The state of the CL industry

Ian Davies, vice president of professional affairs and new business at J&J Vision Care EMA, takes an overview of the contact lens market and the challenges ahead

The past couple of years heralded the fifth revolution in the 120-year history of the contact lens.  The first was the introduction of the corneal PMMA lens. The next came with the introduction of hydrogel lenses in the 1960s and 70s, improving the comfort and further widening the number of people able to wear lenses. 

The introduction of the disposable lens in the 1980s marked the third revolution, changing for ever the way contact lenses were manufactured and fitted, and reducing the problem of long-term deposit build-up for the patient. A mere 10 years later the fourth revolution was the development of the daily disposable lens. Daily disposables eliminated the need for solutions and simplified the wearing regime of patients.

More recently, the fifth revolution was the introduction of silicone hydrogels. As a family of materials they have eliminated the problems of hypoxia.

Yet, despite the significant benefits to the patient of daily disposable and frequent replacement lenses the number of lens wearers in the UK remains stubbornly flat with just 2.5 million out of the 17.2 million 16-64 year-olds requiring vision correction wearing contact lenses. Now as we stand on the verge of the sixth revolution our question should be: how can we use the new material benefits of silicone hydrogel lenses to bring safe and totally comfortable contact lens wear to a new generation? Our profession and the contact lens industry have both great opportunities but also some significant challenges. In this article I will provide a personal perspective on many of these changes in the context of the UK contact lens market in 2005.