Hundreds of practices, people and companies enter the Optician Awards annually, each with their own particular motivations to do so. In the case of contact lens manufacturer Mark’ennovy electing to enter the Contact Lens Award category, it was the desire to stand out in a crowded marketplace.
‘The company underwent a fairly dramatic transformation and a change of ownership in the past couple of years,’ says Jim Dickson, head of professional affairs for UK and Ireland at Mark’ennovy.
‘Shortly after those changes, we launched the Mylo Toric [myopia management contact lens], which was the spur to enter the Optician Awards. This was because, while the myopia management contact lens market has been dominated by major suppliers, there is a need for a toric soft lens option. Entering the awards felt almost like a no brainer because astigmatism is very prevalent in myopes.’
Dickson explains that the silicone hydrogel material employed by Mylo Toric is very significant in terms of compliance.
‘If you take a child who is not seeing well, then I’m not convinced that they’re going to be fully compliant with a manufacturer’s recommended wearing time. Using silicone hydrogel helps with giving a better wearing experience for the patient and means we have strong oxygen transmission,’ he says.
The judges were wowed sufficiently to hand the Contact Lens Award to Mark’ennovy, paying tribute to the quality of support delivered by the company to practices in terms of product education. Dickson explains that the education provided was fine-tuned by a pre-launch process.
‘Across Europe, we selected 44 practices that were already active with Mylo and using it successfully to take part in a pre-launch for the toric version,’ says Dickson. ‘This involved them doing some fits for us and giving feedback. Our main objective was to find out if we needed to alter the fitting guide. Was there anything that we need to bear in mind for when the product is being used day-to-day in practices? We knew the technology worked, it’s the Brien Holden Vision Institute extended depth of focus technology. We were just adding in the toric element.
‘The result of the pre-launch was that two-thirds of patients could be fitted on the initial trial lenses alone. So that gave us confidence and, from there, we reached out as much as possible through webinars and articles with the message that we had something new in the toric version. The halo effect provided by the toric has benefitted the spherical Mylo product too. Many patients wear a sphere lens in one eye and a toric lens in the other. So, having begun using the Mylo toric, they move into using the Mylo sphere too. This has been a big positive for us.’
On to the awards night itself, how did the evening unfold for the Mark’ennovy team?
‘All the UK staff attended the event, and we took some guests along too,’ says Dickson. ‘For me, the whole evening was fantastic. I loved the dance routine, which I thought was just mesmerising, and the comedian Russell Kane was absolutely tremendous. At times I was laughing so hard, I missed the next joke. He had definitely done his research and had some real insight into the market.’
Before signing off, Dickson shares some of Mark’ennovy’s plans for the future.
‘It’s a dynamic time for the company under the new ownership,’ says Dickson. ‘Some of my colleagues are putting off retirement because there’s so much exciting stuff happening that they don’t want to miss out on. Our owner, Euclid Vision Group, has a plan to grow in this market and that will be through acquisition of companies as well as organic growth.
‘Recently the company bought Medmont. I’m not an expert in topography, but speaking to practitioners it is clear the high esteem that the Medmont Meridia Professional device is held in. I think we’ll see more and more products coming to the UK market as a result of this and other global acquisitions.’
