Bausch & Lomb (B&L) announced that Peter Valenti, III, will join B&L as President, North America, Vision Care, effective later in January.
     Mr. Valenti was most recently Vice President and General Manager, Surgical Devices (U.S.), for Covidien, where he led sales and marketing strategy for its $1 billion product portfolio. Prior, he spent 12 years with Johnson & Johnson, serving in a variety of U.S. and international roles across consumer, pharmaceutical and device businesses. These included positions as Vice President, Global Strategy, and Vice President, U.S. Marketing, both in Vision Care. Before his career with Johnson & Johnson, he held several brand management roles with Procter & Gamble.
     Mr. Valenti earned an MBA from the Johnson School of Management at Cornell University and a Bachelor's degree from the University of Connecticut. He will be based in Rochester, N.Y.
     "Pete possesses deep leadership experience, as well as considerable eye health and general healthcare expertise," said Stuart Heap, Corporate Vice President and Global President, Vision Care, Bausch & Lomb. "His appointment further strengthens our existing team, which is focused on delivering innovation in the contact lens, lens care and vision accessories segments of the industry."

CooperVision has extended the parameters of its Proclear Toric XR contact lenses, giving the Proclear Toric brand the broadest parameter range of any disposable or monthly toric lens available, per the company. The latest expansion includes low cylinders (-0.75 to -2.25) in high plus and high minus spheres, rounding out the total sphere power range at +10.00D to -10.00D.
     With this latest expansion, the Proclear Toric family is now available in more than 45,000 parameters. Proclear Toric and Proclear Toric XR monthly replacement lenses have base curves of 8.4 and 8.8, cylinder powers of -0.75 to -5.75 in 0.50D steps, and around-the-clock axis. "The overwhelming success of Proclear Toric XR has created the need for a broader parameter offering for patients with astigmatism," said Doug Brayer, Marketing Manager, CooperVision. "Now, eye care practitioners can offer a more comfortable lens option to an even wider range of patients with astigmatism."

NovaBay Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced the clearance of an Investigational New Drug application (IND) submitted by Alcon to the FDA to permit the clinical development of NovaBay's NVC-422 for infections of the eye. The IND clearance has triggered the immediate payment of the first milestone of $1,000,000 from Alcon to NovaBay.
     NVC-422 is the lead molecule in the Aganocide class discovered and patented by NovaBay. NovaBay has licensed the use of the Aganocide compounds to Alcon for use in the treatment of eye, ear and sinus infections and for use in contact lens solutions. NovaBay has retained the rights to all other uses of this class of compounds.
     Dr. Ron Najafi, Chairman and CEO of NovaBay, expressed his gratitude to all the team members at Alcon and NovaBay who have enabled the filing and clearance of this IND. He added: "We are very excited by the possibility that NVC-422 might become the first product that may address both viral and bacterial causes of conjunctivitis. If Alcon is successful in its clinical development program, we have hopes that it could become a leading product in the $1+ billion worldwide ophthalmic topical anti-infective market."

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Vision Express, one of Britain's leading chains of opticians with a national network of more than 300 stores, announced eye care initiatives for 2009 that, according to the company, will amount to the largest privately-funded examination of UK eye health ever undertaken. The Vision Express Big Eye Test program will include:
  - A pilot eye health study in partnership with the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, the UK's leading eye health research institute, to help answer some key primary health care questions.
  - A major child-centered education program targeted at schools to promote better eye care and more regular testing.
  - Free digital retinal scanning for all children up to 16 in tandem with their free NHS examination until the end of February.
  - Dedicated online resources focused on eye health.
     The program is being launched in conjunction with the publication of YouGov research commissioned by Vision Express that finds that 60% of a representative sample of the UK population has spent nothing on eye care in the last 12 months. The poll also finds that 27% have not had an eye test for at least two years and one in 20 have not had an eye test for more than 10 years. Moreover, nearly one in ten (8%) 18-24 year olds have never had their eyes tested according to the study, the highest incidence across all age bands.
     "We live in a high-definition age and that means that we must do all we can to support better eye health and better vision," said Bryan Magrath, CEO of Vision Express. "Many of us spend more on hair care in a week than on eye care in a year. We are determined to raise awareness of the importance of eye health and to offer the most accessible services supported by the latest eye testing technology."

Leading ophthalmic organizations came together last month in Alexandria, Va. at the 34th annual Total Ophthalmic Community (TOC) meeting. The event allowed members from across the vision care industry to share their achievements from 2008 and their proposed goals for 2009, as well as take advantage of valuable networking opportunities. Meeting attendees represented the following organizations: American Academy of Ophthalmology, Foundation for the Blind, American Optometric Association, American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, Gift of Sight Foundation, Lighthouse International, National Alliance for Eye and Vision Research, National Academy of Opticianry, National Association of Optometrists and Opticians, National Association of Vision Care Plans, Optical Laboratories Association, Optometric Extension Program Foundation, Prevent Blindness America, Southern Council of Optometrists International and The Vision Council
     In addition to the optical industry presentations, attendees also heard from keynote speaker Dr. Dan Crippen, former head of the Congressional Budget Office. Dr. Crippen spoke about the new presidential administration and Congress and how they will affect health care reform in America.

These researchers set out to observe morphological and histopathological changes in the mid-periphery of the rabbit cornea produced by femtosecond laser-assisted multilayer intrastromal ablation, determine if this method could potentially be used to correct myopia and study how the cornea heals when the epithelium is not injured.
     The right eyes of ten New Zealand white rabbits were used for the experiments. The 60 kHz Intralase femtosecond laser delivery system was used and three lamellar layers of laser pulses were focused starting at a corneal depth of 180 microns and ending at 90 microns from the surface with each successive layer placed 45 microns anterior than the previous layer. In the interface of the applanating contact lens cone, a 6 mm diameter aluminum circle was placed at the center to block the laser and ablation was limited to the mid-periphery of the cornea. The laser settings were: spot/line separation, 10 microns; diameter, 8.5 mm; energy for ablating the stroma, 1.3 microJ. Topography examination was used to document changes in corneal power. Light microscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and confocal microscopy in vivo were applied to observe changes in the cornea.
     There was significant change in mean corneal power (MCP) between baseline and postoperative month 3 (n=8, p=0.0001), with a decrease from 46.82D to 44.42D. There was no haze formation or refractive regression throughout the follow-up. There were no corneal structural abnormalities under light microscopy. Activated keratocytes and necrotic debris were visible under confocal microscopy. Fibroblasts were observed and no myofibroblasts appeared under TEM.
     Researchers concluded that multilayer intrastromal ablation by the femtosecond laser with intact epithelium in the mid-periphery of corneal stroma can flatten the cornea without causing haze formation or occurrence of refractive regression. This procedure allows the cornea to heal in a different way than is observed when traditional corneal refractive surgery is performed and the epithelium is damaged.
Zhang ZY, Chu RY, Zhou XT et al. Morphological and Histopathological Changes in the Rabbit Cornea Produced by Femtosecond Laser-assisted Multi-layers Intrastromal Ablation. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 2009.

I've recently been hearing an increase in the use of term "key opinion leader" (a.k.a., KOL), which is mentioned somewhat frequently in our field and often by those in industry. While I do think that the general premise of a KOL is important, some recent discussions got me thinking about our sometimes capricious use of the term. Certainly there are no rules that dictate its use, and I think the idea of respected individuals who convey critical, unbiased information to the community is imperative. These individuals, who are usually expert clinicians, can facilitate the changing of old practice patterns in addition to the implementation of new patterns. That being said, it is important that you critically evaluate the credentials of these individuals in addition to the information that is being conveyed to you.
Jason J. Nichols, OD, MPH, PhD, FAAO 

This month at www.siliconehydrogels.org: Using silicone hydrogels to mask irregular astigmatism; the relationship between oxygen transmissibility and overnight corneal swelling; and part one of our BCLA 2008 synopsis.