Thomas Burns

Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Glaukos

Search every verified Thomas Burns interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Thomas Burns, Chairman and CEO of Glaukos, presented the company's work in micro-invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS) at a September 2012 conference. He stated that Glaukos, a privately held company formed in 2001 with 40 employees, had raised $126 million in venture capital. Burns described the development of two trabecular bypass stents and a suprachoroidal stent, which he said are designed to restore physiologic outflow and reduce intraocular pressure. He noted that the company had enrolled over 4,000 clinical subjects globally and planned another 1,000 in U.S. ID trials. Burns reported that Glaukos had worked with CMS to obtain two Category 3 CPT codes for reimbursement. He estimated that 60% of Medicare lives would be covered at launch. Burns cited a study of 240 patients with mild to moderate glaucoma undergoing cataract surgery, in which 72% of those receiving the iStent plus cataract surgery achieved pressures under 21 mmHg without medication, compared to 50% with cataract surgery alone. He also mentioned that the Wall Street Journal ranked Glaukos 19th out of 5,000 companies with valuations under $1 billion.