About Us

THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

BIOGENWARE is uniquely positioned to draw on over 60 combined years of medical and scientific clinical and manufacturing experience:

Jeffrey G. Gross, MD, is a vitreoretinal surgeon with over 30 years of ophthalmology experience. He is the Founder and President of Carolina Retina Center in Columbia, SC with four offices across Central South Carolina.  The author of over 50 peer reviewed articles, as well as book chapters and videos, he frequently lectures on retinal research and topics at major ophthalmology meetings internationally. He was the National Chair for the landmark DRCR Protocol S study comparing intravitreal injections of anti-VEGF to panretinal photocoagulation for proliferative diabetic retinopathy.  He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, American Society of Retinal Specialists, Retina Society, Macula Society and American Uveitis Society.  He is also the inventor of the Gross cannula for SubTenons anesthesia in ocular surgery. 

John Lowsky, Jr., BSME, is a mechanical engineer and President of ARK Therapeutic Services, Inc. (ARK) with over 35 years of experience designing and manufacturing products for the consumer and medical industry. ARK has a full service 11,200 square foot vertically integrated manufacturing facility in Columbia, SC.  Capabilities include a full compliment of CAD, 3-D printing, and design of injection molded production parts utilizing medical grade resins and medical grade silicone.  He holds over 15 patents.

HOW IT BEGAN

BIOGENWARE began at John Lowsky’s dining room table one day when John and Jeffrey began discussing the current retinal ophthalmology landscape.  Jeffrey explained that his practice has gradually evolved over the last 15 years, largely due to the advent of anti-VEGF medications that are injected into the eye to help macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy.  With 22 million intravitreal injections performed annually worldwide, this procedure has become extremely common.  Jeffrey himself personally performs over 4000 – 5000 intravitreal injections per year.  To meet this demand, his retinal center has essentially transformed from a medical and surgical practice to include the increasingly pharmaceutical injection procedures.  

Despite the huge volume of annual injections, Jeffrey explained that there’s room for improvement.  The procedure is performed using an uncomfortable metal eyelid speculum to keep the lids open during the injection.  His patients regularly report that the speculum is the worst part of the injection process.  Jeffrey was determined to find a more comfortable solution.  Always the curious engineer, John asked if he could try the metal speculum in his own eye.  Feeling the discomfort first-hand, he then decided to team up with Jeffrey to solve this problem.  Together they’ve realized the first major redesign of the eyelid speculum in over 60 years.  The Speculet™ is a simple, elegant, and innovative solution that will significantly improve patient comfort.

Read more about the Speculet™ here.

BIOGENWARE has a unique advantage by combining a clinical medical practice with an experienced designer and manufacturer of medical products all “under one roof”. Jeffrey’s current retinal ophthalmology practice provides a necessary “test bed” for critical information and immediate feedback on new or needed products.  John’s full-service manufacturing facility is vertically integrated to create solutions from concept to prototyping to production parts, all made in the USA.  New ideas, modifications and design elements to current tools or instruments, and direct brainstorming between doctor and designers all can be accomplished quickly and easily by putting these talents together in one facility.