EaseVision.com – News and gossips of vision care and optical industry

A long-term visual study conducted by researchers at the Institute of Child Health, University College London has reveals some significant results. Recruiting 9,330 participants, the study has taken use of their health data gathered in clinical exams from birth to middle age. This is one of the largest studies that evaluate potential relationship between visual disability and social and occupational success. 

All participants of the study were 44 or 45 years old. Everyone was born in Britain within a single week in 1958. This cohort was intentionally chosen by researchers. During the study, these participants wear asked to receive eye tests of near, distance and stereo visual acuity. Results showed that 1.3% of them had socially significant visual impairment. Bothered by visual defects, this group of individuals could not pass a driving test. And 0.9% of participants were suffering severe visual impairment or blindness. 

The study has kept all healthy data of the large number of participants, from their birth to middle age. It is possible to analyze other factors in their lives associated with vision problems. In general, the study points out that many factors can contribute to impaired vision, including unemployment, low socioeconomic status and general and mental health problems. In addition, there are other potential causes of poor vision, such as low birth weight, intrauterine growth retardation, maternal smoking during pregnancy and socioeconomic deprivation in early childhood. 

It is well-known that certain health conditions such as hypertension in adults are often associated with key prenatal and childhood factors. But another important finding of this study is that these early factors can also affect visual function in adults. According to the lead researcher on the study Jugnoo S. Rahi, PhD, further life-span researches are needed in order figure out the causes of some complex eye diseases. In some cases, eye diseases such as glaucoma and macular degeneration are closely related to other health problems of the body.

The worldwide reputable eye care company Bausch & Lomb built new partnership with Phase Forward, which focuses on data management solutions for clinical trials and drug safety. As two leading companies in their respective fields, Bausch & Lomb and Phase Forward signed a multi-year contract. 

Both of the two sides were satisfied with this new relationship. For Bausch & Lomb, clinical trials of eye health products are a critical element. The firm aims to develop the highest quality eye health products in the most efficient manner. According to Bausch & Lomb’s vice president and chief technology officer John W. Sheets, the company could get an effective solution for automating and optimizing trial management from Phase Forward. 

According to chairman and CEO of Phase Forward named Bob Weiler, it was an honor for Phase Forward to cooperate with Bausch & Lomb. In other words, Phase Forward was quite willing to provide good services to all of its customers, including this new one. 

In detail, Bausch & Lomb will implement Phase Forward’s InForm Global Trial Management (GTM) electronic data capture (EDC) solution, including the Central Coding module. All units of Bausch & Lomb will be covered by this solution, including Surgical, Vision Care and Pharmaceuticals products. 

As a full integrated module of InForm, the Central Coding module to be implemented by Bausch & Lomb is multi-functional. While ensuring coding consistency and accuracy, the Central Coding module can streamline the process of coding medical terms and automating manual tasks. Bausch & Lomb will apply InForm GTM from Phase Forward earlier in its development circle, in order to view and act on clinical trial data.

Recently Hoya posted its net sales as well as other figures for the second quarter this year. The results indicated that Q2 was quite tough for Hoya that the firm’s net income was 45.9% down. As a routine, Hoya released all aspects of its divisions. Reports posted by Hoya annually cover all areas of the company. 

For sure, the eye care division was covered in the report. The eye care business unit under Hoya produces eyeglasses lenses. According to the report, net sales of eye care business totaled ¥110,725 million. This figure was about 12.4% down, compared to the same quarter in 2008. In addition, operating income from the same division was ¥21,807 million, which increased 5.6%, compared to the preceding fiscal year. 

Hoya valued more about the increase of operating income from vision care business. But the company has encountered fierce competition from other lens producers in Asian countries. Some optical manufacturers produce low-priced lenses in Japan, Asian countries, and European nations. In addition, the performance of eye care division in Hoya has still been offset by the appreciation of yen. Compared to 2008, the eye care and Pentax units under Hoya struggled. 

The only good news is that health care group in Hoya still gained significant growth, reaching 11%. This increase may speed up Essilor’s E-health Care plan.

Exposure to combat explosions is quite harmful to eyesight, which has been testified by a study by Veterans Administration. At the joint meeting of the AAO and PAAO, the study revealed that Iraq and Afghanistan veterans’ quality of life are much poorer than comparable civilian patients because of traumatic brain injury. Another part of the study involved with the ways to care for patients suffering from vivid visual hallucinations caused by Charles Bonnet syndrome. 

In general, traumatic brain injury (TBI) can be caused by exposure to combat explosions, so that soldiers are quite susceptible to TBI. Some researchers at the Veterans Administration Palo Alto Department of Ophthalmology under Stanford University assessed visual function and occult eye injuries in 42 veterans. Two standard quality of life tests are used to evaluate these veterans with blast-related TBI, including the National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire (VFQ-25) and Neuro-Ophthalmic supplement (NOS). 

According to results of the tests, VFQ-25 scores gained by veterans were much lower than reference patients with other diseases, such as glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, and diabetes. Scores of veterans on the NOS were similar to that of VFQ-25. According to the researchers, VFQ-25 and NOS tests were sensitive to vision loss in patients with blast-related TBI. The eyes and related tissues are quite vulnerable to blast forces without proper protection during explosions. 

In addition, the study also pointed out that vivid visual hallucination can happen to about 20% patients with neuro-ophthalmic vision loss. As a main symptom of Charles Bonnet syndrome (CBS), visual hallucination is often neglected by the patients deliberately. These patients are afraid of being considered as mentally incompetent once physicians or family members know their neuro-ophthalmic vision loss. 

There are many special experiences in CBS patients. They may see wild animals in their closets, familiar or unfamiliar people sitting on their couches, or incongruous but realistic images and so on. CBS patients often lose the ability to differentiate hallucination from reality. Age related macular degeneration is the most common cause of vision loss in the old and CBS always accompanies AMD. But CBS is not confined to AMD patients.

The Japanese lens maker Hoya Corp spent $1 billion on the acquisition of Pentax Corp, which is the only unprofitable unit among Hoya’s divisions. But now, Hoya is planning to spend a further $1 billion in purchasing another company in the health care industry in order to expand its health-care unit. According to Hoya’s chief operating officer Hiroshi Hamada, Hoya will target assets as large as Pentax or pursue smaller venture-capital firms overseas. 

The health-care division is the most profitable unit in Hoya. This planned acquisition is in accordance with the company’s strategy, which also triggered the purchase of endoscope maker Pentax. Currently, the Pentax division under Hoya is facing larger rivals in the digital-camera market. Pentax is now supplying Samsung with single lens reflex cameras sold under the South Korean’s brand. 

But Hoya is also seeking to build a partnership with a consumer electronics company. Samsung is an ideal partner to have a deeper relationship, but Hoya still has no final decision. In the camera business circle, Hoya is still a small player but the firm will never shut down this business. The world’s largest maker of camera devices Canon Inc posted 246 billion yen in the first quarter. But Pentax’s sales were only 24.6 billion yen, only one tenth of Canon’s. 

However, Hoya is seeking another optical firm with the expectation to strengthen its health-care division. This unit accounted for about 14% of Hoya’s overall sales in the first quarter, compared to 10% in the same period of last year. Hoya now manufactures contact lenses and surgical implanted lenses. 

But Hoya is weak in basic technologies, according to states by an analyst at Ichiyoshi Research Institute in Tokyo named Mitsuhiro Osawa. He also pointed out that the newly acquired company should also help Hoya expand distribution channels for medical equipment. It is very hard to build a network so ECPs from the new firm are helpful for Hoya’s distribution.

“Keeping Your Attention” campaign from Shamir won the second CEBA Award, which was announced on October 12^th by American Business Media. This is the second time Shamir won CEBA Award. In 2008, the company received CEBA Award through its campaign named “In the Office: Autoreply”.

 Instituted in 1995, the Creative Excellence in Business Advertising (CEBA) Awards is presented by American Business Media every year, in order to recognize the top business-to-business advertising campaigns. The CEBA Awards was first conceived to enhance relationships among advertisers, agencies and publishers. This annual Awards is also used by people in this field to celebrate significant achievements in business publications, digital media and face-to-face events. 

There were hundreds of entries competing for the CEBA Awards from 2008 to 2009. CEBA Awards have a total of 14 different categories and 39 finalists were selected to compete for the final awards. Shamir’s “Keeping Your Attention” ad campaign was nominated in the category named the Single Ad-Spread or Larger. There were other two rivals in the same category for final competition. The first ad campaign named “Continental Airlines” was created by New York ad agency Mediavest. The second one called “Strive Collection” was sponsored by Eric Mower and Associates. All of them are national ad agencies. But Shamir won the final award of this category. 

Began in June of 2008, Shamir’s “Keeping Your Attention” campaign has creatively gained readers’ attention by utilizing untraditional imagery and copy. Receiving the second CEBA Award, Shamir takes it as an honor because the agency has been in a row for just two years. This award represents Shamir’s status among advertising’s elite agencies and in-house design teams such as BBDO, Ogilvy & Mather, and McCann Ericson and so on. 

Fully owned by Shamir Optical Industry, Shamir Insight based in Israel is a public company developing and manufacturing premium progressive lenses and molds for the ophthalmic industry. The company has many brand names such as Shamir Autograph, Shamir Creation, Shamir Piccolo and the like.

MILAN, Oct 29 (Reuters) -

Luxottica has just reported a 20.6% drop in profit for the third quarter, due to higher expenses and lower margins.

Italian eyewear maker Luxottica (LUX.MI) is looking to next year with a degree of optimism after a tough 2009, the group’s chief executive, Andrea Guerra, said on Thursday.

In 2010 the company aims to increase turnover and profit while reducing financial leverage, he added.

“2009 has been a challenging year but the worst is behind us. Today we are looking to the future with optimism,” Guerra said, speaking at a shareholders’ meeting.

He said 2010 should represent a return to normality.

“This for Luxottica means having a turnover that once more grows solidly, profits that improve more than proportionally (to sales) with strong cash generation,” he said.

Guerra said the ratio between core earnings (EBITDA) and debt should be below 2.5 times.

Luxottica has released third-quarter results later on Oct, 29.

(Reporting by Marie Louise Gumuchian)

Source:

http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssConsumerGoodsAndRetailNews/idUSLT68493020091029

Earlier this month, Luxottica hosted a workshop at the TFWA World Exhibition in Cannes. During this category management workshop, Travel-retail director Francis Gros made a presentation about the company’s new action. The premium eyewear manufacturer is going to enter a new category. 

Travel-Retail is totally new to Luxottica. This new approach of retail sales can be helpful for those people who lost freaking sunglasses in the airport or the like. With sunglasses from Luxottica sold at airport kiosks, the dream of these people has come true. Actually, Luxottica has wrecked quite a few big brands. But this time, the firm is still confident in its new category’s promising future.

 Travel-retail launched by Luxottica is now being carefully promoted. In fact, the workshop named Sunglasses: Time to Shine was used just as a launch pad for the company’s new approach to retailing the category in travel-retail. During the presentation, Gros proposed a step-by-step approach to sell Luxottica sunglasses through travel retail. The basic way is to use specialist sunglasses category management. 

In order to maximize the sales of the newly launched travel retail category, Luxottica is going to take full use of all its experience in sunglasses retailing. According to Gros’ presentation, the firm aims to establish the best practice and drill down to the guiding principles, which are considered to be essential to drive the whole category forward. 

Sunglasses are thought to be the cornerstone of the luxury offer by some leading travel retailers now. This is a good sign for Luxottica, because these travel retailers keep very positive expectation about sunglasses suited to the travel-retail environment. What’s more, these retailers claimed that they will take the category to a higher level. The workshop has hosted travel retailers including Aelia, Dubai Duty Free, Dufry Group, Gebr Heinemann and the Nuance Group and so on.