Topcon Healthcare, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Toku, a San Diego-based artificial intelligence (AI) health technology company originally founded in New Zealand. Toku’s innovative platforms CLAiR, BioAge, and MyKidneyAI leverage standard color fundus photographs (retinal images) to deliver real-time assessments of cardiovascular risk, biological aging, and chronic kidney disease. Powered by one of the world’s largest retinal-image datasets, these solutions advance Topcon Healthcare’s vision of Healthcare from the Eye, expanding oculomics to empower primary care and eyecare with preventive medicine.
Advancing Preventive Healthcare with AI
By integrating Toku’s advanced algorithms into its connected care ecosystem, Topcon Healthcare will make non-invasive, AI-driven risk screening widely accessible across primary care, eyecare, and telehealth environments. Utilizing its vendor-inclusive digital platform, Harmony, Topcon Healthcare will deliver AI health assessments based on routine retinal imaging, creating a scalable global network to advance Healthcare from the Eye. In collaboration with the Alliance for Healthcare from the Eye, this initiative seeks to improve population health outcomes, expand access, and reduce overall healthcare costs.
According to the WHO, cardiovascular disease caused an estimated 19.8 million deaths in 2022, with 85% due to heart attack and stroke. By identifying elevated risk years before conventional tests, Toku’s platform has the potential to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease through earlier intervention, tailored care pathways, and improved resource allocation across populations.
Equally important, the integration of Toku’s algorithms within Harmony establishes a regulatory and commercial pathway for other innovators and startups to deliver oculomics-based solutions to patients, accelerating the growth of the broader field.
A Mission-Driven Partnership
“Toku was founded on the principle of early disease detection, even before patients develop symptoms,” said Dr. Ehsan Vaghefi, CEO of Toku. “Becoming part of Topcon Healthcare enables us to realize our mission of delivering heart and kidney health screening at an unprecedented scale, potentially saving lives with each scan worldwide.” To date, Toku has analyzed more than 4.3 million de-identified retinal images linked to clinical data, fueling predictive models that can identify individuals at high risk for serious disease years before traditional tests, often before any noticeable symptoms appear.
“This partnership accelerates not only regulatory clearances and commercialization of new imaging-based health screening solutions, but also the growth of the broader oculomics field,” said Ali Tafreshi, CEO & President of Topcon Healthcare. “As Toku transforms every eye exam into a comprehensive health assessment, Topcon’s global infrastructure will help deliver scalable, affordable AI diagnostics to clinicians and patients worldwide.”
Dr. Vaghefi also noted that, “Toku is grateful for the foundational support provided by National Vision, whose strategic, early investment and partnership has been instrumental in helping Toku refine its breakthrough AI technologies. We are deeply grateful to the National Vision team and look forward to their continued support in our next chapter.”
