The first soft contact lenses were made in 1961, a breakthrough from hard, uncomfortable contacts. However, commercial potential was constrained by low water-content (poor permeability), low-yields (high costs) and ragged-edges (poor comfort).
Although improvements were made, the facts were that these problems resulted in vision-threatening risks, which in turn resulted in expensive optician-provided aftercare needs. A Which? report from September 1991 showed that prices were very high at £54 per lens with cleaning solutions and protein removal tablets adding over £120 per year.
For 30 years, regulations that were primarily dictated by the US FDA, restricted experimentation for safer, more convenient and comfortable contact lenses. Award was my first contact lens business, which was located in my back garden. I discovered how to produce very low-cost and very high-quality soft lenses, giving rise to the creation of the world’s first daily wear/daily disposable soft contact lens. It was a true eureka moment for me.
In 1992, following presentations to the University of Manchester and Boots Opticians, Award secured healthcare and commercial endorsement letters. These letters and our process patents were the ‘birth certificates’ essential for obtaining capital for launching this revolutionary contact lens modality.
Within less than a year, scale-up of production was completed in the world’s first full-scale factory dedicated to daily-disposables. In 1996, feeling that my invention-work was done, I bowed-out of the Award business. I had led the sale to Bausch+Lomb (B+L) for $33m, with another $15m for patent purchase and had laid the foundations for huge expansion with a local B+L workforce of more than 1,000. The UK and Europe’s regulatory approval environment facilitated development, marketing and sales growth for low-risk daily-disposables. Also, the Award lenses could be profitably retailed at just 50p per lens in stark contrast to the high prevailing prices. Three other major manufacturers soon entered the daily lens market, spurring great competition.
A new approach
Convinced that emerging internet technology could now revolutionise how lenses were sold, my wife Moya and I began researching the subject by visiting the US. This led to us launching, in 2001, a new internet based business-to-business company, Daysoft, which coincided with the end of my five year ‘non-compete’ agreement with B+L.
Unfortunately, we soon discovered that there was no incentive for opticians to alter their retail sale and supply model, even for lower-cost Daysoft lenses. It was simpler to just take improved margins. Daysoft was perceived as just another producer. Retail prices remained unnecessarily high to match or exceed the retail prices of traditional reusable and extended wear lenses despite these having higher vision-loss risks.
Then in 2005, changes to the Opticians Act were announced removing the retail monopoly historically enjoyed by opticians and thereby facilitating direct to consumer online sales. After months of trying unsuccessfully to create an online-based partnership between opticians and Daysoft, we decided to go direct to consumer in anticipation of disruption from changes online.
We invited the then editor of Optician to visit us to explain first-hand why Daysoft was ‘going direct’ with a ‘brand substation’ model. Our initiative was featured in the editorial in April 2006. This rock, thrown in the pool of retail optics, still causes reverberations around the global optical establishments that want to hark back to the halcyon monopoly days when money was made from eye tests, the sales of the actual lenses, aftercare and even lens insurance plans. However, Daysoft’s business model soon demonstrated wide acceptance by wearers who were experiencing great convenience and lower prices with reduced risks. We had won the internet argument.
We considered it useful to update the public about Daysoft by again asking Optician to publish this account of progress. The company sells tens of millions of its daily-disposable contact lenses every year to hundreds of thousands of returning customers who order worldwide on our website at under 20p per lens, delivered. However, by far the most significant benefit of the Daysoft business-model is its real-time database covering a billion lenses sold. In short, we know who got what lenses with what experiences. Consumer feedback shows there’s no difference whether Daysoft universal fit lenses are substituted for over 200 big brands or dispensed via retail or online methods, but cost just half the price.
Regarding sustainability, Daysoft’s manufacturing process is highly efficient. The lens is never handled, saving costs and eliminating damage. Our Inpac process also means the lens is made and delivered in the same small mould, reducing plastic consumption by over 40%. Our lenses are guaranteed to always be presented correctly to wearers for easy, predictable, handling and is never folded in the pod. Remarkably, contacts that need daily cleaning or are recommended for overnight wear are still being dispensed despite the known risks.
I would like to say ‘job done,’ but Daysoft will not be resting anytime soon.