Alcon announced that it has entered into a five-year collaborative research agreement with AstraZeneca for the exclusive ophthalmic discovery and potential development rights to AstraZeneca's compound library. The agreement matches Alcon's specific ophthalmic research capability with AstraZeneca's rich drug libraries and covers multiple classes of small molecules with lead compounds that already have been identified to have a strong scientific rationale for utility in ophthalmic disease. The two companies are targeting development of drugs to treat sight-threatening conditions such as glaucoma, wet and dry age-related macular degeneration and other retinal diseases, as well as ocular allergy, dry eye and other inflammatory eye conditions.
     Under the terms of the agreement, Alcon obtains immediate access to thousands of AstraZeneca compounds in a variety of drug classes. AstraZeneca will hand over development and regulatory documentation associated with each compound as relevant to ophthalmology.  Alcon will perform and fund all research and development activities to move selected compounds forward. The agreement provides for individual license agreements to be negotiated on a case by case basis for any compound that moves into clinical development, including regulatory milestone payments and royalties on product sales. The agreement does not preclude Alcon from pursuing compounds it develops itself or licenses from other companies prior to the initiation of Phase III confirmatory clinical studies.
     "This strategic partnership represents an extraordinary opportunity to bring Alcon's global leadership in the field of ophthalmology together with AstraZeneca's world-class basic research capability to advance treatments in eye care," said Kevin Buehler, Alcon's President and Chief Executive Officer. "I believe this partnership will not only benefit both parties, but will also lead to new therapies that reduce the incidence of blindness around the world." 

ABB Concise and Paragon Vision Sciences (Paragon) announce their Practice Partnership Education Series. As part of the companies' commitment to ongoing education for both the eye care practitioner and staff, they will sponsor free monthly webinar training programs on topics that support successful contact lens treatment options and outcomes.
     The July program, Emerging Trends in GP Lenses, will be presented by Patrick Caroline, FAAO of Pacific University. The lecture will review a wide range of modern innovations emerging in the GP lens industry. On Thursday, July 30, 2009, there will be two presentations at times convenient to different time zones: Session 1 will be held at 6-8:00pm EDT (registration link https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/278572547) and Session 2 will be held at 6-8:00pm PDT (registration link https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/996187571).  

Registration is open for the American Board of Opticianry (ABO) and National Contact Lens Examiners (NCLE) 2nd Annual Education Conference September 10-13, 2009 in Cincinnati, Ohio. The four-day event will be held at the Duke Energy Center and includes over 100 hours of ABO, NCLE and state approved continuing education with over 1/3rd of this year's education courses new to the conference.
     The Hands-on Pavilion is a hallmark of education at this meeting offering sessions with a small student/teacher ratio to provide a meaningful practical learning experience. Some of the hands-on training courses include Lens Measurement Techniques, Practical Dispensing of Low Vision Devices, Slit Lamp Use, Contact Lens Application and Removal Techniques and more.
     "If an optician is interested in becoming certified by the ABO-NCLE," mentioned Tom Barracato, NCLE Chairman, "this is a terrific meeting to attend. ABO-NCLE basic and advanced certification review courses are taught by industry experts and you can take the examination onsite the same weekend. And we've developed the Path to Certification Success to help prepare for the exams with a list of recommended study materials and free webinars provided to early registrants."
     Additionally, the conference is the location of the OAA National Opticians Convention, NAO Annual Membership Meeting and Awards Ceremony and the National Federation of Opticianry Schools (NFOS) semi-annual meeting.
     Find out additional details and register at www.abo-ncle-conference.com.

OptomCAS, the Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry's (ASCO) new centralized application service, was successfully launched on July 15. OptomCAS provides optometry school applicants a "one-stop" web-based application with one set of materials to apply to multiple schools and colleges of optometry. As of the launch date, applicants began to complete their applications for the 2009-2010 application cycle. Applicants will no longer apply to schools and colleges individually. The link to access the application is www.optomcas.org. All 20 schools and colleges of optometry are participating. 
     Through OptomCAS applicants submit a completed web-based application comprised of biographical data, colleges and universities attended, academic course history, letters of recommendation, work experience, extracurricular activities, honors/awards, and a personal essay.
     Contact Paige Pence, ASCO Director of Student and Professional Affairs at ppence@opted.org with any questions about OptomCAS. 

ACUVUE® DIRECT™ simply delivers convenience and affordability for your contact lens patients. With ACUVUE® DIRECT™, patients purchase an annual supply of contact lenses, reducing upfront costs while receiving year-long benefits. They will appreciate the convenience of free home delivery: four times a year, ACUVUE® DIRECT™ ships a 3-month supply directly to their home. ACUVUE® DIRECT™ also saves time for your staff, since they no longer need to reorder lenses during the year. Patients also receive quarterly tips on healthy wear, plus a year-end reminder to return to your office for their annual eye exam. ACUVUE® DIRECT™ means increased patient loyalty, improved patient compliance, and decreased office time from reordering lenses.
Ask your sales representative or call 1-800-874-5278 to register for ACUVUE® DIRECT™.

ACUVUE®, ACUVUE® DIRECT™, and VISTAKON® are trademarks of Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc.
© Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc. 2009

--ADVERTISING

Prevent Blindness America, the volunteer eye health and safety organization, and VisionServe Alliance, the unified voice in the field of services to people with blindness or visual impairment, have agreed to join resources to help promote vision health and services. Collectively, the two organizations have grassroots representation in 44 states and the District of Columbia, with national service reach across the country.
     "Today, more than 3.6 million older Americans are blind or visually impaired, and more than 80 million Americans are at risk for a potentially blinding eye disease," said Hugh R. Parry, President and CEO of Prevent Blindness America. "By working in partnership with VisionServe Alliance, we hope to combine our efforts to address prevention services as well as the needs of those already living with visual impairment and blindness."
      A study by Prevent Blindness America estimated the annual costs associated with adult vision problems, including AMD, cataract, diabetic retinopathy, primary open-angle glaucoma, refractive error, visual impairment and blindness, in the United States at $51.4 billion.
     "By working together at the national, state and local levels, we can further advance the critical mission of our organizations to raise awareness at both the public and government level about the importance of the continuum of eye health services, including prevention education, clinical interventions, and vision rehabilitation,"  said President and CEO of VisionServe Alliance Roxann Mayros. 

Eight schools and colleges of optometry have received diversity mini-grants through the Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry's (ASCO) 2009 Optometric Education Diversity Mini-Grant Program. This program is supported by The Vision Care Institute, LLC and Luxottica Retail.
     The diversity mini-grants are designed to provide seed money for a specific program/project to assist schools/colleges of optometry with their long-term diversity/multicultural efforts. Programs may include, but are not limited to, summer bridge programs for undergraduate students, mentoring and guidance programs for first-year optometry students, partnerships with organizations, high schools, community colleges and undergraduate programs, to promote optometry as a career among underrepresented groups. 
     The following schools and colleges of optometry programs were funded: Illinois College of Optometry - Focus on Your Future Summer Program; Indiana University School of Optometry - Eye Do!  Making a Commitment to Optometry; The Ohio State University College of Optometry - The Improving Diversity of Optometric Careers (I-DOC) Program; Pacific University College of Optometry - Pacific University InSight 2010; University of Alabama Birmingham School of Optometry - Providing Diversity in Optometric Education through Continual Enhancement of Current Programs that Promote Diversity in Optometry;  University of California-Berkeley School of Optometry - Berkeley Optometry Opto-Camp;  Western University of Health Sciences College of Optometry - Reaching Out to Families and Communities - Opening Eyes to Optometry;  and University of Houston College of Optometry - Optometry Career Opportunities Program (TEXOCOP).
     The call for proposals for next year will be announced in early 2010. For more information about this program, please contact Paige Pence, ASCO Director of Student and Professional Affairs at ppence@opted.org. 

The Educational Program Committee of the Global Specialty Lens Symposium invites the submission of abstracts for the Free Paper Section to be held January 28-31, 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. Papers related to presbyopia, keratoconus, corneal topography, post penetrating keratoplasty or related irregular corneal surface, myopia control, ortho-k and lens care topics are welcome.
     Those interested in submitting free papers or posters to the Global Specialty Lens Symposium can visit www.GSLSymposium.com for more information. Web submissions only. Deadline for submissions is Monday, August 31, 2009.--ADVERTISING

Over 110 vision community representatives joined together last week at the Eye Health Summit, an event to designed to begin the process of building a strong consensus among interested parties/stakeholders in the vision community on a public health/eye health message. In addition to developing criteria for message points, Summit participants also outlined an implementation plan during the two-day event to deliver the message and integrated support to sustain it.
     "By bringing together professional associations, trade associations, major manufacturers, non-profit groups, retailers, vision care plans and government agencies, we hope to take meaningful steps to improving American's eye health," said Ed Greene, CEO of The Vision Council, the host of the Summit.
     There are currently many messages, sometimes confusing, to consumers about how to best care for their vision health. A unified public health message would potentially mean earlier diagnosis of disease and improved quality of life for many.
     A core planning team of 12 people representing a cross section of the vision community provided direction for the Summit, developing an agenda and setting goals for the meeting. The core planning team also developed a targeted invitation list of nearly 200 people that includes the leadership and marketing representatives from industry organizations.
     Following the Summit, the core planning team will reconvene to review the agreed-to messaging points and to create a plan for moving forward. By sharing developments with Summit participants and other interested parties, the core planning team can continually receive and review feedback and comments on the program.
     For more information on the Summit, visit www.eyehealthsummit.com. 

The purpose of this study was to evaluate Orbscan II measurements without contact lens (CL) removal to monitor in vivo posterior corneal curvature in CL (hypoxia)-induced corneal swelling during extended wear (EW).
     Orbscan II corneal topographer was used to measure posterior corneal curvature 1 week before CL wearing and during 1 week of EW. Central corneal thickness (CCT) was also measured during the 2-week study with OCT to determine the corneal swelling percentage. High Dk (lotrafilcon A) and low Dk (etafilcon A) soft CL were randomly fitted in EW in the right and left eyes of 20 subjects with normal ocular health. Orbscan and OCT were also performed without CL removal after 3 and 7 days of wear.
     Low Dk lenses induced significantly higher corneal swelling (2.41+/-2.65%), as compared to the high Dk lenses (0.17+/-2.28%; P<0.05 repeated measures ANOVA (Re-ANOVA and paired t-test) measures with OCT. The low Dk lens induced a significantly posterior corneal flattening compared to the high Dk lens (0.036+/-0.06mm versus 0.006+/-0.04mm; P<0.05 Re-ANOVA and paired t-test). High repeatability for Orbscan-measured posterior best fit sphere (BFS) radii with (r(2)=0.15, 95% limits of agreement (LoA)=0.10 to -0.06) and without (r(2)=0.00, 95% LoA=0.08 to -0.08) CL removal was also observed and suggest that posterior corneal changes was not due to Orbscan variability.
     The authors concluded that Orbscan is a non-invasive and reproducible technique to evaluate and monitor posterior corneal curvature in vivo in CL (hypoxia)-induced corneal swelling during EW.
Martin R, Izquierdo M, Saber A. Investigation of posterior corneal curvature in CL-induced corneal swelling. Cont Lens Anterior Eye 2009.

It has long been thought that an increase in oxygen transmissibility of contact lens materials would be associated with a reduced risk of microbial keratitis. Yet, we now have clinical studies that suggest that silicone hydrogels (with higher oxygen transmissibilities) are not necessarily associated with a major reduction in risk for contact lens-related keratitis. There may be many other factors, which have yet to be completely unraveled, that need to be considered in the equation. These include things such as contact lens material propensity for microbial binding in addition to general material characteristics that may affect the fit of the lens, care solutions, and individual patient characteristics. Certainly contact lens wear is generally safe, but it is important that we strive for answers to these questions to continue to make it even safer for our patients.
Jason J. Nichols, OD, MPH, PhD, FAAO 

This month at www.siliconehydrogels.org: worldwide trends in silicone hydrogel lens wear, fitting silicone hydrogels for a patient with high myopia and reduced vision secondary to posterior staphyloma, evaluating the performance of an "upgrade" silicone hydrogel lens, and part one of out AAO 2008 synopsis.