Bausch + Lomb believes it has the product to improve the vision and lifestyles of many presbyopes. Now it is calling on optometrists to take another closer look at contact lenses, in the interests of their patients and practices.
Depending on what angle you are looking from, encouraging Australian practices and patients to use contact lenses is either a massive challenge or a grand opportunity.
Simon Hanna, Bausch + Lomb’s (B+L) national professional services manager in Australia, likes to think of it as the latter.
But he knows he has his work cut out.
In other parts of B+L’s global marketplace, contact lenses have greater penetration – for instance, adoption rates in the US are approximately 17%.
In Australia, it’s more like 5-13%, and there is plenty of historical hesitancy towards contact lenses in patients and even practices.
But Hanna has good reason to be optimistic and favour opportunity over obstacles.
He not only has a proven product featuring advanced technology, he also has the clinical and observational data to back the company’s claims that the contact lenses will help patients see and feel better.
B+L launched its Ultra One Day Multifocal contact lenses in May 2024. That followed the arrival of its spherical version a few years earlier.
The latest lens design ticked all the boxes – it is entered in the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG 341559 ) and featured plenty of innovative technology to tempt both practice and patient.
That innovation includes a next-generation material called kalifilcon A, with Advanced MoistureSeal technology to deliver “a highly wettable surface and excellent breathability for healthy lens wear”.
The Advanced MoistureSeal technology works with a breakthrough ComfortFeel innovation the company says infuses the lens with eye health ingredients such as moisturisers/conditioners, osmoprotectants and electrolytes.
It says this helps to deliver comfort for a full 16 hours of lens wear and support a stable and healthy ocular environment.
But Australia remains a tough market for contact lenses, so Hanna and the company knew they would need extra evidence to convince practitioners.
That came in the form of a field observation study undertaken in the US before the official launch of the Ultra One Day Multifocal lens – known as Infuse Multifocal.
The study sought the feedback of almost 300 early adopters and the practices supporting them.
Of those 290 contact lens wearers, 91% said the B+L product felt “incredibly soft, smooth and weightless”, with 90% agreeing that it allowed them to move “effortlessly” between various tasks throughout the day.
That supported other trials from the company demonstrating ease of fitting and comfort for both the daily and monthly lenses.
The clinical study showed 87% of patients could be successfully fitted in one visit and 99% in two visits, if the practitioner followed the fitting guidelines.
The research showed the Ultra One Day Multifocal contact lens provided clear vision at near and far distances in 80% of patients, as well as clear vision when driving at night for 75% of respondents.
“That gave us the confidence to go to market, knowing that the optometrists who are prescribing this are going to have quite a high success rate,” says Hanna.
He believes optometrists should also have plenty of confidence, knowing they’re prescribing a multifocal lens that’s able to improve the vision issues of many patients. The fact presbyopia is a growing category is a bonus.
“Our recommendation is that optometrists prescribe a lens, rather than let the patient decide or trial multiple ones and see what fits feels better,” he says.
“The optometrists really have that obligation to make sure they are prescribing what’s best for their patients, and this is a premium, prescribed lens.”
To help practitioners build their confidence, not only in the B+L products but also contact lenses in general, Hanna has been conducting a number of education sessions and attending events around Australia.
Part of that is to help the sector understand the innovative technology in the B+L lens, but it’s also a chance to “bust a few myths” about contact lenses.
“This year we are talking to optometrists about this idea that patients with dry eye have, historically, not been able to wear contact lenses,” he says.
“Because of the innovative technology of the materials and the ComfortFeel technology of the Ultra One Day lenses in particular, what we have found is that more and more people can wear contact lenses and not have that discomfort.”
“The ComfortFeel technology involves a unique combination of eye health ingredients which support the ocular surface and supports patients who are likely to have evaporative dry eye disease or have discomfort or dryness.
“This is also where the advanced MoistureSeal technology comes in,” says Hanna. “The hydrophilic wetting agents actually boost the water content of the lens to 55% and it optimises the wettability of the surface of the lens.
“And the lens material is a silicone hydrogel, which provides greater oxygen permeability.”
Comfort or the lack of it, is the number one reason people stop wearing contact lenses, he says.
“Patients generally don’t drop out of contact lenses because of price, handling or convenience.
“They’re happy to sacrifice some of their vision, but they’re not happy to sacrifice comfort. ”
But patients don’t have to sacrifice any vision with the Ultra One Day Multifocal lenses, says Hanna.
They can actually improve it.
The product is targeted at the growing cohort of presbyopic patients over the age of 40.
“Those people tend to have very different and demanding visual needs, depending on their lifestyle or their vocation.
“Their expectations are high – they go to the gym after work, they’re going out, they spend a lot of time online and on their devices.”
To enable that and support vision across many different tasks, the Ultra One Day Multifocal lens features a 3-Zone Progressive Design , ensuring consistent focus at all distances with smooth transitions between zones.
In clinical testing, 90% of wearers agreed the lens allowed them to move effortlessly from various tasks throughout the day.
Hanna says they should perform well, and perhaps better than spectacles.
“The pair of glasses that sit on the outside of your face are static lenses.”
“The contact lens sitting on the cornea of the eye itself means that when the patient needs to look at something up close, their eye naturally goes to that centre zone,” he says.
“When they are looking in the distance their eye knows to pick up the outer circle of the three-zone lens, so you’re not having to find the sweet spot.
“So if you can get a lens that performs really well, like the Ultra One Day Multifocal does, in terms of its three-zones design, and it’s comfortable because of the other proven technologies – the Advanced MoistureSeal and ComfortFeel Technologies – that’s also really convenient in terms of a multifocal option.”
An option that makes sense for those looking to build their practice and business.
“The opportunity, it seems, is not just for B+L – patients and practices can benefit as well,” says Hanna.
“Contact lens patients generally will be patients that are more loyal to the business, people that will come back more frequently, and so you’re more likely to see them and their family for regular eye conditions and routine eye checks,” he says.
“They tend to see their optometrists more frequently than the sort of once every two or three years for a normal eye test.”
“B+L has the product,” says Hanna.
Will the industry take up the challenge and seize the opportunity?
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References
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