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

On Jan 13, 2011, FTC (Specifically Office of Policy Planning, Bureau of Economics, Bureau of Competition) wrote a 17-page reply-letter to Ms. Sue M. Kornegay of NC State Board of Opticians who wrote earlier to FTC officials proposing to redefine the meaning of “Prescription” for eyeglasses, contact lenses, so that the “measurements taken by opticians are not considered part of the patients’ prescription, and are not required to be released as part of a RX. In Ms. Sue’s letter, she proposed to impose certain requirements solely on electronic optical business, including internet sites, but not “B&M” vendors, and impose certain new requirements on out-of-state vendors, including Internet sites.

FTC’s reply said that the existing federal and state regulations already provide extensive protections for the health and safety of contact lens and eyeglass wearers. Rather, the NC’s provision will likely impose higher costs on vendors of prescription eyewear, which may raise prices to NC consumers of optical goods.

FTC thinks the NC proposal will hamper affordable access to optical goods which is more strictly than patient protection requires. The federal laws of the Eyeglass Rule and Contact Lenses Rule may preempt any state and local laws restricting patients’ ability to obtain their contact lens and eyeglasses prescription, so that they can comparison shop for the deals that best suit their preferences.

FTC further emphasizes that competition is the core of America’s economy, and vigorous competition among sellers in an open marketplace gives consumers the benefits of lower prices, higher quality, more choices and greater innovation. Because of the importance of health care competition to the economy and consumer welfare, anticompetitive conduct in health care markets has long been a key target of FTC law enforcement, research and adovacy.

FTC pointed out that particularly about the Eyeglass Rule. Before 1978, many prescribers( ECPs) either refused to release RX to their customers or charge an additional fee to do so. Prices for glasses varied widely as much as 300%. To address the problem, the Eyeglass Rule requires optometrists and ophthalmologists to provide their patients immediately after completion of eye exam, a free copy of RX.

Now in the minds of some conservative ECPs, PD is the number that is NOT required to be released to patients. Here is the FTC’s definition of “Prescription” by Eyeglass Rule, which defines “PRESCRIPTION” to mean the “Written specifications for lenses for eyeglasses which are derived from an eye examination, including ALL THE INFORMATION specified by state law, in any, NECESSARY TO OBTAIN LENSES FOR EYEGLASSES”. Before Internet optical sites arise, NO PD in RX is not a problem, and opticians can capture this number easily in the store. In the Internet era, the ALL THE NECESSARY info then automatically should INCLUDE the PD which is hotly discussed among ECPs recently. Eyeglass Rule as the only law in the industry of retail RX eyewear, it applies to all likely situations.

To address the safety concerns as pointed our in Ms. Sue’s letter to FTC, that online optical goods may cause harm to public’s eyecare health, FTC for this point  replied that they are following up the cases of online purchase of eyewear and contacts, and so far there is no documentation showing that contacts and eyeglasses bought online are imposing harms to the consumers.

Bausch & Lomb is recalling a number of lots of its ReNu Multi-Purpose Solution and ReNu MultiPlus MPS in Europe and other countries.

B+L explained that the recall does not necessarily mean safety and efficacy problems. After routine test by the company, it is found the recalled batches are safe and effective if used as instucted, but it does not meet the expectations of quality control process of B+L. This shows B+L is a responsible company.

Though there were no reports about the adverse effects from above recalled solutions, the stability monitor programme aims to eliminate any possible problems that may occur months later.

B+L also stated that they are going to withdraw a single batch of (AA120) of 120ml ReNu MultiPlus MPS in Croatia, Dubai, Hungary, Serbia, Romania, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. This only represents 0.1% of the batch. B+L has informed the eyeglasses retailers and eye care providers the specific steps to return these batches.

In the history,  B+L recalled ReNu MoistureLoc in May 2006. The reason for the recall was its formulation. It was found that its formation, if combined with certain use patterns, will likely to cause an increased risk of eye disease of fusarium keratitis.

Luxottica is a global leader in designing, manufacturing and distribution of eyewear. Its eyewear products cover styles of fashion, luxury and sports. The company has been a market leader and its retail brands are well-known in the optical industry. Until September 30 of 2009, Luxottica Group had operated 2,939 optical stores across North America, including LensCrafters and Pearle Vision. But there is a further plan in Luxottica. This optical giant is seeking to get income by going into a new direction. During the past years, Luxottica has never succeeded in selling eyewear products through the Internet. Now, top officials in Luxottica think it is the time to bridge this gap.

On December 15^th, Luxottica announced a strategic, multi-year ecommerce alliance with drugstore.com, which is a leading online retailer of health, beauty, vision and pharmacy products. The simple goal of such an alliance is to expand online access to Luxottica’s contact lenses in the North American market, improving the company’s North American business. Luxottica wanted to utilize drugstore.com’s ecommerce platform and strength in online technology, marketing, customer care and fulfillment. This may be the simplest way for Luxottica to start online business. In detail, the leading online contact lens retailer Vision Direct under drugstore.com will conduct details of the cooperation. Vision Direct will help Luxottica Group develop branded contact lens ecommerce sites and provide customer care and fulfillment services.

This alliance has received satisfactory comments from both sides. The Executive Vice President of Luxottica named Valerio Giacobbi said that the agreement with drugstore.com would significantly help Luxottica achieve the goal to attract more customers, improving their acknowledge of contact lenses as an important vision care option. According to the CEO and Chairman of the Board of drugstore.com, the cooperation with Luxottica represented an unparalleled opportunity for drugstore.com to extend its partnership strategy. In the future, the two companies may conduct further cooperation in other related areas such as Luxottica’s wholesale business.

According to research presented at the American Academy of Optometry, contact lenses prescribed for longer replacement intervals can lead to more extreme over-wear, causing undesirable clinical effects. An article from opticianonline revealed some of the concerning figures about this situation. According to results of the research, more than half of wearers of frequent replacement contact lenses did not comply with their prescribed replacement schedule.

Participants in the survey contained two groups: one of them wore two-week contact lenses and the other group wore monthly lenses. Their responses were both disappointing. The research conducted an online sponsor-masked survey which took a random sample of 645 frequent replacement contact lens wearers. The results were quite bad and similar.

In the group containing two-week lens wearers, only 43% of them replaced their lenses as prescribed. There were 65% of them replaced lenses every three weeks, 85% at eight weeks or more and 2% at ten weeks or more. When researchers came to assess the group who wore monthly lenses, only 36% of them maintained lens replacement as required. About 55% only replaced their lenses at five weeks, 23% at eight weeks or more and 14% at 10 weeks or more.

Among all of these unexpected numbers, the most surprising one was the percentage of patients who extended lens replacement to eight weeks or more. Such an interval was significantly longer than a normal requirement. This result considerably surprised the study author Sheila Hickson-Curran who was also director of medical affairs at Vistakon.

The survey of the research is just an example of the popular practice among contact lens wearers. Most wearers will ask their doctors to extend the Rx “this one time” but will not schedule an appointment when they run out of their lenses. Encountering such kind of patients, eye doctors would wish them go to a retail chain for Rx and materials instead.

Transition lenses have long been on the market for nearly 40 years. But only eyeglass lenses are available. These eyeglass lenses would automatically darken in response to bright sunlight and restore their normal brightness once sunlight is removed. The basic principle of these transition sunglasses is to use millions of molecules of photochromic dyes. These dyes can absorb UV light, which leads to a shape change. As a result, the lenses will darken. Once UV light disappears, the molecules will restore their normal shape and maintain transparent. 

This flexibility has never been successfully adapted to contact lenses. But now, researchers in Singapore are addressing this challenge. They have partially succeeded in developing UV-responsive contact lenses that offer similar functions as photochromic sunglass lenses. Under the Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN), researches led by Jackie Ying have successfully developed their photochromic contact lenses and plan to test them in animals. 

The most important factor that assesses the success of their UV-responsive contact lenses is to see whether the dyes are contained within the lenses stably. In fact, the most difficult task is to fill the dyes that are responsible for brightness change in the lenses. Jackie Ying and his colleagues use a novel polymer laced with an intricate network of nano-sized tunnels to “store” the dyes. This most challenging task of applying dye coatings to the lens surface has been solved. In other words, photochromic contact lenses developed by these researchers embed dyes uniformly throughout the lens material. In this way, more dye molecules can be packed into the lens material. 

Speed of transition is the most critical factor for both photochromic eyeglass lenses and UV-responsive contact lenses. For instance, a car suddenly going into a tunnel requires immediate brightness change in the driver’s lenses. Thanks to the special design from IBN, their photochromic contact lenses have greater sensitivity to light and offer a faster response. According to Ying, their UV-responsive contact lenses take only 10 to 20 seconds to darken or brighten.

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.

There will be a new recapitalization within Safilo. Currently the company has a total net debt of 590 million euros. What’s more serious, Safilo has still suffered falling preliminary third-quarter results that both the turnover and core profit were much lower than the numbers of the same period last year. The core profit of this third-quarter was only 3.5 million, compared to 16.7 million a year ago. In addition, orders for the first two weeks of October suffered a 12.5% decrease compared with the same period of the last year. 

During the conference call with analysts, Chief Executive of Safilo Roberto Vedovotto also confessed that the operating performance of the group was very weak in October. Safilo has been a great victim of the global economic downturn. The sales of the company have greatly decreased during the last year. The firm had been long as the world’s second largest eye wear maker. But now, Safilo needs a large funds inflow in order to guarantee its survival. 

Currently, Safilo Chairman Vittorio Tabacchi’s family owns about 40% stake of the company. After the capital reconstruction, this number will be reduced to only 10%. The big buyer is Hal Investments, which is a Dutch shareholder. Hal Investments mainly focus on optical retail chain operators such as Pearle Europe and Grand Vision. 

Hal Investments only holds 2% of Safilo but its share will reach 49.99% in the near future. Hal is the main player that it will first buy Safilo stock for 13 million euros, which triggers a further investment of 250 million euros from Hal, Banca IMI and UniCredit. Moreover, Hal will buy Safilo’s non-core and loss-making retail chains in Spain, Australia and China for about 20 million euros. As a result, Safilo will receive a total of 283 million euro funds inflow. And it is said that the company will use about 185 million to repay its debt. 

After such a reconstruction, Safilo itself is expected to concentrate on production and its licenses, while Hal would focus on distribution.

From April 2008 to March 2009, the number of complaints to the Optical Consumer Complaints Service (OCCS) reached 2,479, which was 35% higher than the figure in 2007. This increase in complaints has been revealed by the optical watchdog’s annual report, which was published last Friday.

 This nearly one-third higher number indicates that more and more customers have difficulty dealing with optical practices. These reported complaints include ‘buy one and get one free’ offers, failure to require prescriptions as well as refusal by eye doctors to measure the interpupillary distance. 

These complaints were made through different means, that 43% of the total 2,479 cases were received by letter, 9% by email and 48% were reported through telephone. 

The OCCS has also pointed out that some of the resolved cases have also been recorded, which collection method is different from that in 2007. In this case, the 35% increase in complaints could not actually reflect the real condition. Even the watchdog has admitted that this figure should not be considered as an indication of deterioration in optical standards. 

As an administrator of OCCS, Richard Wilshin thought that the increased number only indicated that more people were resorting to the OCCS. Those people just channeled their complaints elsewhere in the past, so that the increase of complaints as a whole in the industry may be not true. 

Wilshin also suggested that customers should keep greater awareness of the literal interpretation while taking advantages of offers. Some complaints actually came from improper expectations kept by customers. They expected to get the free frame with the same quality and price as the one that was to be paid.

www.eyeoverheard.com

Silmo Optical Exhibition was held from 17 Sept to 20 Sept in Paris Expo Porte de Versailles. Recently the Silmo organization released the attendence report, stating a 20% decrease of attendees. The reason of the decline can be attributable to the downturn of world economy and new H1N1 flu. Among the  total 32000 visitors, 49% from France and 51% from other parts of the world. The percentage ratio remained unchanged comparing with that of 2008.

Silmo Optical Exhibition is the big gathering of exhibitors and visitors from the entire optical-eye correction industry. Exhibitors include parts manufacturers, finished goods manufacturers and retail brands of eyeglasses, sunglasses, lenses, contact lenses amd other related products. Visitors include optical industry manufacturers, importers and exporters, traders and general public.

From: www.eyeoverheard.com

The newly formed Sacramento Community Cancer Coalition has started to grant prostate screening for those underserved populations. In addition, most of the underserved people are black men, who are estimated to be twice more likely to die of prostate cancer than white men. As the most common cancer among American men, prostate cancer can also significantly benefit from early detection and treatment. 

This new organization is just a brainchild of Dr. Darry1 Hunter, which has partnership with VSP, a Rancho Cordova-based vision insurance provider. Through this cooperation, Hunter provides free eyeglasses to those underserved people in the means of two recreational vehicles as mini optometry offices run by VSP. The two portable clinics travel around the nation and give comprehensive eye exams as well as taking glass orders from patients. The VSP mobile clinic is airy and wood-paneled inside. There are also a wall of eyeglasses and fully equipped exam rooms. People without health insurance can receive vision exam and an additional prostate exam if they want. 

UC Davis medical school students also run another program weekly in the Oak Park neighborhood, which is known as Saturday’s clinic. In conjunction with the free Imani clinic, Saturday’s clinic also cooperates with 11 organizations including the African American Prostate Cancer Initiative and 100 Black Men of Sacramento Inc. 

Organizers of Saturday’s clinic also make use of the common sense that most people trust message from a neighbor, a friend or a congregant. They have been finding connection methods that a particular community can relate to. However, all nonprofit organizations are hurting now and the staff of Saturday’s clinic has to share resources with others. It is also ensured that the benefit to the community is actually increased. 

These private efforts are expected to bear much of the brunt of health care for uninsured individuals and please those people.

From: www.eyeoverheard.com