CONTACT LENSES TODAY

March 23, 2003

Contact Lenses Today® is edited by Dr. Joseph T. Barr and the staff of Contact Lens Spectrum. This week CLToday® reaches 9,313 readers in 74 countries.

B&L Faces Litigation in Ireland, Launches National Ad Campaign
Novartis AG has filed a lawsuit on behalf of CIBA Vision against Bausch & Lomb claiming that B&L's PureVision lenses infringe on an Irish patent that protects the technology used to develop CIBA's Focus Night & Day lenses. B&L says that it will defend its belief that its PureVision lens technology is unique and doesn't infringe the patent in question.

Also in B&L news, the company has launched a television advertising campaign in the United States with the slogan, Perfecting Vision. Enhancing Life. According to B&L, in addition to reaching consumers, the advertising message is also designed to foster relationships between eye doctors and their patients by reinforcing the importance of eye health and visiting the eyecare professional. The campaign first launched with two spots about the company's Ocuvite PreserVision vitamin and its ReNu MultiPlus Multi-Purpose Solution.

AAO Calls for Plano CL Complication Cases
The American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) is asking research institutions and medical providers to help educate the public about the risk of wearing plano cosmetic lenses without a prescription and asks that you e-mail Pat Eddington at peddington@aaodc.org or call (202) 737-6662 with any adverse consequences you've seen in patients who have used plano lenses obtained from unauthorized retailers. The AAO will pass this information on to the FDA and the agency will in turn follow up with you. The AAO also encourages its members to submit studies/cases to peer-reviewed journals for publication. Visit http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/safety/declensenorx.pdf to view the FDA's public health notice.

Silicone Hydrogel Lens Solution Complications . . . "Practitioners who fit silicone-hydrogel contact lenses on a daily wear basis should be wary of the potential for certain PHMB-containing multipurpose care systems to invoke corneal staining." ** OPTI-FREE EXPRESS contains POLYQUAD and has been cleared by the FDA for use with silicone hydrogel lenses. Only Alcon multipurpose solutions (OPTI-FREE EXPRESS) do not contain PHMB.

Reference: Jones, L; MacDougall, N; Sorbara, L.G., Asymptomatic Corneal Staining Associated with the Use of Balafilcon Silicone-Hydrogel Contact Lenses Disinfected with a Polyaminopropyl Biguanide-Preserved Care Regimen. Optom Vis Sci 2002 Dec; 79(12):753-61.
**Trademarks of other companies.
--ADVERTISING

Contamac Launches Contamac US, Inc. Operation
This past January, UK-based polymer material manufacturer Contamac, Ltd. opened an associate company, Contamac US, Inc., in Grand Junction, Colorado. The company brings its GP material Hybrid fluid surface (FS) to the United States, along with a new selection of hydrophilic lens materials and polymers. The US-based company is looking to bring in additional materials as they successfully complete clinical trials for FDA approval.

New GP Bifocal is Thinner
TruForm Optics is now offering a new lens: The Solitaire Thin Multifocal. According to the company, the lens is great for patients who require larger distance and near zones. The Solitaire Thin Multifocal is a translating, superior anterior slab-off design, flat-top-style bifocal, made with Boston materials. For more information, visit http://www.tfoptics.com.

BCLA to Meet
The British Contact Lens Association Clinical Conference and Exhibition (BCLA) meets this year in Brighton from June 6 to June 8. For more details or to register online, visit http://www.bcla.org.uk.

Editor's Commentary: Two Mail-Order Items to Consider
A couple of things this week. Now that Vistakon has started selling lensees to 1-800 Contacts, as far as I know, it's the only manufacturer that is making the seller verify prescriptions.

Secondly, try this Web site and tell your patients about it -- it's good. http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/consumer/buycontactqa.html.

Fitting Tip: Double Check UV
Here's a quick and inexpensive way to put those UV lenses to the test:

1. Wet a fluoroscein strip and smear some fluoroscein on a white piece of paper. Make a half-inch to a one-inch circle.
2. Turn on your Burton lamp or any UV source and shine it on the fluorescein spot.
3. Place the lens between the fluorescein spot and the UV source and see if you notice a change in brightness.

The change in reflected brightness from the fluorescein spot on the white paper should appear dramatically duller if the lens blocks UV light.
--Richard Freeman, O.D.
Yorba Linda, Calif.

Letter to the Editor: Researchers Respond to Advertising

Dear Editor,

I'm writing to comment on an advertisement placed by Alcon in the Feb. 23, 2003 edition of CLToday. The advertisement refers to a manuscript published in the December 2002 issue of Optometry and Vision Science by myself and two of my colleagues (Jones, L.; MacDougall, N; Sorbara, L.G. Asymptomatic Corneal Staining Associated with the Use of Balafilcon Silicone-Hydrogel Contact Lenses Disinfected With a Polyaminopropyl Biguanide-Preserved Care Regimen. Optom Vis Sci 2002 Dec; 79 (12): 753-61). The clear inference from the wording of the final sentence of the advertisement, "PHMB based systems are found in ReNu MultiPlus, Complete and Solocare lens solutions" is that no PHMB-containing solutions should be used with any silicone-hydrogel (SH) lens material, as such a combination will invoke corneal staining. This is a distinct misrepresentation of the published paper. The study specifically details the levels of corneal staining measured in a direct comparison of two care products when used with one lens material. It is made clear in the paper that these results apply only to the combinations tested and that no other extrapolation should be made to other lenses, other solutions or other combinations. I personally have many patients successfully wearing both types of SH materials on a daily wear basis using a number of PHMB-based, Polyquad-based and peroxide-based care products. By the same token, I have observed care-regimen-based reactions in SH and in conventional lens wearers with almost all care products that I have dispensed. This will be of no surprise to clinicians in clinical practice and is to be expected.

-- Lyndon Jones, PhD, FCOptom
Associate Professor, University of Waterloo

Alcon Responds: The excellent work reported by Dr. Jones and his co-workers in the December 2002 issue of Optometry and Vision Science provides valuable information to the contact lens community. Corneal staining was reported in 37% of patients using ReNu MultiPlus with PureVision silicone hydrogel lenses used on a daily wear basis, compared to 2% with Opti-Free Express MPDS Lasting Comfort Formula. Alcon submitted this data to FDA, and we currently include a label statement specifically for use of Opti-Free Express with silicone hydrogel lenses. The advertisement communicates this advantage. While the testing included only ReNu MultiPlus, there is a clear statement in the article that "practitioners who fit silicone hydrogel lenses on a daily wear basis should be wary of the potential of certain PHMB based multi-purpose care systems to invoke corneal staining." Because the article indicates "Switching to non-PHMB based regimens will eliminate this complication in most instances," we simply communicated examples of currently marketed PHMB-based regimens. Opti-Free Express does not contain PHMB.

-- Ralph P. Stone
Vice President, Research and Development
Consumer Products
Alcon Laboratories

Send your favorite tips to tips@cltoday.com -- if your tip is selected as 'Best of the Month,' you'll receive a free golf shirt (see http://www.CLToday.com for details). Please include your full name, degree or title and city/state/country.

Visit Contact Lens Spectrum ( http://www.clspectrum.com ) for interactive clinical posters, issue archives and discussion forums. Visit Contact Lenses Today for our Best Fitting Tips and Photo Clinic, sponsored by Ocular Sciences.

CLToday Services: Subscribe; Change your e-mail address; submit news to news@cltoday.com; or, fax 1-215-643-3902.