Our objective in designing and developing the Orion I visual prosthesis system is to bypass the optic nerve and directly stimulate the part of the brain responsible for vision, the visual cortex. This has the potential to help many more patients whose optic nerves are damaged by trauma or disease. As currently under development, the Orion I visual prosthesis system is based on technology that we utilize in our Argus II system, thereby reducing engineering investment costs and risks, and leveraging the reliability of the Argus II platform. By limiting the changes to the FDA approved Argus II system, we can progress relatively quickly to human trials.

Our Markets

Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP)

RP is a group of inherited disorders that affect the retina. The retina is a layer of nerve cells at the back of the eye. RP is a disease that gradually robs relatively young people of their vision over time. Onset of RP is often noted in the teen years or early twenties, typically as night blindness. This is followed by a period of peripheral vision loss, until the patient is left with a tunnel of vision and then no remaining sight. Although there are various genetic causes (over 100) and thus variability in the disease progression, many people with advanced RP have lost all functional vision by their 40s or 50s. The Argus II System works by bypassing rods and cones which are defunct in these patients, and sending electrical signals directly to the retina’s remaining healthy cells.

Although there are reported trials for other treatments underway, to our knowledge the Argus II System remains the only approved therapeutic option for end-stage RP in the US, and to our knowledge it is the only treatment option generally available to commercial patients anywhere in the world.

Worldwide, an estimated 1.5 million people suffer from RP¹, which includes about 100,000 in the US². Pan-European data is not readily available, but we believe it is reasonable to estimate that the average prevalence throughout Europe is similar to the average prevalence within the US, and so the ratio of populations could be used to estimate the number of Europeans affected as 167,000 in the 28 EU countries^3,4. Approximately 25% of people with RP in the US have vision that is 20/200 or worse (legally blind)⁵. Since the bare light perception or worse vision criterion for the US indication is worse than 20/200, we know the subset of patients that can be treated by the Argus II System is less than 25,000 in the US. Reliable market data estimating the actual number of patients with bare light perception or worse vision is unavailable. We believe that the majority of patients with vision 20/200 or worse have vision that is better than bare light perception and thus, are not currently candidates for Argus II. In Europe, the indicated vision loss for Argus II patients is severe to profound which, while better than bare light perception, remains somewhat worse than 20/200. An estimated 42,000 patients in Europe with RP have vision worse than 20/200 and we estimate that the subset of RP patients that can be treated in Europe to be somewhat smaller than this number. As in the US, reliable market data estimating the actual number of patients with severe to profound vision loss or worse is unavailable. We believe that the majority of patients with vision 20/200 or worse in Europe have vision that is too good to be considered a candidate for Argus II with current clinical indications and physician practice. Worldwide, we estimate that 375,000 people are legally blind due to RP, and that a portion of these would be candidates for the Argus II System.

As we improve the quality of vision that the Argus II can produce, we expect to be able to treat a higher percentage of the legally blind population by treating better sighted patients.

¹ Weleber, R.G. and Gregory-Evans, K. (2001) ‘Retinitis Pigmentosa and allied disorders.’ In Ryan, S.J. (ed.), Retina. Mosby, St. Louis, pp, 362-470.

² Foundation Fighting Blindness estimates that about 100,000 Americans are affected by RP or similar diseases. (http://www.ffb.ca/documents/File/rp_guide/Guide_to_RP_and_Other_Related_Diseases.pdf)

³ Eurostat. Retrieved 1 January 2013.

⁴ Haim M. Epidemiology of Retinitis Pigmentosa in Denmark. Acta Ophthalmol Scand Suppl 2002; 1-34.

⁵ Grover et al., ‘Visual Acuity Impairment in Patients with Retinitis Pigmentosa at Age 45 Years or Older’, Ophthalmology. 1999 Sept; 106(9):1780-5.

Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD)

AMD is a relatively common eye condition and the leading cause of vision loss among people aged 65 and older¹. The macula is a small spot near the center of the retina and its damage results in loss of central vision. AMD can start as a blurred area near the center of vision and over time it can grow larger until loss of central vision occurs. Central vision is extremely important for everyday tasks such as reading, writing, and face recognition.

There are three stages of AMD defined in part by the size of drusen (yellow deposits) under the retina. Early and intermediate stage AMD has few symptoms or vision loss. These earlier stages of the disease are usually left untreated or dealt with using diet supplementation. People with advanced AMD have vision loss from damage to the macula. There are two types of late stage AMD:

Dry AMD: There is a breakdown of light sensitive cells in the macula that send visual information to the brain, and the supporting tissue beneath the macula. This damage causes vision loss.

Wet AMD: Blood vessels grow underneath the retina. These vessels might leak blood which may lead to swelling and damage of the macula. This damage may be severe and can progress quickly.

Worldwide, between 20 and 25 million people are estimated to suffer from vision loss due to AMD², and of these about two million have vision that is considered legally blind, or worse³. In the US, just over two million people experience vision loss due to AMD according to a 2010 study by the National Eye Institute. Of the 1.3 million legally blind Americans⁴, we estimate that 42.5% (or 552,500) are due to AMD⁵. Applying this percent of legally blind due to AMD (42.5%) to the total number of legally blind people in Europe (2.55 million)⁶, we estimate the population of legally blind individuals from AMD to be about 1.08 million individuals in Europe. We believe the Argus II System may be able to help a subset of these legally blind AMD patients who have severe to profound vision loss. To date, though clinical testing has produced subjective improvements, we have not yet demonstrated objective benefits. The challenge in demonstrating objective benefits in these patients is that they maintain residual peripheral vision. Thus, we must demonstrate that the quality of the vision we produce is better than their residual vision, which is much more challenging than demonstrating benefit for the RP patients we are currently treating, which have completely lost all vision.

Other diseases resulting in blindness that may be treated by Orion I cortical visual prosthesis system

Many diseases outside of RP and AMD can also cause blindness. Many of the largest causes of visual impairment (i.e. refractive error and cataracts) are avoidable or curable, and their prolonged or untreated impact on vision is largely observed in developing nations and are not part of our target market. Some other causes of blindness, such as brain trauma, may also not be suitable for treatment by a cortical stimulator. However, the remaining causes of severe vision loss which include glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, eye trauma, retinopathy of prematurity and many others can result in severe visual impairment that we anticipate to be treatable by an Orion I visual prosthesis system.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO)⁷, 285 million people suffer from vision loss worldwide. Of these, 39 million people are considered legally blind. The WHO further estimates that 80% of legal blindness is avoidable, leaving 7.8 million legally blind individuals, including those blind due to AMD and RP, or 5.8 million excluding AMD and RP. In the US, 1.3 million people are legally blind⁸, of which we estimate 44.3%, or 575,900, are legally blind due to causes other than preventable/treatable conditions, RP or AMD⁹. Applying the same logic, we estimate 1.13 million individuals are legally blind in Europe due to causes other than preventable/treatable conditions, RP or AMD. As with Retinitis Pigmentosa, we believe the initial Orion I will treat a subset of these legally blind individuals, likely starting with the ones who are completely blind and moving to better sighted patients as the technology improves.

¹ The Eye Diseases Prevalence Research Group, 2004a; CDC, 2009.

² Choptar, A., Chakravarthy, U., and Verma, D. ‘Age Related Macular Degeneration’. BJM 2003;326:485.

³ Global Data on Visual Impairments 2010, World Health Organization.

⁴ National Eye Institute (http://www.nei.nih.gov/eyedata/blind.asp).

⁵ Congdon N, O’Colmain B, Klaver CC, et al. Causes and prevalence of visual impairment among adults in the United States. Arch Ophthalmol. Apr 2004;122(4):477-485. This percent amount was derived from the rates of different causes of blindness by different races and racial demographic data from 2010 US Census data.

⁶ Global Data on Visual Impairments 2010, World Health Organization.

⁷ WHO Fact Sheet number 282, updated October 2013.

⁸ National Eye Institute (http://www.nei.nih.gov/eyedata/blind.asp).

⁹ Congdon N, O’Colmain B, Klaver CC, et al. Causes and prevalence of visual impairment among adults in the United States. Arch Ophthalmol. Apr 2004;122(4):477-485. This percent amount was derived from the rates of different causes of blindness by different races and racial demographic data from 2010 US Census data.

Our Strategy

Second Sight’s strategy can be summarized as follows:

Establish surgical Centers of Excellence (COE) and expand reimbursement coverage to reach a larger percentage of eligible patients,

Improve Argus II performance and significantly expand use in the larger RP population by treating better-sighted RP patients and thereby also enlarge the markets which we currently serve,

Leverage proven ARGUS technology to restore useful vision with cortical stimulation and expand addressable market to include a portion of the almost 6 million patients who are blind from eye trauma, optic nerve disease, and other unpreventable causes, and

Continue clinical testing of Argus II in AMD patients with new software to demonstrate benefit and provide necessary data to inform further clinical trials and/or R&D efforts.

Establish Centers of Excellence (COE) and expand reimbursement coverage to reach a larger percentage of eligible patients

We launched the Argus II System in Italy and Germany at the end of 2011; in Saudi Arabia, France, the Netherlands and England in 2013; in Switzerland, Spain, the US and Canada in 2014; and Austria and Turkey in 2015. We are employing a refined Centers of Excellence sales strategy, deploying the Argus II at prominent, reputable eye centers which are equipped to handle all aspects of an Argus II program including patient recruitment, surgery, fitting and rehabilitation. We believe this strategy represents an efficient use of our capital after giving consideration to the following factors:

Size of the RP patient population that is currently treatable by Argus II,

Complexity of the technology, surgery, post-surgery programming and rehabilitation, and

Cost of selecting, qualifying, training and building qualified Centers of Excellence.

When selecting new sites, we focus on high quality health providers considering the following factors:

Geographic location,

Facility and surgeon skill and reputation,

Willingness of the site to recruit and screen for eligible patients,

Established regulatory and reimbursement pathways,

Desire and capability of institution to perform a significant number of surgeries annually,

Ability of site to perform post-surgery programming of Argus technology, and

Capability of site and/or local resources to direct artificial vision rehabilitation

As of December 31, 2016, we have 15 qualified centers in the United States and Canada that are capable of implanting the Argus II. Ultimately, we anticipate serving the North American RP market with approximately 35 implanting centers across the US and Canada. In Europe and the Middle East, we currently have 21 centers that are actively implanting the Argus II (eight in Germany, three in France, one in Saudi Arabia, four in Turkey, two in Spain, and three in Italy). We believe that we will be able to serve the European and Middle East markets for RP by having approximately 50 centers across Europe and the Middle East.

To date, we have employed direct sales and clinical specialists to service our markets in the US and Canada. The majority of our markets in Europe are also serviced by a direct sales and clinical specialist team. As of December 31, 2016, the sales/clinical specialist team for North America numbered four persons and the sales/clinical team for Europe and the Middle East numbered seven persons. In some cases, we believe that we can more efficiently expand our reach by securing distributors in key markets. To date, we have appointed distributors in Spain, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Taiwan, and Argentina. We expect that our distributors will commit to providing support services that include marketing, market access, sales, surgical support, post-surgery programming, rehab coordination and service.

The Company is evaluating potential new markets including countries in Latin America or Asia Pacific regions. We will selectively enter markets based on multiple factors including: the presence of RP patients, skilled surgeons, a facility with the necessary support infrastructure, a reliable source of funding or reimbursement along with the assurance that needed clinical, rehab and surgical support can be provided.

Centers of Excellence

Our revised COE strategy in the US market is designed to help our centers more effectively manage Argus II patients and achieve better, more consistent patient outcomes. The COE strategy consists of four major initiatives: (1) financial, (2) patient recruitment, education and screening, (3) post-surgery programming, and (4) patient support and artificial vision rehab.

First, there are the financial considerations. As reported, the CMS hospital outpatient final rule assigned a payment rate of $150,000 for the Argus II and the associated surgical procedure beginning January 1, 2017. Physician fees continue to be reimbursed separately. Our current pricing strategy should generally ensure full reimbursement coverage of hospital surgical procedure costs including the Argus II system. We are also pleased that effective July 1, 2017, CPT codes for post-surgery programming will be available. These developments should ensure a favorable economic analysis for any center evaluating an Argus II program.

Second, regarding patient recruitment, education and screening, we will focus our outreach efforts around select centers to ensure a steady flow of patients. We have upgraded the pathways by which we screen prospective patients so that individuals who are referred to hospitals have a higher probability of being a candidate for surgery. In addition, we have a significant number of eligible, motivated patients who currently do not have access to Argus because they must travel hundreds of miles to a center, for screening, for surgery, and for post-surgery programming and rehabilitation. We are working closely with a few of our most experienced centers to provide highly qualified treatment for these patients.

Third, in terms of the post-surgery programming, our recent and future product improvements are aimed at simplifying the programming procedure for the site and for the patient. In fact, we have recently reduced the expected time to program our system from two days down to a half day. As with the surgery, we anticipate that repetition will make the programming more routine for the institution. Moreover, as mentioned above, we have secured CPT codes to allow sites, effective July 1, 2017 to submit for reimbursement when they program an Argus system.

Finally, the last pillar of this initiative - patient support and artificial vision rehabilitation - is extremely important. We have been working with various sites to identify and document best practices related to rehabilitation with the goal being an improved, comprehensive rehabilitation guide. Our new rehabilitation program will include certification level training to our dedicated customers and rehab providers in the U.S. We are now proactively coordinating with our customers to ensure their Argus II patients complete this rehabilitation curriculum, with attention to the important first three to four months post-surgery.

In summary, the aim of the COE program is to establish implanting centers and physician clinics that are more intimately knowledgeable, self-sufficient, and confident, enabling them to be able to treat a higher volume of patients. We also feel the COE program is important development work that prepares the Company and our customers for the support requirements necessary to serve expanded patient populations in the future such as better-sighted RP patients.

Global Reimbursement

Obtaining reimbursement from governmental and private insurance companies is critical to our commercial success. Due to the cost of the Argus II System, our sales would be limited without the availability of third party reimbursement. In the US, coding, coverage, and payment are necessary for the surgical procedure and Argus II system to be reimbursed by payers. Coding has been established for the device and the surgical procedure. Coverage and payment vary by payer. The majority of Argus II patients are eligible for Medicare, and coverage is primarily provided through traditional Medicare (sometimes referred to as Medicare Fee-for-Service (FFS) or Medicare Advantage. A small percentage of patients are covered by commercial insurers.

Medicare FFS patients – Coverage is determined by Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) that administer various geographic regions of the US. As of January 1, 2017, positive coverage decisions for the Argus II are effective in five of 12 MAC jurisdictions (comprising 17 states). Effective January 1, 2017, CMS established a New Technology Ambulatory Payment Class (APC) 1906, Level 51, with a payment rate of $150,000 for both the procedure and the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System.

Medicare Advantage patients – Medicare Advantage plans are required to cover the same benefits as those covered by the MAC in that jurisdiction. For example, if a MAC in a jurisdiction has favorable coverage for the Argus II, then all Medicare Advantage plans in that MAC jurisdiction are required to offer the same coverage for the Argus II. Individual hospitals and ASCs may negotiate contracts specific to that individual facility, which may include additional separate payment for the Argus II implant system. In addition, procedural payment is variable and can be based on a percentage of billed charges, payment groupings or other individually negotiated payment methodologies. Medicare Advantage plans also allow providers to confirm coverage and payment for the Argus II procedure in advance of implantation. In 2015 and 2016 combined, 93% of all Medicare Advantage pre-authorization requests for Argus II procedures were granted.

Commercial insurer patients – Commercial insurance plans make coverage and payment rate decisions independent of Medicare, and contracts are individually negotiated with facility and physician providers.

During the nine months ended September 30, 2016, 10 individuals in the US and Canada were implanted with the Argus II technology. Of the 10 patients, seven were Medicare FFS patients, one was a Medicare Advantage patient, one was a Veteran’s Administration patient and the remaining one was a privately funded patient in Canada.

Second Sight employs dedicated employees and consultants with insurance reimbursement expertise engaged to expand and enhance coverage decisions. Currently, five MAC jurisdictions comprising 17 states have agreed to cover the Argus II System when medically necessary for the FDA approved indications. The MACs now covering the Argus II include First Coast Service Options (Florida, Puerto Rico and U.S.V.I.), CGS Administrators, LLC (for the states of Ohio and Kentucky), Palmetto GBA (for the states of North and South Carolina, West Virginia and Virginia, other than the counties of Arlington and Fairfax in Virginia and the City of Arlington in Virginia), National Government Services, Inc. (NGS), Jurisdiction 6 (for the states of Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin), and NGS, Jurisdiction K (for the states of Connecticut, New York, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont). We are actively engaged with the remaining MACs and are committed to supporting their requests for additional information and clinical evidence. We expect that additional positive coverage decisions will be issued over time but cannot predict timing or ultimate success with each MAC.

Within Europe, we have obtained reimbursement approval or funding in Germany, France and one region of Italy. On December 22, 2016, NHS England announced it would cover 10 Argus implantations as part of a Commissioning through Evaluation (CtE) program. The CtE program is especially designed for treatments that show significant promise for the future, while new clinical and patient experience data are collected within a formal evaluation program. This program is similar to the Forfait Innovation program in France. NHS England is known to be under significant financial pressure and also highly selective in adopting innovative technologies – which must demonstrate sufficient value for the cost expended.

We are seeking reimbursement approval in other countries including Belgium, Switzerland, Turkey, and we are also seeking reimbursement approval in additional regions of Italy. In France, Second Sight was selected to receive the first "Forfait Innovation" (Innovation Bundle) from the Ministry of Health, which is a special funding program for breakthrough procedures to be introduced into clinical practice. As part of this program, Second Sight is conducting a post-market study in France which has enrolled a total of 18 subjects and will follow them for two years. The French program will fund implantation of up to 18 additional patients that will not be part of the post-market study. After review of the study’s results, we expect Argus II therapy to be covered and funded through the standard payment system in France, however, we can provide no assurance that the French government will continue to fund the Argus II after the first 36 implants.

To date, we have not faced traditional sales challenges in any of our markets, largely due to the currently unmet clinical need and the lack of any other commercially available device or competitive treatment for RP-caused profound blindness. Our marketing activities have focused on raising awareness of the Argus II System with potential patients, implanting physicians, and referring physicians. Our marketing activities include exhibiting, sponsoring symposia, and securing podium presence at professional and trade shows, securing journalist coverage in popular and trade media, attending patient meetings focused on educating patients about existing and future treatments, and sponsoring information sessions for the Argus II System. In the US, our efforts in 2017 will focus on media ads dedicated to RP patients and their families. These ads will be placed in geographic areas where we have Centers of Excellence committed to Argus II.

Improve Argus II performance and significantly expand use in the RP population by treating better-sighted patients

The Argus II System is currently approved for RP patients with bare or no light perception in the US, and in Europe for severe to profound vision loss due to outer retinal degeneration, such as from retinitis pigmentosa, choroideremia, and other similar conditions. The number of people who are legally blind due to RP is estimated to be about 25,000 in the US, 42,000 in Europe, and about 375,000 total worldwide. As discussed above, a subset of these patients would be eligible for the Argus II System since the approved baseline vision for the Argus II System is worse than legally blind (20/200). Scarce epidemiological data on visual acuity below legal blindness make it difficult to determine a precise estimate of the potential patient population for this device, but resulting from our commercial efforts thus far we believe most legally blind patients have vision too good for Argus II’s current clinical indications.

The Company believes an opportunity exists to expand the use of its technology to better sighted individuals with RP who are currently not being treated. In order to achieve this market expansion, the Company plans to start collecting clinical data in 2017 and is undertaking multiple development efforts to improve the technology’s performance. Our clinical and R&D plans for this market segment can be summarized as follows:

Clinical trials with better-sighted individuals – The Company intends to start collecting clinical data at multiple sites in Europe during 2017 to determine if the Argus II provides sufficient clinical benefit to these better-sighted patients. If successful, the Company would proceed with the various required steps to obtain regulatory approval and reimbursement coverage for treatment of this expanded patient group.

Retinal stimulation protocols – We believe that we can achieve improved resolution by adjusting retinal stimulation protocols. An example is the use of current steering to cause perception of pixels between electrodes. By producing these ‘virtual’ pixels, we may be able to increase the effective resolution of the Argus II beyond the physical number of electrodes (which today total 60). We began testing these protocols in patients during Q4 2016 and have obtained some encouraging initial results, but testing is still in early stage and no assurance can be given that we will be successful. We expect to continue patient testing in 2017, and assuming successful clinical results, would target commercial implementation of these revised retinal stimulation protocols in 2018. Given the initial positive results with our retinal stimulation protocol testing, we have prioritized this work ahead of our next-generation external hardware.

External hardware – We continue our development of a new external system. The new externals will include redesigns of the head mounted telemetry system (glasses), camera and video processing unit (VPU). The new VPU will possess processing power many times greater than the current Argus II system, which will enable enhanced image processing and support for the commercial implementation of the new retina stimulation protocols discussed above. We anticipate that the new external system will be commercially available in 2018.

Other longer-term R&D efforts – We are developing even more advanced software to improve the quality and usefulness of the Argus II vision delivered to patients. If successful, we expect that these software packages will run on the new external system described above. As part of this effort, we recently signed an exclusive license and funding agreement for issued and future patents with a commercial partner, providing funding to Second Sight for research including two research grants, totaling more than $450,000, from the National Eye Institute. This research will be related to distance filtering and thermal imaging. The development of advanced software packages is in the early phases and no assurance can be made that our efforts will be successful nor can we predict commercialization dates.

Leverage proven ARGUS technology to restore some vision with cortical stimulation and expand addressable market to include a portion of the almost 6 million patients who are blind from eye trauma, optic nerve disease, and other unpreventable causes

We believe we can further expand our market to include nearly all profoundly blind individuals, other than those who are blind due to preventable diseases or due to brain damage, by developing a visual cortical prosthesis. We refer to this product as the Orion^TM I visual prosthesis system. We estimate that there are approximately 5.8 million people worldwide who are legally blind due to causes other than preventable conditions, RP or AMD. If approved for marketing, the FDA and other regulatory agencies will determine the subset of these patients who are eligible for the Orion I.

Our objective in designing and developing the Orion I visual prosthesis system is to bypass the optic nerve and directly stimulate the part of the brain responsible for vision. As currently under development, the Orion I visual prosthesis system is based on technology that we utilize in our Argus II system, thereby reducing engineering investment costs and risks, and leveraging the reliability of the Argus II platform. We plan to submit an IDE application to the FDA in 2017 to begin a human feasibility study of the Orion I visual prosthesis system. We also expect to implant and activate our Orion I visual prosthesis system in human subjects during 2017. This study will confirm initial findings in our human pilot study we announced in Q4 2016 and provide the first human data of a fully functional wireless visual cortical stimulator system including the external video camera system. This initial study in a small number of subjects, if successful, should also form the basis for an expansion to a pivotal clinical trial in 2018.

In Q4 2016 the Company announced the successful implantation and activation of a wireless visual cortical stimulator in a human subject. In the UCLA study supported by Second Sight, a 30-year-old patient was implanted with a wireless multichannel neurostimulation system on the visual cortex and was able to perceive and localize individual phosphenes or spots of light with no significant adverse side effects. While the technology implanted was not the Orion I, the study is significant in our efforts to advance our technology and is providing valuable data to support the ongoing development and subsequent clinical trial of our Orion I. This important clinical result so far confirms our hypothesis that the Orion I will function similarly to the Argus II and has increased the priority of this program.

Continue clinical testing of Argus II in AMD patients to demonstrate benefit and provide necessary data to inform further clinical trials and/or R&D efforts

We began a five-subject pilot study in the United Kingdom in June 2015, to determine the utility of the Argus II System for use in persons suffering from dry AMD. In Q2 2016 we completed enrollment and continue to track the subjects via the site in Manchester. The subjects have reported the ability to integrate their native peripheral vision with their artificial central vision. Subjects also report that they enjoy using their Argus system. To date, however, the subjects have not demonstrated significant objective benefit over their residual vision when using the Argus II. We plan to continue testing these subjects and will submit a revised clinical protocol in early 2017. Our approaches to improving the effective resolution in RP patients may also work in AMD patients, which could help us demonstrate objective benefit over their residual vision. The revised protocol will request approval to test new retinal stimulation techniques with the existing subjects with the belief they will benefit. If this clinical testing is successful, we plan to enroll additional patients in our pursuit of a solution for this large patient population.

We estimate the population of people who are legally blind due to AMD to be about 552,500 in the US, 1.08 million in Europe, and two million worldwide. If Argus II is approved for AMD, we believe that a subset of these patients would be eligible for the Argus II. Because of the clinical uncertainly, we are not yet prepared to predict a timeline to commercialize our technology for this large patient population. No assurance can be given that we will be successful in any of these endeavors.

Our Competition

The US life sciences industry is highly competitive and well-positioned for future growth. The treatment of blindness is a significant clinically unmet need and others continue to make progress. There are several approaches to treating blindness including:

Retinal Prostheses (including the Argus II): aimed at giving more visual ability to a blind patient via implanting a device in the eye to stimulate remaining retina cells. Electrical neurostimulation technology has seen growing use in recent years for numerous applications– such as chronic pain, Parkinson’s disease, Essential tremor, Epilepsy, and others.

Transplants: transplanting retinal tissue to stimulate remaining retina cells.

Stem Cells: generally involve implanting immature retinal support cells aimed at slowing retinal degeneration. A single patient with wet AMD was implanted in London in 2015 with an embryonic stem cell line in a study sponsored by Pfizer. Patients with dry AMD are also being recruited in Los Angeles for a similar study. No data is yet available as to safety or efficacy of these implantations.

Genetics and Gene Therapy: involves identifying a specific gene that is causing retinal problems (there are over 120 for retinitis pigmentosa alone) resulting in visual impairments and blindness; and inserting healthy genes into an individual’s cells using a virus to treat the diseases. A company recently announced phase 3 data for a 21-patient study with a median age of 11 for a gene that affects a very small percentage of retinitis pigmentosa patients, RPE65. That company reportedly met its primary endpoint (completing a maze test) but did not report improved visual acuity. That company is expected to apply for FDA approval in 2017. If this product garners FDA approval (which would make it the first gene therapy ever approved by the FDA), we believe that there is no overlap with our current market since our patients are generally older (Argus II is indicated for an age minimum of 25 in the US) while the other company injects better sighted patients since it is attempting to show an improvement in residual vision rather than restoring vision that is completely lost which is our objective for the Argus II market.

Optogenetics Therapy: aimed at slowing down, reversing, and/or eliminating the process by which photoreceptors in the eye are compromised. This therapy also requires infecting the patient’s cells with a virus. However, instead of fixing a gene defect, this approach would cause cells within the eye to become light sensitive. Animal work has shown that these cells are not sensitive enough to respond to ambient light, so this approach currently also requires a light amplifier outside the body to increase light delivered to the retina.

Nutritional Therapy: involves diets or supplements that are thought to prevent or slow the progress of vision loss.

Implantable Telescope: VisionCare, Ophthalmic Technologies, Inc. offers an FDA approved implantable miniature telescope for AMD, a magnifying device that is implanted in the eye. The VisionCare telescope is approved for use in patients with severe to profound vision impairment (best corrected visual acuity of 20/160 to 20/800) due to dry AMD.

Wicab’s The BrainPort® V100 includes a video camera mounted on a pair of sunglasses, a hand-held controller, and tongue array. The tongue array contains 400 electrodes and is connected to the glasses via a flexible cable. White pixels from the camera are felt on the tongue as strong stimulation, black pixels as no stimulation, and gray levels as medium levels of stimulation. This device is indicated for the profoundly blind.

There are currently no treatments for AMD after the disease has caused severe to profound vision loss nor are there any established treatments that delay or reverse the progression of Dry AMD other than supplements.

Therapies exist for Wet AMD that delay the progression of visual impairment or slightly improve the vision, rather than completely curing or reversing its course. These therapies are approved in many regions throughout the world, including the US and EU.

Commercial efforts to develop retinal implants by others include:

Retina Implant AG: A privately held German company that is developing the Alpha IMS, a wireless sub-retinal implant. Although this company had obtained CE Mark in 2013 and was expected to begin commercialization during 2015 in the EU, to our knowledge this product is still not generally available to commercial patients. Publications from the company reported frequent device failures of the Alpha IMS in patients. The company has reportedly improved the design and rebranded its system as the Alpha AMS. Two clinical trial patients are reported to have been implanted in the UK during 2015 and/or 2016. Other reports of implants are unconfirmed. To our knowledge, Retina Implant has not obtained FDA approval to begin a clinical trial in the US but has announced that it plans to advance commercialization efforts that include obtaining reimbursement and opening new implanting centers.

Pixium Vision S.A.: A publicly held French company that is developing the IRIS (Intelligent Retinal Implant System) that is surgically placed into the eye and attached to the surface of the retina. Similar to our Argus II technology, its system uses a camera and a wireless transmitter. Pixium is in clinical studies with IRIS and received CE Mark in 2016. Pixium has indicated it plans to begin commercialization of its product during 2017 in the EU. In January 2017 Pixium announced that it had completed 10 implants in its IRIS II study. They had also reportedly planned to implant a passive sub-retinal implant, the PRIMA, in AMD subjects in 2016, but have not yet announced any implants. To our knowledge, Pixium Vision has not obtained FDA approval to begin any clinical trial in the US.

NanoRetina Inc., a company based in Israel, and several other early stage companies are reported to have developed intellectual property or technology that may improve retinal prostheses in the future, but to our knowledge none of these efforts has resulted in a completed system that has been tested clinically in patients.

Academic entities are also working on vision restoring implants. These include Bionic Vision Australia (an early prototype device has been developed and to our knowledge implanted in three human subjects), Boston Retinal Implant project (preclinical phase), Stanford University (preclinical), Monash Vision Group (preclinical phase) , and the Illinois Institute of Technology (preclinical phase) . Of these projects, we believe most have not yet demonstrated a working implant, only one has reportedly begun long-term clinical work in humans, and to our knowledge none has received FDA approval to begin clinical trials in the US

No other retinal prosthesis to our knowledge has been successful in long-term human trials, currently making the Argus II System the sole implant generally available to commercial patients for treating RP in the US, Canada, EU, and Saudi Arabia. We anticipate that our competitors are unlikely to obtain significant commercial traction in EU until they have developed in depth clinical data showing the reliability and functionality of their products.

Risk Factors that affect us

See “Risk Factors” beginning on page 33 and other information included elsewhere in this prospectus for a discussion of factors you should carefully consider before deciding to invest in our common stock.

Corporate Information

Second Sight Medical Products, Inc. was incorporated in California in May 2003 as a successor to Second Sight LLC, a Delaware limited liability company formed in 1998. Our principal executive offices and manufacturing facilities are located at 12744 San Fernando Road, Suite 400, Sylmar, California 91342. Our telephone number is (818) 833-5000. Our European subsidiary, Second Sight Medical Products (Switzerland) Sàrl, maintains offices at EPFL-PSE A, Route de Jean-Daniel Colladon, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.

Our website address is www.secondsight.com. The information contained on, or that can be accessed through, our website is not a part of this prospectus.

Unless otherwise indicated, the terms “Second Sight,” “we,” “us” and “our” refer to Second Sight Medical Products, Inc., a California corporation, and our subsidiaries.

“Second Sight,” “Argus”, “FLORA” and the Second Sight logo are our registered trademarks and, "Orion" is a trademark in the US, EU and Switzerland.

Emerging Growth Company

The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, or the JOBS Act, was enacted in April 2012 with the intention of encouraging capital formation in the United States and reducing the regulatory burden on newly public companies that qualify as “emerging growth companies.” We are an emerging growth company within the meaning of the JOBS Act. As an emerging growth company, we may take advantage of certain exemptions from various public reporting requirements, including the requirement that our internal control over financial reporting be audited by our independent registered public accounting firm pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, certain requirements related to the disclosure of executive compensation in this prospectus and in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and the requirement that we hold a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and any golden parachute payments. We may take advantage of these exemptions until we are no longer an emerging growth company.

We will remain an emerging growth company until the earliest to occur of

the last day of the fiscal year in which we have $1.0 billion or more in annual revenue;

the date we qualify as a “large accelerated filer,” with at least $700 million of equity securities held by non-affiliates;

the date on which we have issued, in any three-year period, more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt securities; or

the last day of the fiscal year ending after the fifth anniversary of our initial public offering.

Section 102(b)(1) of the JOBS Act exempts emerging growth companies from being required to comply with new or revised financial accounting standards until private companies (that is, those that have not had a Securities Act registration statement declared effective or do not have a class of securities registered under the Securities Exchange Act) are required to comply with the new or revised financial accounting standard. The JOBS Act also provides that a company can elect to opt out of the extended transition period provided by Section 102(b)(1) of the JOBS Act and comply with the requirements that apply to non-emerging growth companies but any such election to opt out is irrevocable. We have irrevocably elected to opt out of this extended transition period provided by Section 102(b)(1) of the JOBS Act. Even though we have elected to opt out of the extended transition period, we may still take advantage of all of the other provisions of the JOBS Act, which include, but are not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements and the exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved.

SUMMARY CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL DATA

The following summary consolidated statements of operations data for the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014 and the consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2015 and 2014 have been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements that are included in this prospectus. The summary consolidated statements of operations data for the nine-month periods ended September 30, 2016 and 2015 and the consolidated balance sheet data as of September 30, 2016 are derived from our unaudited consolidated financial statements that are included elsewhere in this prospectus. The historical financial data presented below is not necessarily indicative of our financial results in future periods, and the results for the nine-month period ended September 30, 2016 are not necessarily indicative of our operating results to be expected for the full fiscal year ended December 31, 2016 or any other period. You should read the summary consolidated financial data in conjunction with those financial statements and the accompanying notes and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” included elsewhere in this prospectus. Our consolidated financial statements are prepared and presented in accordance with United States generally accepted accounting principles, or U.S. GAAP. Our unaudited consolidated financial statements have been prepared on a basis consistent with our audited financial statements and include all adjustments, consisting of normal and recurring adjustments that we consider necessary for a fair presentation of the financial position and results of operations as of and for such periods.

	Year Ended						Nine Months Ended
	December 31,						September 30,
Consolidated Statements of Operations Data (In thousands):	2015			2014			2016			2015
							(unaudited)			(unaudited)
Net Sales	$	8,950		$	3,398		$	3,270		$	6,588
Cost of sales		5,293			3,558			6,768			3,622
Gross profit (loss)		3,657			(160	)		(3,498	)		2,966

Operating expenses:
Research and development, net of grants		3,036			5,041			3,266			2,490
Clinical and regulatory		3,510			2,622			1,955			2,543
Selling and marketing		8,935			6,845			6,473			6,425
General and administrative		8,223			6,565			7,635			6,079
Total operating expenses		23,704			21,073			19,329			17,537

Loss from operations		(20,047	)		(21,233	)		(22,827	)		(14,571	)

Interest income		2			9			19			1
Other income (expense), net		27			12			(1	)		25
Interest expense on convertible promissory notes and loan payable		-			(1,957	)		-			-
Amortization of discount on convertible promissory notes		-			(5,077	)		-			-
Write-off of unamortized discount on conversion of convertible promissory notes		-			(6,955	)		-			-

Net loss	$	(20,018	)	$	(35,201	)	$	(22,809	)	$	(14,545	)

Net loss per common share – basic and diluted	$	(0.56	)	$	(1.41	)	$	(0.57	)	$	(0.41	)

Weighted average numbers of shares outstanding – basic and diluted		35,637			25,053			39,929			35,555

	December 31,				September 30,
Consolidated Balance Sheet Data (In thousands):	2015		2014		2016
					(unaudited)
Cash	$	239	$	619	$	277
Money market funds	$	15,721	$	34,000	$	17,546
Working capital	$	18,782	$	33,525	$	19,017
Total assets	$	28,245	$	43,069	$	26,265
Stockholders’ equity	$	20,263	$	34,618	$	20,599

SUMMARY OF THE RIGHTS OFFERING

Securities to be offered	We are distributing to you, at no charge, one non-transferable Subscription Right to invest $0.47 for every share of our common stock that you own on the Record Date, either as a holder of record or, in the case of shares held of record by brokers, banks, or other nominees, on your behalf, as a beneficial owner of such shares, to purchase Units, each consisting of one share of our common stock and one warrant to purchase one share of our common stock at the Subscription Price.

Size of offering	Up to 15,000,000 Units. See “The Rights Offering-Limitation on the Purchase of Units”.

Subscription Price	The lesser of $2.00 or the closing price of our shares of common stock on the Expiration Date, per Unit. To be effective, any payment related to the exercise of a right must clear prior to the expiration date of the rights offering.

Warrants	Each Warrant entitles the holder to purchase, for five years from the date of issuance, one share of common stock for each whole share of common stock purchased in the Rights Offering at a price equal to the Subscription Price. The Warrants will be exercisable by paying the exercise price in cash only. At our discretion, we may call the Warrants for redemption on 30 days’ notice (i) 24 months after the date of issuance, (ii) if the shares of our common stock are trading at 200% of the Subscription Price for 15 consecutive trading days and (iii) if all of the independent directors vote in favor of redeeming the Warrants. Holders may be able to sell or exercise Warrants prior to any announced redemption date and we will redeem outstanding Warrants not exercised by the announced redemption date for a nominal amount of $0.01 per Warrant. We intend to list the Warrants for trading on Nasdaq, although we cannot assure you that our listing application will be approved. Even if our listing application is approved, we cannot guarantee that a trading market for the Warrants will develop. Under the terms of the Warrant Agreement, we will maintain a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission so that you will be able to exercise your Warrant and receive shares of common stock that will be freely tradable at the time of purchase and receipt. See “Description of Securities-Warrants Included in Units Issuable in the Rights Offering”.

Record Date	February 10, 2017.

Subscription Right	Each Subscription Right consists of a Basic Subscription Right and an Over-Subscription Privilege.

Basic Subscription Rights	The Basic Subscription Right entitles you to invest $0.47 for each share of our common stock you own on the Record Date.

Over-Subscription Privilege	If you fully exercise your Basic Subscription Right and other shareholders do not fully exercise their Basic Subscription Rights, you may also exercise an Over-Subscription Privilege to invest an additional amount which will permit you to acquire additional Units at the Subscription Price, when that price is determined, that remain unsubscribed at the expiration of the Rights Offering, subject to the availability and pro rata allocation of Units among shareholders exercising this Over-Subscription Privilege. To the extent the number of the unsubscribed Units are not sufficient to satisfy all of the properly exercised over-Subscription Privilege requests based on the amounts invested by shareholders participating in this offering, then the available Units will be prorated among those who properly exercised Over-Subscription Privileges based on the number of Units each rights holder subscribed for under the Basic Subscription Right after that number is determined when measured against the Subscription Price. If this pro rata allocation results in any shareholder receiving a greater number of Units of common stock than the shareholder subscribed for pursuant to the exercise of the Over-Subscription Privilege, then such shareholder will be allocated only that number of Units for which the shareholder oversubscribed, and the remaining Units will be allocated among all other shareholders exercising the Over-Subscription Privilege on the same pro rata basis described above. The proration process will be repeated until all Units of common stock have been allocated or all over-subscription exercises have been fulfilled, whichever occurs earlier.

Limitations on Exercise	In the event that the exercise by a shareholder of the Basic Subscription Right or the Over-Subscription Privilege could, as determined by the Company in its sole discretion, potentially result in a limitation on the Company’s ability to use net operating losses, tax credits and other tax attributes, which we refer to as the “Tax Attributes,” under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, which we refer to as the “Code”, and rules promulgated by the Internal Revenue Service, the Company may, but is under no obligation to, reduce the exercise by such shareholder of the Basic Subscription Right or the Over-Subscription Privilege to such number of Units as the Company in its sole discretion shall determine to be advisable in order to preserve the Company’s ability to use the Tax Attributes.

Expiration Date	The Subscription Rights will expire at 5:00 p.m., New York City Time, on March 6, 2017. We reserve the right to extend the expiration date in our sole discretion.

Procedure for exercising Subscription Rights	To exercise your Subscription Rights, you must take the following steps:

	If you are a record holder of our common stock, you must deliver a properly completed Rights Certificate to the Subscription Agent together with payment in cleared or good funds to be received before 5:00 p.m., New York City Time, on March 6, 2017. You may deliver the documents and payments by first class mail or courier service. If you use first class mail for this purpose, we recommend using registered mail, properly insured, with return receipt requested.

	If you are a beneficial owner of shares that are registered in the name of a broker, dealer, custodian bank, or other nominee, you should instruct your broker, dealer, custodian bank, or other nominee to exercise your Subscription Rights on your behalf. Please follow the instructions of your nominee, who may require that you meet a deadline earlier than 5:00 p.m., New York City Time, on March 6, 2017.

Issuance of Shares and Warrants	As soon as practicable after the expiration of the Rights Offering, the Subscription Agent will arrange for the issuance of the shares of common stock and Warrants purchased pursuant to the Rights Offering. If you hold your shares in the name of a custodian bank, broker, dealer, or other nominee, DTC will credit your account with your nominee with the securities you purchased in the Rights Offering. If you are a holder of record of shares, all shares of common stock and Warrants that are purchased by you in the Rights Offering will be issued in book-entry, or uncertificated, form meaning that you will receive a direct registration (DRS) account statement from our transfer agent reflecting ownership of these securities.

Non-transferability of Subscription Rights	The Subscription Rights may not be sold, transferred, assigned or given away to anyone. The Subscription Rights will not be listed for trading on any stock exchange or market.

No board recommendation	Our Board of Directors makes no recommendation regarding your exercise of the Subscription Rights. You are urged to make your decision to invest based on your own assessment of our business and the Rights Offering. See “Risk Factors” for a discussion of some of the substantial risks involved in investing in our securities.

No revocation	All exercises of subscription rights are irrevocable, even if you later learn information that you consider to be unfavorable to the exercise of your Subscription Rights and even if the rights offering is extended by our Board of Directors. However, if we amend the rights offering to allow for an extension of the rights offering for a period of more than 30 days or make a fundamental change to the terms of the rights offering set forth in this prospectus, you may cancel your subscription and receive a refund of any money you have advanced. You should not exercise your Subscription Rights unless you are certain that you wish to purchase additional Units at a subscription price that will not be determined or fixed until expiration of the Rights Offering period on March 6, 2017.

Use of proceeds	We intend to use the net proceeds we receive from the offering to (i) improve performance of the Argus II which will permit us to enlarge markets by treating better-sighted RP patients (ii) continue funding the ongoing development of the Orion I visual prosthesis, (iii) continue funding the ongoing clinical study of Argus II in patients with AMD, and (iv) for other operating and general corporate purposes. See “Use of Proceeds.”

U.S. Federal Income Tax Considerations	For U.S. federal income tax purposes, you generally should not recognize income or loss in connection with the receipt or exercise of subscription rights. You are urged, however, to consult your own tax advisor as to your particular tax consequences resulting from the receipt and exercise of Subscription Rights and the receipt, ownership and disposition of our common stock. See “Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Consequences”.

Extension, Cancellation and Amendment

We have the option to extend the rights offering and the period for exercising your subscription rights for a period not to exceed 30 days. If we elect to extend the expiration of the rights offering, we will issue a press release announcing such extension no later than 9:00 a.m., New York City time, on the next business day after the most recently announced expiration time of the rights offering. We will extend the duration of the rights offering as required by applicable law or regulation and we reserve the right to extend it if we decide in our sole discretion to give our investors more time to exercise Subscription Rights in the Rights Offering. If we elect to extend the rights offering for a period of more than 30 days, then holders who have subscribed for rights may cancel their subscriptions and receive a refund of all money advanced. We have no current intention to extend the time period of the Rights Offering.

Our Board of Directors may cancel the Rights Offering at any time prior to the Expiration Date for any reason. In the event that the rights offering is cancelled, we will issue a press release notifying shareholders of the cancellation and all subscription payments received by the subscription agent will be returned, without interest or penalty, within 10 business days. Notwithstanding any further volatility and market or price declines in our shares, we will sell no more than 15 million Units in the Rights Offering. See “The Rights Offering - Limitation on the Purchase of Units.”

	Our Board of Directors also reserves the right to amend or modify the terms of the Rights Offering. If we should make any fundamental changes to the terms of the Rights Offering set forth in this prospectus, we will file a post-effective amendment to the registration statement in which this prospectus is included, offer potential purchasers who have subscribed for rights the opportunity to cancel such subscriptions and issue a refund of any money advanced by such shareholder and recirculate an updated prospectus after the post-effective amendment is declared effective by the SEC. In addition, upon such event, we may extend the Expiration Date to allow holders of rights ample time to make new investment decisions and for us to recirculate updated documentation. Promptly following any such occurrence, we will issue a press release announcing any changes with respect to the rights offering and the new expiration date. Although we do not presently intend to do so, we may choose to amend or modify the terms of the rights offering for any reason, including, without limitation, in order to increase participation in the rights offering. Such amendments or modifications may include a change in the Subscription Price, although no such change is presently contemplated.

Subscription Agent	Broadridge Inc.

Information Agent	Broadridge Inc.

Shares Outstanding Before the Rights Offering	42,696,000 shares of our common stock were outstanding as of December 31, 2016.

Shares Outstanding After the Rights Offering	Following the Rights Offering, if fully subscribed at a Subscription Price of $1.53, which was the closing price of our shares on January 23, 2016, and without giving effect to shares issuable upon exercise of Warrants, we anticipate that we would have approximately 55,812,000 shares of our common stock outstanding. See “The Rights Offering – Shares of Our Common Stock Outstanding After the Rights Offering.”

Risk Factors	You should carefully read and consider the risk factors contained in our Annual Report on Form 10-K, as amended, for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015, and in the “Risk Factors” section beginning on page 33 of this prospectus, together with all of the other information included in this prospectus, before you decide to exercise your subscription rights to purchase Units. These risks include without limitation, the risks associated with making an investment in this offering without having full year operating history and financial condition through December 31, 2016, the risks related to our growth strategy, risks related to our considerable and ongoing operating losses and need for additional investment capital, risks related to our business and risks associated with the regulatory environment to which we are subject.

Fees and Expenses	We will pay all fees charged by the Subscription Agent and the Information Agent in connection with the rights offering. You are responsible for paying any other commissions, fees, taxes or other expenses incurred in connection with the exercise of the subscription rights.

Nasdaq Trading Symbol	EYES

Questions

If you have any questions about the rights offering, including questions about subscription procedures and requests for additional copies of this prospectus or other documents, please contact Broadridge Inc., our subscription agent/information agent at (855)793-5068 (toll free) or email at shareholder@broadridge.com.

Summary Financial Information

The selected consolidated financial data presented below should be read in conjunction with Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our audited consolidated financial statements and related notes, which are included elsewhere in this prospectus. We have derived the following selected consolidated statement of operations data for the years ended December 31, 2014 and 2015 and the selected consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2014, and 2015 from our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. We have derived the selected unaudited consolidated statement of operations data for the nine months ended September 30, 2015 and 2016, and the selected unaudited consolidated balance sheet data as of September 30, 2016, from our unaudited interim consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. We have included all adjustments, consisting only of normal recurring adjustments, which we consider necessary for a fair presentation of the financial information set forth in those statements. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected in the future, and our interim results are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected for the full year or any other period.

Our revenues, net loss and comprehensive loss for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2015, December 31, 2014, and for the nine months ended September 30, 2016, and September 30, 2015, were as follows:

	Fiscal Years Ended December 31,						Nine Months Ended September 30,
(In thousands)	2015			2014			2016			2015
							(unaudited)			(unaudited)
Revenues	$	8,950		$	3,398		$	3,270		$	6,588
Net loss	$	(20,018	)	$	(35,201	)	$	(22,809	)	$	(14,545	)
Comprehensive Loss	$	(20,125	)	$	(35,408	)	$	(22,752	)	$	(14,617	)

Material U.S. federal income tax consequences

For U.S. federal income tax purposes, we do not believe you should recognize income or loss upon receipt or exercise of a Subscription Right. You should consult your own tax advisor as to the tax consequences of the Rights Offering in light of your particular circumstances. See "Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Consequences."

Your interest in our company may be diluted as a result of this offering.

Common shareholders who do not fully exercise their respective rights should expect that they will, at the completion of this offering, own a smaller proportional interest in our company than would otherwise be the case had they fully exercised their Basic Subscription Rights.

RISK FACTORS

We are subject to various risks that may materially harm our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations. An investment in our common stock is speculative and involves a high degree of risk. In evaluating an investment in the Units, you should carefully consider the risks described below, together with the other information included in this prospectus.

If any of the events described in the following risk factors actually occurs, or if additional risks and uncertainties that are not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial later materialize, then our business, prospects, results of operations and financial condition could be materially and adversely affected. In that event, the trading price of our common stock could decline, and you may lose all or part of your investment. The risks discussed below include forward-looking statements, and our actual results may differ substantially from those discussed in these forward-looking statements.

When acquiring Units in this offering you are basing your investment decision on financial results through September 30, 2016 (unaudited) and fiscal year end results may not be available prior to the date that you exercise your subscription or the Expiration Date of the offering.

The latest financial results included in this prospectus are for the nine months ending September 30, 2016 (unaudited). However, we are in the process of preparing the year end results, which we anticipate releasing on or before March 14, 2017, a date that is after the Expiration Date. Accordingly, when you participate in this Offering you are basing your decision on financial information that does not include revenue, loss and other material disclosures concerning our 2016 Q4. Accordingly, the financial information contained in this prospectus may not accurately reflect our full year’s performance results in this prospectus and may not accurately reflect our full year’s performance or financial condition at December 31, 2016. The market price of our stock has been volatile and may decline further after we release our year-end results for 2016. Your investment in the Units is highly speculative, and inasmuch as the price at which you are purchasing Units, as well as our most recent financial results, are not presented and will not be available prior to exercise of the Subscription Right or the Expiration Date, you should only invest if you can afford to lose your entire investment.

The market price of our common stock is volatile and may decline before or after the subscription rights expire.

The market price of our common stock could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to numerous factors, some of which are beyond our control. These factors include, among other things, actual or anticipated variations in our costs of doing business, operating results and cash flow, the nature and content of our earnings releases and our competitors' earnings releases, customers, competitors or markets, changes in financial estimates by securities analysts, business conditions in our markets and the general state of the securities markets and the market for similar stocks, changes in capital markets that affect the perceived availability of capital to companies in our industries, governmental legislation or regulation, as well as general economic and market conditions, such as continued downturns in our economy and recessions.

We cannot assure you that the market price of our common stock will not decline after you elect to exercise your subscription rights and obtain Units as computed with respect to the Subscription Price when it is determined. Accordingly, we cannot assure you that following the exercise of your subscription rights you will be able to sell your common stock at a price equal to or greater than the Subscription Price. Until shares are delivered upon expiration of the rights offering, you will not be able to sell the shares of our common stock underlying Units that you purchased in the rights offering. Certificates (physical, electronic or book entry from) representing shares of our common stock purchased will be delivered as soon as practicable after expiration of the Rights Offering. We will not pay you interest on funds delivered to the Subscription Agent pursuant to the exercise of Subscription Rights.

Completion of this offering is not subject to our raising a minimum offering amount and therefore proceeds may be insufficient to meet our objectives, thereby increasing the risk to investors in this offering.

Completion of this offering is not subject to our raising a minimum offering amount. As such, proceeds from this rights offering may not be sufficient to meet the objectives we state in this prospectus or other corporate milestones that we may set. Shareholders should not rely on the success of the Rights Offering to address our need for funding. If we fail to raise capital by about the end of the second quarter of 2017, we would anticipate having significantly to decrease our operating expenses, which will adversely affect our operations and materially curtail the progress of our business.

The Subscription Rights are not transferable and there is no market for the Subscription Rights.

You may not sell, transfer or assign your Subscription Rights. The Subscription Rights are only transferable by operation of law. Because the Subscription Rights are non-transferable, there is no market or other means for you to directly realize any value associated with the Subscription Rights. You must exercise the Subscription Rights and acquire additional Units to realize any value that may be embedded in the Subscription Rights.

None of our officers, directors or significant shareholders is obligated to exercise any subscription rights and, as a result, the Rights Offering may be undersubscribed.

As a group, our officers and directors beneficially own approximately 34% of our outstanding common stock as of December 31, 2016. In addition to shares beneficially owned by our officers and directors, at December 31, 2016 the Alfred E. Mann Living Trust, a trust established by our late founder Alfred E. Mann, beneficially owned approximately 21% of our outstanding shares as of December 31, 2016. To our knowledge there are no other holders beneficially owning 5% or more of our common stock. We have received indications from Gregg Williams, a member of our Board of Directors and one of our principal shareholders, that he intends to exercise all of his Subscription Rights and to invest an aggregate of up to $10 million to purchase units at the Subscription Price to the extent that unsubscribed subscription rights are available, although the actual amount he may seek to invest may be less or greater than this amount. None of our officers, directors or significant shareholders is obligated to participate in the Rights Offering. We cannot assure that any of our officers or directors or significant shareholders will exercise their basic or over-subscription rights to purchase any shares issued in connection with this offering and there is no minimum amount required to be raised in this offering. As a result, the offering may be undersubscribed and proceeds may not be sufficient to meet the objectives we state in this prospectus or other corporate milestones that we may set.

This offering may cause the price of our common stock to decline.

The Rights Offering may result in an immediate decline in the market value of our common stock. This decline may continue after the completion of Rights Offering. Further, if a substantial number of Subscription Rights are exercised and the holders of the Units choose to sell some or all of the shares of common stock, including stock issuable upon exercise of Warrants, the resulting sales could depress the market price of our common stock. The price of our common stock may also decline if new investors find our Warrants to be more attractive than a direct investment in our shares. There is no assurance that, following the Expiration Date, you will be able to sell the common stock you receive from the exercise of your Subscription Rights at a price equal to or greater than the Subscription Price.

If we terminate the Rights Offering for any reason, we will have no obligation other than to return subscription monies promptly.

We may decide, in our discretion and for any reason, to cancel or terminate the Rights Offering at any time prior to the Expiration Date. If this offering is terminated, we will have no obligation with respect to rights that have been exercised except to return promptly, without interest or deduction, the subscription monies deposited with the Subscription Agent. If we terminate this offering and you have not exercised any rights, such rights will expire worthless.

Our common stock price may become more volatile as a result of the Rights Offering.

The trading price of our common stock may fluctuate substantially. The price of the common stock that will prevail in the market following the Rights Offering may be higher or lower than the Subscription Price depending on many factors, some of which are beyond our control and may not be directly related to our operating performance. These factors include, but are not limited to, the following:

price and volume fluctuations in the overall stock market from time to time, including increased volatility resulting from uncertain domestic and global market conditions;

significant volatility in the market price and trading volume of our securities, including increased volatility arising from investor pessimism and bearish sentiment which may accompany uncertain domestic and global market conditions;

actual or anticipated changes or fluctuations in our operating results;

material announcements by us regarding business performance, financings, mergers and acquisitions or other transactions;

general economic conditions and trends;

competitive factors;

loss of key supplier or distribution relationships;

departures of key personnel;

adverse regulatory conditions; or

adverse or inconclusive pilot programs for any of our products

We will have broad discretion in the use of the net proceeds we receive and may not use the proceeds effectively.

Although we plan to use the proceeds of this offering primarily for working capital, we will not be restricted to such use and will have broad discretion in determining how the proceeds of this offering will be used. Our discretion is not substantially limited by the uses set forth in this prospectus in the section entitled “Use of Proceeds”. While our Board of Directors believes the flexibility in application of the net proceeds is prudent, the broad discretion it affords entails increased risks to the investors in this offering. Investors in this offering have no current basis to evaluate the possible merits or risks of any application of the net proceeds of this offering. Our shareholders may not agree with the manner in which we choose to allocate and spend the net proceeds.

If you do not act on a timely basis and follow subscription instructions, your exercise of rights may be rejected.

Holders of shares of common stock who desire to purchase Units in this offering must act on a timely basis to ensure that all required forms and payments are actually received by the Subscription Agent prior to 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on the Expiration Date, unless extended. If you are a beneficial owner of shares of common stock and you wish to exercise your rights, you must act promptly to ensure that your broker, dealer, custodian bank, trustee or other nominee acts for you and that all required forms and payments are actually received by your broker, dealer, custodian bank, trustee or other nominee in sufficient time to deliver such forms and payments to the Subscription Agent to exercise the rights granted in this offering that you beneficially own prior to 5:00 p.m., New York City time on the Expiration Date, as may be extended. We will not be responsible if your broker, dealer, custodian bank, trustee or other nominee fails to ensure that all required forms and payments are actually received by the subscription agent prior to 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on the expiration date, as may be extended.

If you fail to complete and sign the required subscription forms, send an incorrect payment amount, or otherwise fail to follow the subscription procedures that apply to your exercise in this offering, the subscription agent may, depending on the circumstances, reject your subscription or accept it only to the extent of the payment received. Neither we nor the subscription agent undertakes to contact you concerning an incomplete or incorrect subscription form or payment, nor are we under any obligation to correct such forms or payment. We have the sole discretion to determine whether a subscription exercise properly follows the subscription procedures.

If you make payment of the subscription amount by uncertified check, your check may not clear in sufficient time to enable you to purchase Units in this rights offering and in that event your rights to participate in this offering may expire worthless.

Any uncertified check for an investment amount intended for Units to be issued in this rights offering must clear prior to the expiration date of this rights offering, and the clearing process may require five or more business days. If you choose to exercise your subscription rights, in whole or in part, and to pay for Units by uncertified check and your check has not cleared prior to the expiration date of this rights offering, you will not have satisfied the conditions to exercise your subscription rights and will not receive the Units you wish to purchase.

The tax treatment of the rights offering is somewhat uncertain and could be treated as a taxable event to our shareholders.

If the rights offering is deemed to be part of a “disproportionate distribution” under section 305 of the Internal Revenue Code, our shareholders may recognize taxable income for U.S. federal income tax purposes in connection with the receipt of subscription rights in the rights offering depending on our current and accumulated earnings and profits and our shareholders' tax basis in our common stock. A “disproportionate distribution” is a distribution or a series of distributions, including deemed distributions, that has the effect of the receipt of cash or other property by some shareholders or holders of debt instruments convertible into stock and an increase in the proportionate interest of other shareholders in a company's assets or earnings and profits. It is unclear whether the fact that we have outstanding options and certain other equity-based awards could cause the receipt of subscription rights to be part of a disproportionate distribution. See “Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Consequences” for further information on the treatment of the rights offering.

The rights offering could impair or limit our net operating loss carry forwards.

As of December 31, 2015 and September 30, 2016, we had net operating loss (which we refer to as “NOL”) carryforwards of approximately $119.1 million and $130.9 million (unaudited), respectively, for U.S. federal income tax purposes. Under the Internal Revenue Code, an “ownership change” with respect to a corporation can significantly limit the amount of pre-ownership change NOLs and certain other tax assets that the corporation may utilize after the ownership change to offset future taxable income, possibly reducing the amount of cash available to the corporation to satisfy its obligations. An ownership change generally should occur if the aggregate stock ownership of holders of at least 5% of our stock increases by more than 50 percentage points over the preceding three-year period. The purchase of Units pursuant to the rights offering may trigger an ownership change with respect to our stock.

We may amend or modify the terms of the rights offering at any time prior to the expiration of the rights offering in our sole discretion.

Our Board of Directors reserves the right to amend or modify the terms of the Rights Offering in its sole discretion. Although we do not presently intend to do so, we may choose to amend or modify the terms of the Rights Offering for any reason, including, without limitation, in order to increase participation in the Rights Offering. Such amendments or modifications may include a change in the manner in which we determine the Subscription Price, although no such change is presently contemplated. If we should make any fundamental changes to the terms of the rights offering set forth in this prospectus, such as, for example, extending the Rights Offering by more than 30 days, we will file a post-effective amendment to the registration statement in which this prospectus is included, offer potential purchasers who have subscribed for rights the opportunity to cancel such subscriptions and issue a refund of any subscription payments advanced by such shareholder and recirculate an updated prospectus after the post-effective amendment is declared effective by the SEC. In addition, upon such event, we may extend the expiration date of the rights offering to allow holders of rights ample time to make new investment decisions and for us to recirculate updated documentation. Promptly following any such occurrence, we will issue a press release announcing any changes with respect to the rights offering and the new expiration date. The terms of the rights offering cannot be modified or amended after the expiration date of the rights offering.

The Subscription Price determined for this offering is not an indication of the fair value of our Units or common stock.

In determining the method for obtaining the Subscription Price at the expiration of the Rights Offering period, our Board of Directors considered a number of factors, including, but not limited to, the price at which our shareholders might be willing to participate in the Rights Offering, historical and current trading prices for our common stock including volatility, the amount of proceeds desired, the potential need for liquidity and capital, potential market conditions, and the desire to provide an opportunity to our shareholders to participate in the Rights Offering. In conjunction with its review of these factors, our Board of Directors also reviewed a range of discounts to market value represented by the subscription prices in various prior Rights Offerings by other public companies. The Subscription Price does not necessarily bear any relationship to the book value of our assets, results of operations, cash flows, losses, financial condition or any other established criteria for value. You should not consider the Subscription Price as an indication of the fair value of our common stock. After the date of this prospectus, our common stock may trade at prices above or below the Subscription Price.

We cannot guarantee that the Warrants you receive will be listed for trading on Nasdaq or that a trading market for the Warrants will develop.

While we intend to submit an application to The Nasdaq Stock Market to list the Warrants you receive when you purchase the Units, we cannot guarantee that our listing application will be approved. If our listing application is not approved, it may be difficult for you to sell or transfer the Warrants. Even if our listing application is approved, we cannot guarantee that a trading market for the Warrants will develop. Therefore, you may not realize any value from the Warrants by attempting to sell or otherwise transfer them for consideration.

The market price of our common stock may never exceed the exercise price of the Warrants issued in connection with the Rights Offering.

The Warrants being issued in connection with the Rights Offering become exercisable upon issuance and will expire five years after issuance. We cannot provide you any assurance that the market price of our common stock will ever exceed the exercise price of the Warrants prior to their date of expiration. Any Warrants not exercised by their date of expiration will expire worthless and we will be under no further obligation to the Warrant holder.

The Warrants may create an overhang on the market and have a negative effect on the market price for our common stock.

The Warrants will be outstanding for up to five years following the exercise of the Rights. The Warrants may be used in arbitrage transactions and cause the market price of the common stock to remain at or near the Warrant exercise price regardless of our performance.

For you to exercise your Warrant and receive tradable shares, we must maintain a registration statement with the SEC.

For the exercise of the Warrants, we must maintain a registration statement and current prospectus to be available at the time of the common stock underlying the Warrant. If we do not, then it will be difficult for you to sell the underlying common stock, and your rights under the terms of the Warrant will be impaired. As a consequence, your Warrants may be of little or no value at the time of exercise.”

The Warrants may be redeemed on short notice after they have been outstanding for 24 months. This may have an adverse impact on their price and on the price of our shares.

We may call the Warrants for redemption, in whole and not in part, at a price of $.01 per Warrant at any time following the two year anniversary of issuance, upon not less than 30 days’ prior written notice of redemption to each Warrant holder, provided that, (i) the closing price of the common stock equals or exceeds 200% of the Subscription Price, subject to adjustment, per share, for 15 consecutive trading days and (ii) all of our independent directors vote in favor of a call for redemption. If we give notice of redemption, you will be forced to sell or exercise your Warrants or accept the redemption price. The notice of redemption could come at a time when it is not advisable or possible for you to exercise the Warrants. As a result, you would be unable to benefit from owning the Warrants being redeemed. A notice of redemption may also result in our stock becoming more volatile and being subject to greater selling pressure which could result in further declines of our common stock share price. As a consequence you may experience sharp declines and losses.

You may not receive all of the Units for which you subscribe.

Holders who fully exercise their Basic Subscription Rights will be entitled to subscribe for additional amounts in the exercise of their Over-Subscription Privileges. Under the terms of this Rights Offering, Over-Subscription Privileges will be allocated pro rata among Rights holders who over-subscribed, based on the over-subscription amounts at the Subscription Price to which they have subscribed. We cannot guarantee that you will receive at the Subscription Price any or the entire amount of Units for which you over-subscribed. Moreover, even if you would otherwise have the opportunity to receive the entire amount of Units for which you over-subscribed, in the event of further volatility and price declines we nevertheless will limit Units that we sell in the Rights Offering to no more than 15 million Units and should that occur your total prorated allocation of Units could be reduced. If the prorated amount of Units allocated to you at the Subscription Price in connection with your Over-Subscription Privilege is less than your Over-Subscription Request, then the excess funds held by the Subscription Agent on your behalf will be returned to you, without interest, as soon as practicable after the Rights Offering has expired and all prorating calculations and reductions contemplated by the terms of the Rights Offering have been effected, and we will have no further obligations to you.

Unless we otherwise agree in writing, a person or entity, together with related persons or entities, may not exercise Subscription Rights (including Over-Subscription Privileges) to purchase Units that, when aggregated with their existing ownership, would result in such person or entity, together with any related persons or entities, owning in excess of 50% of our issued and outstanding shares of common stock following the closing of the transactions contemplated by this Rights Offering. If the number of Units allocated to you is less than your subscription request, then the excess funds held by the Subscription Agent on your behalf will be returned to you, without interest, as soon as practicable after the Rights Offering has expired and all prorating calculations and reductions contemplated by the terms of the Rights Offering have been effected, and we will have no further obligations to you.

Risks Related to Our Common Stock

We have not been profitable to date and expect our operating losses to continue for the foreseeable future; we may never be profitable.

We have incurred operating losses and generated negative cash flows since our inception and have financed our operations principally through equity investments and borrowings. Our ability to generate sufficient revenues to fund operations is uncertain. For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015, we had net revenue of $8,950,000 and incurred a net loss of $20,018,000. Our total accumulated deficit through December 31, 2015, was $ 172,682,000. For the nine months ended September 30, 2016 (unaudited) we had net revenue of $3,270,000 and incurred a net loss of $22,809,000. Our total accumulated deficit through September 30, 2016 (unaudited), was $195,491,000.

As a result of our limited commercial operating history, revenue is difficult to predict with certainty. Current and projected expense levels are based largely on estimates of future revenue. We expect expenses to increase in the future as we expand our activities in connection with the further development of Orion I and complete planned enhancements of Argus II. We cannot assure you that we will be profitable in the future. Accordingly, the extent of our future losses and the time required to achieve profitability, if ever, is uncertain. Failure to achieve profitability could materially and adversely affect the value of our Company and our ability to effect additional financings. The success of the business depends on our ability to increase revenues to offset expenses. If our revenues fall short of projections, our business, financial condition and operating results will be materially adversely affected.

Our financial statements for our fiscal year ended December 31, 2016 may be prepared assuming a going concern qualification by our auditors.

Our independent registered public accounting firm in their report on the Company’s 2016 consolidated financial statements may express substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern if we do not have adequate capital to support our operations through at least the next 12 months from the date 2016 consolidated financial statements are issued. Our ability to continue as a going concern is dependent upon our ability to obtain additional financing, obtain further operating efficiencies, reduce expenditures, attain favorable gross margins and ultimately, create profitable operations. Such financings may not be available or may not be available on reasonable terms. A ”going concern” opinion from over auditors may negatively affect the price of our common stock.

Sales, or the availability for sale, of substantial amounts of our common stock could adversely affect the value of our common stock.

We cannot predict the effect, if any, that future sales of our common stock, or the availability of our common stock for future sales, will have on the market price of our common stock. The number of Units issuable in this Rights Offering is limited to 15 million and the number of units that we issue will depend both on the total amounts we receive from our shareholders of record in this Offering and the Subscription Price once it is determined. See “Rights Offering-Shares of Our Common Stock Outstanding After The Rights Offering.” Because the Subscription Price is not fixed as of the date of this prospectus we cannot determine prior to completion of the Rights Offering the total number of Units we might issue, however, notwithstanding the price of our shares on the date that the Subscription Price is fixed, we will nevertheless limit stock that we sell in the Rights Offering to no more than 15 million Units. The Alfred E. Mann Living Trust, a trust established by our late founder, and persons or entities affiliated with it (the Mann Trust) have previously sold shares of our common stock. Sales of substantial amounts of our common stock in the public market and the availability of shares for future sale, whether by the Mann Trust or others, could adversely affect the prevailing market price of our common stock. This in turn could harm the success of this Offering and impair our future ability to raise capital through an offering of our equity securities.

There may be future sales or other dilution of our equity, which may adversely affect the market price of our common stock.

We are not restricted from issuing additional shares of common stock. The market price of our common stock could decline as a result of sales of our common stock and Warrants made after this offering or the perception that such sales could occur. We may issue and sell additional shares of our common stock in private placements or registered offerings in the future. We also may conduct additional rights offerings in the future pursuant to which we may issue shares of our common stock or other securities.

We will incur substantial expenses in connection with the Rights Offering, which may not return adequate value if the Rights Offering is ultimately not consummated or successful.

The estimated expenses for the Rights Offering payable by us are approximately $410,000. If the registration statement of which this prospectus is a part is not declared effective, the Rights Offering is not commenced or the Rights Offering is not ultimately consummated or successful, we will incur most of these expenses nonetheless.

We have previously identified and reported on weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. If our internal control over financial reporting remains not effective, investor confidence in our company may be adversely affected.

In response to identified, and previously reported on, material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, we are continuing to develop and improve our system and process documentation necessary to perform the evaluation needed to comply with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. For example, in connection with the audit of our consolidated financial statements for fiscal 2015, our independent registered public accounting firm identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. A “material weakness” is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. Our independent registered public accounting firm identified the following material weaknesses during its audit:

Control over Financial Reporting. We did not consistently perform timely reconciliation of certain accounts, including revenue, deferred revenue, inventory, and stock-based compensation expense. This resulted in the incorrect recording of certain revenue and expenses that required various adjusting entries which we timely and fully recorded as part of the audit process.

Tracking of Back-up Prosthesis Units. For every surgery, we ship a back-up prosthesis unit along with the primary unit in case the primary unit cannot be used for some reason. Following the surgery the unused unit is returned to us. We did not consistently follow internal procedures regarding the tracking and recordation of returned prosthesis units and the exchange of primary units for back-up units with our customers. When uncorrected this resulted in an understatement of cost of sales and an overstatement of inventory that required various adjusting entries that we timely and fully recorded as part of the audit process.

We are continuing our efforts to remediate these material weaknesses.

If we continue to be unable to conclude that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, or if our independent registered public accounting firm is unable to express an opinion on the effectiveness of our internal controls when it is required to do so by the applicable rules, we could lose investor confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, which could cause the price of our common stock to decline, and we may be subject to investigation or sanctions by the regulatory authorities.

As a result, we may need to undertake various actions, such as implementing new internal controls and procedures and hiring additional accounting or internal audit staff. Our remediation efforts may not enable us to avoid a material weakness in the future.

Materials necessary to manufacture Argus II may not be available on commercially reasonable terms, or at all, which may delay development, manufacturing and commercialization of our products.

We rely on numerous suppliers to provide materials, components and services necessary to produce the Argus II System and next generation product candidates. Certain suppliers are currently sole source because of our low manufacturing volumes and our need for specialty technical or other engineering expertise. Our suppliers may be unable or unwilling to deliver these materials and services to us timely as needed or on commercially reasonable terms. Should this occur, we would seek to qualify alternative suppliers or develop in-house manufacturing capability, but may be unable to do so. Substantial design or manufacturing process modifications and regulatory approval might be required to facilitate or qualify an alternate supplier. Even where we could qualify alternative suppliers the substitution of suppliers may be at a higher cost and cause time delays including delays associated with additional possible FDA review, that impede the commercial production of the Argus II System, reduce gross profit margins and impact our abilities to deliver our products as may be timely required to meet demand.

Any failure or delay in completing clinical trials or studies for new product candidates or next generation of the Argus II System and the expense of those trials could adversely affect our business.

Preclinical studies and clinical trials required to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of incremental changes and obtain indication expansion for the next generation of the Argus II System, including new externals and software enhancements and for new product candidates are time consuming and expensive. If we are required to conduct additional clinical trials or other studies with respect to any of our product candidates beyond those that we have contemplated, if we are unable to successfully complete our clinical trials or other studies or if the results of these trials or studies are not positive or are only modestly positive, we may be delayed in obtaining marketing approval for those product candidates, we may not be able to obtain marketing approval or we may obtain approval for indications that are not as broad as intended. Our product development costs also will increase if we experience delays in testing or approvals.

The completion of clinical trials for our product candidates could be delayed because of our inability to manufacture or obtain from third-parties materials sufficient for use in preclinical studies and clinical trials; delays in patient enrollment and variability in the number and types of patients available for clinical trials; difficulty in maintaining contact with patients after treatment, resulting in incomplete data; poor effectiveness of product candidates during clinical trials; unforeseen safety issues or side effects; and governmental or regulatory delays and changes in regulatory requirements and guidelines.

If we incur significant delays in our clinical trials, our competitors may be able to bring their products to market before we do which could result in harming our ability to commercialize our products or potential products. If we experience any of these occurrences our business will be materially harmed.

If we lose key management personnel, or if we fail to recruit additional highly skilled personnel, our ability to identify, develop and commercialize new or next generation product candidates will be impaired, could result in loss of markets or market share and could make us less competitive.

Our executives have significant medical device, regulatory, sales and marketing, operational, and/or corporate finance experience. The loss of any management executive or any other principal member of our management team could impair our ability to identify, develop and market new products or effectively deal with regulatory and reimbursement matters.

We could be adversely affected by violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and similar worldwide anti-bribery laws.

The U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and similar worldwide anti-bribery laws generally prohibit companies and their intermediaries from making improper payments to non-U.S. officials for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business. We intend to adopt policies for compliance with these anti-bribery laws, which often carry substantial penalties. We cannot assure you that our internal control policies and procedures always will protect us from reckless or other inappropriate acts committed by our affiliates, employees or agents. Violations of these laws, or allegations of such violations, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position and results of operations and could cause the market value of our common stock to decline.

Risks Related to Intellectual Property and Other Legal Matters

If we or our licensors are unable to protect our/their intellectual property, then our financial condition, results of operations and the value of our technology and products could be adversely affected.

Patents and other proprietary rights are essential to our business and our ability to compete effectively with other companies is dependent upon the proprietary nature of our technologies. We also rely upon trade secrets, know-how, continuing technological innovations and licensing opportunities to develop, maintain and strengthen our competitive position. We seek to protect these, in part, through confidentiality agreements with certain employees, consultants and other parties. Our success will depend in part on the ability of our licensors to obtain, maintain (including making periodic filings and payments) and enforce patent protection for their intellectual property, in particular, those patents to which we have secured exclusive rights. Our licensors may not successfully prosecute or continue to prosecute the patent applications which we have licensed. Even if patents are issued in respect of these patent applications, we or our licensors may fail to maintain these patents, may determine not to pursue litigation against entities that are infringing upon these patents, or may pursue such enforcement less aggressively than we ordinarily would. Without adequate protection for the intellectual property that we own or license, other companies might be able to offer substantially identical products for sale, which could unfavorably affect our competitive business position and harm our business prospects.

Even if issued, patents may be challenged, invalidated, or circumvented, which could limit our ability to stop competitors from marketing similar products or limit the length of term of patent protection that we may have for our products.

Litigation or third-party claims of intellectual property infringement or challenges to the validity of our patents would require us to use resources to protect our technology and may prevent or delay our development, regulatory approval or commercialization of improvements in the Argus II System or new product candidates. Further, the validity of some of our patents have been challenged.

Pixium Vision (Pixium) has filed oppositions in the European Patent Office (EPO) challenging the validity of 18 European patents owned or exclusively licensed by Second Sight. Retina Implant AG has joined Pixium Vision in one Opposition. Two of the patents are owned by Johns Hopkins University (JHU) and exclusively licensed to Second Sight. 15 of the patents are owned by Second Sight. Second Sight was successful in the opposition division in the two JHU cases. However, at the appeal level one of the JHU patents was upheld and one of JHU patents was invalidated. These EPO proceedings involving us and Pixium include:

EP 1061874 Visual Prosthesis – upheld by the opposition and appellate divisions. No further appeal is available in the EPO.

EP 1061996 Apparatus for Preferential Outer Retinal Stimulation – upheld by the opposition division, lost in the appellate division. No further appeal is available in the EPO.

EP 1171188 Retinal Color Prosthesis for Color Sight Restoration – cancelled in the Opposition Division, pending before the Board of Appeal.

EP2219728 Electrode Array for Even Neural Pressure Having Multiple Attachment Points –upheld in the Opposition Division, pending before the Board of Appeal.

EP1937352 Sub-threshold Stimulation to Precondition Neurons for Supra-threshold Stimulation – cancelled in the Opposition Division pending before the Board of Appeal.

EP2192949 – Return Electrode for a Flexible Circuit Electrode Array – cancelled in the Opposition Division, pending before the Board of Appeal.

EP1949437 - Implantable Microelectronic Device and Method of Manufacture – opposition filed. Upheld in the Opposition Division, pending before the Board of Appeal.

EP1945835 – Platinum Electrode Surface Coating and Method for Manufacturing the Same – (Pixium joined by Retina Implant) cancelled in the Opposition Division, pending before the Board of Appeal.

EP1986733 (Pixium) – Device with Flexible Multilayer System for Contacting or Electro-stimulation of Living Tissue Cells or Nerves –significantly narrowed in the Opposition Division, pending before the Board of Appeal.

EP1562972 – Field Focusing and Mapping in an Electrode Array – opposition Filed, a hearing is scheduled June 27, 2017.

EP1497483 – Platinum Electrode – opposition filed.

EP2077892 – Automatic Fitting for a Visual Prosthesis - opposition filed.

EP2061549 – Package for an Implantable Neural Stimulation Device - opposition filed, a hearing is scheduled for February 1, 2017.

EP2155327 – System for Providing Stimulation Inputs to a Visual Prosthesis - opposition filed.

EP2114514 – Flexible Electrode Array with Film Support - opposition filed.

EP2089100 – Flexible Circuit Electrode Array - opposition filed.

EP2185236 – Implantable Device for the Brain – opposition filed.

EP2364179 – Techniques and Functional Electrical Stimulation to Eliminate Discomfort during Electrical Stimulation of the Retina – opposition filed.

If we are the target of claims by third parties asserting that our products or intellectual property infringe upon the rights of others we may be forced to incur substantial expenses or divert substantial employee resources from our business and, if successful, those claims could result in our having to pay substantial damages or prevent us from developing one or more product candidates. Further, if a patent infringement suit were brought against us or our collaborators, we or they could be forced to stop or delay research, development, manufacturing or sales of the product or product candidate that is the subject of the suit.

If we experience patent infringement claims, or if we elect to avoid potential claims others may be able to assert, we or our collaborators may choose to seek, or be required to seek, a license from the third-party and would most likely be required to pay license fees or royalties or both. These licenses may not be available on acceptable terms, or at all. Even if we or our collaborators were able to obtain a license, the rights may be nonexclusive, which would give our competitors access to the same intellectual property. Ultimately, we could be prevented from commercializing a product, or be forced to cease some aspect of our business operations if, as a result of actual or threatened patent infringement claims, we or our collaborators are unable to enter into licenses on acceptable terms. This could harm our business significantly. The cost to us of any litigation or other proceeding, regardless of its merit, even if resolved in our favor, could be substantial. Some of our competitors may be able to bear the costs of such litigation or proceedings more effectively than we can because of their having greater financial resources. Uncertainties resulting from the initiation and continuation of patent litigation or other proceedings could have a material adverse effect on our ability to compete in the marketplace. Intellectual property litigation and other proceedings may, regardless of their merit, also absorb significant management time and employee resources.

If we fail to comply with our obligations in the agreements under which we license development or commercialization rights to products or technology from third-parties, we could lose license rights that are important to our business.

We hold exclusive licenses from Johns Hopkins University, Duke University, and the Doheny Eye Institute to intellectual property relating to the Argus II visual prosthesis. These licenses impose various commercialization, milestone payment, profit sharing, insurance and other obligations on us. If we fail to comply with any material obligations, the licensor will have the right to terminate the applicable license, which covers part of the system of the eye implant and thus will be a barrier to manufacture the Argus II System and impair our ability to sell the Argus II. The existing or future patents to which we have rights based on our agreements with Johns Hopkins University, Duke University and the Doheny Eye Institute may be too narrow to prevent third-parties from developing or designing around these patents. Additionally, we may lose our rights to the patents and patent applications we license in the event of a breach or termination of the license agreement. Each license expires with the expiration of the last of the licensed patents. In the case of JHU, the license will expire March 13, 2018. While the JHU agreement includes a patent which is a significant obstacle to our competitors, it is one of many other patents which in our view present material obstacles to our competitors. The DEI license includes ongoing research, making the expiration date indeterminate, but in any event the expiration date is no earlier than August 8, 2033. The total aggregate royalty on both agreements does not exceed 3.25% of Argus II System net sales. All of the patents in the DEI agreement are co-owned with the Doheny Eye Institute. We license the Doheny Eye Institute’s interest in the patents to maintain our exclusive use on that intellectual property. Should the license terminate we retain the right to utilize the intellectual property, but may not be able to prevent others from doing so, in which case we may lose a competitive advantage.

If we are unable to protect the confidentiality of our proprietary information and know-how, the value of our technology and products could be adversely affected.

In addition to patented technology, we rely upon, among other things, unpatented proprietary technology, processes, trade secrets and know-how. Any involuntary disclosure to or misappropriation by third-parties of our confidential or proprietary information could enable competitors to duplicate or surpass our technological achievements, potentially eroding our competitive position in our market. We seek to protect confidential or proprietary information in part by confidentiality agreements with our employees, consultants and third-parties. While we require all of our employees, consultants, advisors and any third-parties who have access to our proprietary know-how, information and technology to enter into confidentiality agreements, we cannot be certain that this know-how, information and technology will not be disclosed or that competitors will not otherwise gain access to our trade secrets or independently develop substantially equivalent information and techniques. These agreements may be terminated or breached, and we may not have adequate remedies for any such termination or breach. Furthermore, these agreements may not provide meaningful protection for our trade secrets and know-how in the event of unauthorized use or disclosure. To the extent that any of our staff were previously employed by other pharmaceutical, medical technology or biotechnology companies, those employers may allege violations of trade secrets and other similar claims in relation to their medical device development activities for us.

If we are unable to protect the intellectual property used in our products, others may be able to copy our innovations which may impair our ability to compete effectively in our markets.

The strength of our patents involves complex legal and scientific questions and can be uncertain. We have 381 issued patents and 126 pending patent applications worldwide as of December 31, 2016. Our patent applications may be challenged or fail to result in issued patents and our existing or future patents may be too narrow to prevent third-parties from developing or designing around our intellectual property and in that event we may lose competitive advantage and our business may suffer.

Further, the patent applications that we license or have filed may fail to result in issued patents. The claims may need to be amended. Even after amendment, a patent may not issue and in that event we may not obtain the exclusive use of the intellectual property that we seek and may lose competitive advantage which could result in harm to our business.

Third-party claims of intellectual property infringement may prevent or delay expanded commercialization efforts for Argus II and our development and commercialization activities for other product candidates.

Although we are not currently aware of any litigation or other proceedings or third-party claims of intellectual property infringement related to the Argus II System, the medical device industry is characterized by many litigation cases regarding patents and other intellectual property rights. Other parties may in the future allege that our activities infringe their patents or that we are employing their proprietary technology without authorization. We may not have identified all the patents, patent applications or published literature that affect our business either by blocking our ability to commercialize our product, by preventing the patentability of one or more aspects of our products or those of our licensors or by covering the same or similar technologies that may affect our ability to market our product.

In addition, even in the absence of litigation, we may need to obtain licenses from third-parties to advance our research or allow commercialization of our product candidates, and we have done so from time to time. We may fail to obtain future licenses at a reasonable cost or on reasonable terms, if at all. In that event, we may be unable to further develop and commercialize one or more of our product candidates, which could harm our business significantly.

We may become involved in future lawsuits to protect or enforce our patents or the patents of our licensors, which could be expensive, time consuming and unsuccessful.

Competitors may infringe our patents or the patents of our licensors. To counter infringement or unauthorized use, we may file infringement claims, which can be expensive and time consuming. In addition, in an infringement proceeding, a court may decide that a patent of ours or of our licensors is not valid or is unenforceable, or may refuse to stop the other party from using the technology at issue on the grounds that our patents do not cover the technology in question. An adverse result in any litigation or defense proceedings could put one or more of our patents at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly and could put our patent applications at risk of not issuing.

The US Patent and Trademark Office may initiate interference proceedings to determine the priority of inventions described in or otherwise affecting our patents and patent applications or those of our collaborators or licensors. An unfavorable outcome could require us to cease using the technology or to attempt to license rights to it from the prevailing party. Our business could be harmed if a prevailing party does not offer us a license on terms that are acceptable to us. Litigation or interference proceedings may fail and, even if successful, may result in substantial costs and distraction of our management and other employees. We may not be able to prevent, alone or with our licensors, misappropriation of our proprietary rights, particularly in countries where the laws may not protect those rights as fully as in the US.

Product liability lawsuits could divert our resources, result in substantial liabilities and reduce the commercial potential of our products.

We face a risk of product liability claims arising from the prosthesis being inserted into the eye, and it is possible that we may be held liable for eye injuries of patients who receive our product. These lawsuits may divert our management from pursuing our business strategy and may be costly to defend. In addition, if we are held liable in any of these lawsuits, we may incur substantial liabilities and may be forced to limit or forego further commercialization of one or more of our products. We maintain product liability insurance relating to our clinical trials and commercial sales, with an aggregate coverage limit under these insurance policies of $10,000,000, and while we believe this amount of insurance currently is sufficient to cover our product liability exposure, these limits may not prove adequate to fully cover potential liabilities. In addition, we may not be able to obtain or maintain sufficient insurance coverage at an acceptable cost or otherwise to protect against potential product liability claims, which could prevent or inhibit the commercial production and sale of our products. If the use of our products harm or are alleged to harm people, we may be subject to costly and damaging product liability claims that exceed our policy limits and cause us significant losses that could seriously harm our financial condition or reputation.

CE Marking does not absolve us from strict conformity with all applicable European Union legislation and member state regulation where the product is offered and if we do not adhere to these directive and regulations we may incur fines and other penalties that will prevent or delay market penetration of our products.

The CE (European Conformity) marking is a symbol that manufacturers affix to products to indicate that a product conforms to all relevant EU rules and regulations and that the manufacturer has performed all necessary evaluation procedures. Although the CE mark allows manufacturers to place products on the market and permits free movement of goods, it is not a mark of approval by the EU. The manufacturer and its authorized representative in EU are responsible for all aspects of the product assessment, testing, documentation, declaration of conformity and CE marking, even where a formal processing agent, the notified body, is required, as in the case of non-European based manufacturers. In all cases the manufacturer and representative assume the full responsibility and liability even when using the services of a consultant or test laboratory. Liability is not transferrable to third parties, including the notified body which is required for processing the certification. Generally, there is strict liability applied to medical devices subject to the CE marking, and testing and reporting does not change or reduce this liability.

Legislative or regulatory reform of the health care system in the US and foreign jurisdictions may adversely impact our business, operations or financial results.

Our industry is highly regulated and changes in law may adversely impact our business, operations or financial results. In March 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or PPACA, and a related reconciliation bill were signed into law. This legislation changes the current system of healthcare insurance and benefits intended to broaden coverage and control costs. The law also contains provisions that will affect companies in the medical device industry and other healthcare related industries by imposing additional costs and changes to business practices.

Moreover, in some foreign countries, including countries in Europe and Canada, the pricing of approved medical devices is subject to governmental control. In these countries, pricing negotiations with governmental authorities can take 12 months or longer after the receipt of regulatory approval and product launch. To obtain reimbursement or pricing approval in some countries, we may be required to conduct a clinical trial that compares the cost-effectiveness of our product candidate to other available therapies. Our business could be materially harmed if reimbursement of our products is unavailable or limited in scope or amount or if pricing is set at unsatisfactory levels.

We cannot predict what healthcare reform initiatives may be adopted in the future. Further federal and state legislative and regulatory developments appear likely in 2017, and we expect ongoing initiatives in the U.S and Europe. These reforms could have an adverse effect on our ability to obtain timely regulatory approval for new products and on anticipated revenues from the Argus II System and other product candidates, both of which may affect our overall financial condition.

We are an “emerging growth company,” and we cannot be certain if the reduced disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies will make our common stock less attractive to investors.

For so long as we remain an “emerging growth company” as defined in the JOBS Act, we may take advantage of certain exemptions from various requirements that are applicable to public companies that are not “emerging growth companies,” including not being required to comply with the independent auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. We may take advantage of these exemptions for so long as we are an “emerging growth company,” which could be as long as five years from November 14, 2014, the date of our initial public offering. Investors may find our common stock less attractive because we rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our common stock less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our common stock, and our stock price may be more volatile or may decline.

In addition, Section 107 of the JOBS Act also provides that an “emerging growth company” can take advantage of an extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards. However, we chose to “opt out” of this extended transition period, and as a result, we intend to comply with new or revised accounting standards on the relevant dates that adoption of those standards may be required for non-emerging growth companies. Our decision to opt out of the extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards is irrevocable.

We are required to evaluate our internal control over financial reporting under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, and any adverse results from such evaluation could result in a loss of investor confidence in our financial reports and have an adverse effect on our stock price.

Pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, we are required to furnish a report by our management on our internal control over financial reporting. The report contains, among other matters, an assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of the end of our fiscal year, including a statement as to whether or not our internal control over financial reporting is effective. This assessment must include disclosure of any material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting identified by management. If we are unable to assert that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, we could lose investor confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, which could have an adverse effect on our stock price. See page 40 above for material weaknesses identified in our internal control over financial reporting.

Risks Relating to Our Financial Results and Need for Financing

Fluctuations in our quarterly operating results and cash flows could adversely affect the price of our common stock.

The revenues we generate and our operating results will be affected by numerous factors such as:

the general commercial success of the Argus II System,

our ability to improve performance and significantly expand the use of Argus II in the larger RP population by treating better-sighted RP patients,

our ability to obtain regulatory approval of the Argus II System in additional jurisdictions,

the emergence of products that compete with our product candidates,

our ability to leverage Argus II technology to restore useful vision with cortical stimulation,

the status of our preclinical and clinical development programs,

variations in the level of expenses related to our existing product candidates or preclinical and clinical development programs,

execution of collaborative, licensing or other arrangements, and the timing of payments received or made under those arrangements,

any intellectual property infringement lawsuits to which we may become a party,

any regulatory developments affecting our product candidates or those of our competitors, and

our ability to obtain reimbursement from government or private payers at levels we deem adequate to sustain our operations.

If our quarterly operating results fall below the expectations of investors or securities analysts, the price of our common stock could decline substantially. Any quarterly fluctuations in our operating results and cash flows may cause the price of our stock to fluctuate substantially. We believe that, in the near term, quarterly comparisons of our financial results are not necessarily meaningful and should not be relied upon as an indication of our future performance.

We will need additional capital beyond this offering to support our operations and growth. Additional capital, may be difficult to obtain restricting our operations and resulting in additional dilution to our stockholders.

Our business requires additional capital for implementation of our long-term business plan. Upon completion of this offering, we believe our cash, cash equivalents and other investments, together with revenue generated from the sale of Argus II units, may be sufficient to fund our operations over approximately the next 12 months. The actual proceeds we obtain will depend on, among other factors, the extent to which current shareholders participate in the Rights Offering and the final price per Unit at which we sell Units and, as a consequence may be sufficient only for a shorter period. See “Rights Offering – Limitation on Purchase of Units.” The actual amount of funds that we will need for our business development will be determined by many factors, some of which are beyond our control, and we may need funds sooner than currently anticipated. These factors include:

the amount of our future operating losses,

third party expenses relating to the ongoing commercialization of Argus II System,

the need and cost of conducting additional clinical trials of the Argus II System for other applications,

the amount of our research and development, including research and development for Orion I visual prosthesis, marketing and general and administrative expenses, and

regulatory changes and technological developments in our markets.

As we require additional funds, we may seek to fund our operations through the sale of additional equity securities, debt financing and strategic collaboration agreements. We cannot be sure that additional financing from any of these sources will be available when needed or that, if available, the additional financing will be obtained on terms favorable to us or our stockholders. If we raise additional funds by selling shares of our capital stock, the ownership interest of our current stockholders will be diluted. If we are unable to obtain additional funds on a timely basis or on terms favorable to us, we may be required to cease or reduce further commercialization of the Argus II System, to cease or reduce certain research and development projects, to sell some or all of our technology or assets or business units or to merge all or a portion of our business with another entity.

Risks Related to This Offering, the Securities Market, and Ownership of Our Common Stock

We have the right to issue shares of preferred stock. If we were to issue preferred stock, it is likely to have rights, preferences and privileges that may adversely affect the common stock.

We are authorized to issue 10,000,000 shares of “blank check” preferred stock, with such rights, preferences and privileges as may be determined from time-to-time by our board of directors. Our board of directors is empowered, without stockholder approval, to issue preferred stock in one or more series, and to fix for any series the dividend rights, dissolution or liquidation preferences, redemption prices, conversion rights, voting rights, and other rights, preferences and privileges for the preferred stock. No shares of preferred stock are presently issued and outstanding and we have no immediate plans to issue shares of preferred stock. The issuance of shares of preferred stock, depending on the rights, preferences and privileges attributable to the preferred stock, could adversely reduce the voting rights and powers of the common stock and the portion of our assets allocated for distribution to common stockholders in a liquidation event, and could also result in dilution in the book value per share of the common stock we are offering. The preferred stock could also be utilized, under certain circumstances, as a method for raising additional capital or discouraging, delaying or preventing a change in control of our company, to the detriment of the investors in the common stock offered hereby. We cannot assure you that we will not, under certain circumstances, issue shares of our preferred stock.

SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS AND OTHER INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS PROSPECTUS

This prospectus contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements give our current expectations or forecasts of future events. You can identify these statements by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. You can find many (but not all) of these statements by looking for words such as “approximates,” “believes,” “hopes,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “estimates,” “projects,” “intends,” “plans,” “would,” “should,” “could,” “may,” “views” or other similar expressions in this prospectus. These statements may be found under the sections entitled “Risk Factors”, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and “Prospectus Summary” included in this prospectus, as well as in this prospectus generally. In particular, these include statements relating to future actions, prospective products, applications, customers, technologies, future performance or results of anticipated products, expenses, and financial results. These forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our historical experience and our present expectations or projections. Factors that could cause actual results to differ from those discussed in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to:

our limited cash and a history of losses,

our future financial and operating results and our ability to achieve profitability,

our limited experience in marketing our product at a sustainable commercial level and need to expand our domestic and international marketing programs,

emerging competition and rapidly advancing technology or alternative therapies and treatments for persons suffering from blindness,

customer demand for the products we develop, effective pricing and obtaining reimbursement under government and private insurance programs,

our need to conduct and pay for additional clinical trials to determine efficacy of the Argus II System in treating patients with AMD and for new products that we are planning on developing especially the Orion I product,

our ability to obtain adequate government and private party insurance reimbursements for our products domestically and in foreign markets,

the impact of competitive or alternative products, technologies and pricing,

general economic conditions and events and the impact they may have on us and our potential customers,

the adequacy of protections afforded to us by the patents that we own and license and the cost to us of maintaining, enforcing and defending those patents and licenses,

our ability to obtain, expand and maintain patent protection in the future, and to protect our non-patented intellectual property,

our exposure to and ability to defend third-party claims and challenges to our patents, licenses and other intellectual property rights,

our ability to obtain adequate financing in the future,

our ability to continue as a going concern,

our ability to develop, successfully test and obtain FDA and other regulatory approvals for the Orion I,

our intentions, expectations and beliefs regarding anticipated growth, market penetration and trends in our business,

the timing and success of our plan of product commercialization,

the effects of market conditions on our stock price and operating results,

our ability to timely and effectively adapt our existing technology and have our technology solutions gain market acceptance,

our plans to use the proceeds from this offering,

our ability to comply with evolving legal standards and regulations, particularly concerning requirements for being a public company and United States export regulations,

the attraction and retention of qualified employees and key personnel, and

other factors discussed in the “Risk Factors” section of this prospectus.

Forward-looking statements are based upon management’s beliefs and assumptions and are made as of the date of this prospectus. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements included in this prospectus or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those contained in such statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent required by federal securities laws. Actual future results may vary materially as a result of various factors, including, without limitation, the risks outlined under the section entitled “Risk Factors” and matters described in this prospectus generally. In light of these risks and uncertainties, we cannot assure you that the forward-looking statements contained in this prospectus will in fact occur.

You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in our forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee that the future results, levels of activity, performance or events and circumstances described in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or occur. Moreover, neither we nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of the forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason after the date of this prospectus to conform these statements to actual results or to changes in our expectations, except as required by law.

You should read this prospectus and the documents that we reference in this prospectus and have filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission as exhibits to the registration statement of which this prospectus is a part with the understanding that our actual future results, levels of activity, performance and events and circumstances may be materially different from what we expect.

MARKET AND INDUSTRY DATA

Unless otherwise indicated, information contained in this prospectus concerning our industry and the markets in which we operate, including our general expectations and market position, market opportunity and market size, is based on information from various sources, on assumptions based on such data and other similar sources, and on our knowledge of the markets for our solution. The market and industry information included in this prospectus involves a number of assumptions and limitations, and you are cautioned not to give undue weight to such information. In addition, projections, assumptions and estimates of our future performance and the future performance of the industry in which we operate are necessarily subject to a high degree of uncertainty and risk due to a variety of factors, including those described in “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this prospectus. These and other factors could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in the estimates made by the independent parties and by us.

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