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DESIGNS, MATERIALS AND
STUDIES ANNOUNCED
Academy
Conference Shares Wealth of Contact Lens Information
At its recent annual meeting
in San Diego, the American Academy of Optometry (AAO) presented a number of firsts
and new information regarding contact lenses. Below is a selected list of contact
lens-related topics from the AAO press conference.
►Alcon's
Opti-Free ReplenISH multi-purpose disinfecting solution with the wetting system
"Tearglyde" promoted comfort in lens wearers and received FDA clearance for soft
contact lenses, including silicone hydrogels, reported Dr. Ralph Stone, Alcon vice
president of consumer products and clinical operations.
►CIBA
Vision announced the new Focus Dailies one-day disposable contact lenses that feature
AquaRelease, a built-in moisturizing agent that maintains "excellent tear breakup
time" for clinically-proven all-day comfort, announced Kevin Roe, O.D., director
of professional relations (See page 15 for additional news from CIBA Vision.)
►CooperVision
announced that its new silicone hydrogel lens, Biofinity, was approved by the FDA
and will be available in the United States this year. According to Cooper Vision's
Guy Whittaker, B.Sc., M.B.A., M.C.Optom, the lens material is inherently wettable
and requires no surface treatment or wetting agents. The company also introduced
PC Hydrogels, a new category of contact lens material (see page 13.)
►A
new study, sponsored by Vistakon and presented by Robin Chalmers, O.D., concludes
that lenses made with senofilcon A, a new silicone hydrogel material, were associated
with a reduction in discomfort and other problems associated with contact lens wear.
►Tim
Koch, O.D., presented information on SynergEyes, a hybrid contact lens made with
a high-Dk GP center bonded to a soft, hydro-philic outer skirt. Go to
www.synergeys.com
for more details.
►
Other
studies presented include:
"The Australian and New Zealand Microbial Keratitis Study," reporting
on the incidence of microbial keratitis in silicone hydrogel extended wear compared
with conven- tional hydrogel daily wear (presented by Fiona Stapleton, B.Sc., M.Sc.,
M.C.Optom, Ph.D.) and "Risk Factors for Infiltrates in continuous Wear Contact Lenses,"
presented by Dr. Chalmers.
Look for additional coverage of the AAO meeting in the February
issue of Optometric Management.
FDA NOTEBOOK
Oasys Wins New Indication
►The FDA last month granted AcuVue Oasys
Brand Contact Lenses with Hydraclear Plus an additional indication, approving the
contact lenses for up to six consecutive nights and seven days of extended wear.
Formerly, the lens had been approved for daily wear.
►Bausch & Lomb ReNu with MoistureLoc Multi-Purpose Solution (MPS) also received
approval an additional indication for use with silicone hydrogel contact lenses.
An additional claim that the product conditions contact lenses, was also approved.
A NEW PRESIDENT AND "FAMILY"
CEO NAMED
New VSP Leaders
►VSP
(Vision Service Plan) appointed Rob Lynch, a veteran of the employee-benefits industry,
its new president. Named one of "35 Rising Stars" by Business Insurance magazine,
Mr. Lynch has served on VSP's Board of Directors for nine years. In addition to
serving as president, Mr. Lynch will succeed Roger J. Valine as VSP's chief executive
officer upon Valine's retirement later this year.
VSP
also announced that Don Yee will become CEO of VSP's family of companies. Yee will
oversee Altaireyewear, the VSP Labs and Eyefinity. He'll also be responsible for
future venture development, while he retains his current position as senior vice
president of marketing and corporate development at VSP.
HYDROGEL MATERIALS KEEP
EVOLVING
CooperVision's New Hydrogels
►CooperVision
introduced a new hydrogel contact lens material and one contact lens last month.
PC (phosphorylcholine) Hydrogels is a material designed for daily-wear contact
lenses that the company says offers excellent high water affinity for comfort.
It�s available in Proclear Sphere, Proclear Toric, Proclear Multifocal, UltraVue
PC Multifocals and Bio-medics XC contact lenses. They�re manufactured from
omafilcon A material.
The company�s new Biofinity silicone hydrogel contact lens
offers high oxygen transmission, low modulus and high water content. It�s made
from comfilcon A, so it�s inherently wetting, requiring no wetting agents,
CooperVision says.
GOOD NEWS
FOR NIGHT&DAY; FUNDING EYESIGHT CHARITY
CIBA In
the News
►CIBA
Vision says its three-year study evaluating the performance of its silicone hydrogel
Night & Day contact lenses indicates that contact lens wearers showed improved
signs of corneal health, as well as improvements in frequency and severity of contact-lens
related symptoms.
Specifically, the study, which involved 317 patients, revealed
that Night & Day lens wearers showed signs of improved limbal redness by up
to 23%, improved conjunctival redness by 21% and improved neovascularization by
13%. Dryness at the end of the day improved in 22% of patients. Additionally, results
of the study showed that the probability of Night &Day wearers remaining free
from significant corneal infiltrates (grades three or four) was 96.9%.
Sales of silicone hydrogel contact lenses have more than doubled
during the first eight months of 2005, according to retail audit data by the A.C.
Nielsen Co. They now account for 24% of total soft lens sales, up from 12% in the
same period of 2004. CIBA Vision lenses represent 49.5% of retail sales of silicone
hydrogels through August.
In other news, CIBA Vision announced it will donate $1 million
over the next five years to develop Optometry Giving Sight (OGS), an organization
dedicated to eliminating one of the major causes of blindness and low vision in
the world — uncorrected refractive error. CIBA Vision will also fund a full-time
fellowship position at OGS to support the group's efforts internationally.
ADDING A SECOND GLAUCOMA
MEDICATION
Double medications, cut compliance?
►Adding "complexity" — that is, a second medication — to a glaucoma medical
treatment regimen reduces patient compliance signif- icantly, a recent study found.
The study compares medication refill rates for two groups of glaucoma
patients. The participants included patients of a large national healthcare provider
who had received a prescription for latanoprost (Xalatan, Pharmacia) between July
1, 2001 and June 30, 2002. The population was similar in age and gender. One group
was composed of 1,784 patients who had a second medication added. The other group
of 3,146 patients remained on monotherapy. For each patient, the mean number of
days between refills was calculated for both the period before, and subsequent to,
the addition of the second medication. An interperiod difference in refill interval
between the two periods was also calculated.
An analysis of the refill intervals revealed that when a second
drug was added, in 33.7% of patients the refill interval for latanoprost was the
same or less (i.e., earlier) than with the prior monotherapy. An additional 43.3%
of participants refilled their latanoprost within two weeks of the prior monotherapy
experience. However, for an additional 22.9% of patients, the interval was increased
by two weeks. A similar distribution of refill intervals was seen when stratified
by fill size or second-line drug.
For more detailed information, the study can be found in the December
issue of Ophthalmology 2005; 112:863-868.
Correction:
The article "The Same Tool ... Different Answers,"
in OM's November issue, did not feature notification that the article was continued
on page 95. OM regrets the error.
O.D.
NOTEBOOK
COMPANY NEWS
E-commerce
site hits milestone. CooperVision reported that more than one million customer orders
have been placed and fulfilled online via its MyCooperVision e-commerce site. The
company launched the online business-to-business customer service center in 2004.
PEOPLE & PROMOTIONS
Three
join SCO's Board of Trustees. Attorney Jim Jalenak of Memphis, Dr. Christopher King
of Eaglewood, Fla., and Dr. Robert Smalling of Warren, Ark., were elected to the
Southern College of Optometry's Board of Trustees.
New
CEO/Pres. At Visioneering. Visioneering Corp.'s Board of Directors named Joe DeLapp
the company's new president and CEO. Mr. DeLapp previously served in those positions
at Briot-WECO.
B&L
VP honored. Steven D. Silverman, vice president of information technology for Global
Operations and Engineering at Bausch & Lomb, was named on the business world's
Premier 100 IT Leaders by IDG's Computerworld. The award honors executives who show
"exemplary technology leadership in resolving pressing business problems."
Optometric Management, Issue: January 2006