July 30, 2019
India born, London-based billionaire-philanthropist Tej Kohli has
pledged US$2 million to innovation and research designed to cure corneal
blindness.
London-based eCommerce payments billionaire Tej Kohli is
pursuing his goal of eliminating corneal blindness in multiple ways –
philanthropy, business ventures and technology.
His most recent is a donation of US$2 million to the Massachusetts
Eye and Ear (MEE) in Boston towards innovation and research designed
to cure corneal blindness, including the development of promising
biotechnology solutions. The move is part of Kohli’s attempt to find a way
to eradicate avoidable corneal blindness by 2030, a solution that is not
dependent on transplantation.
Over 250 million people in the world have a visual impairment and 39 million
people are blind, according to the World Health
Organization. Blindness is heavily impacted by poverty, with up to
14 of the 39 million living in India.
A good proportion of blindness, including 75% of corneal disease, is curable.
Over 12 million of the world’s blind are waiting for cornea transplants,
including six million in India, and only one in 70 of those on waiting lists
receive a corneal transplant each year. Solving the problem of corneal
blindness will require an affordable non-surgical solution.
Kohli has already made substantial progress in his mission. The philanthropic
Tej Kohli Cornea Institute in Hyderabad is an eminent
institution for corneal research and expertise. Between 2016 and 2018 the
institute saw 167,321 outpatient visits, collected 26,269 donor corneas,
utilized 15,784 cornea and completed 31,511 surgical procedures.
The MEE is a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School
(HMS) and its Department of Ophthalmology is the
world’s largest vision research and clinical enterprise. Its scientists are
conducting over 110 clinical studies and trials to investigate new therapies
across a broad array of vision diseases.
The Tej Kohli Cornea Program aims to boost innovative and
collaborative research to achieve unprecedented breakthroughs in corneal
disease.
Biotechnology is in a chain reaction of exponential technological
progression and rapid development that offers unprecedented new
opportunities to improve human life. What we think we can achieve with
biotechnology is a non-surgical solution to corneal blindness that can be
applied through a syringe like a vaccine. Mass. Eye and Ear is one of the
leading centres of excellence in the world, and my $2 million donation is
to help ensure that the development of a technological solution to
eliminating corneal blindness becomes a reality. – Tej Kohli,
Billionaire-Philanthropist
Joan Miller, Professor & Chair, Department of Ophthalmology at
HMS and Chief of Ophthalmology at MEE, Massachusetts General
Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, says the donation will
allow MEE to “advance biotechnology therapies – first to clinical trials
and ultimately to large populations of people afflicted with corneal
infection and blindness. Tej Kohli is passionate about curing corneal
blindness around the globe and we at Mass. Eye and Ear are very pleased to
partner with him as we develop the next generation of treatments and
cures.”
