Ciba warns against lack of plano control

The company has stated that unsupervised dispensing could result in ocular complications which would harm the public image of plano lenses. In Britain, the General Optical Council hopes to regulate the sale of plano lenses, and has put forward to the Government a detailed proposal to alter rules as one of the areas of legislative change in the UK profession. In the letter to the Canadian MDB, the company has drawn attention to what Ciba says is a need for regulation to ensure that cosmetic lenses are prescribed and dispensed in the same way as corrective lenses. In its message to the MDB's Therapeutics Products Prog-ramme, Steve Osbaldeston, president of Ciba Vision's North American lens business, raised the issue of companies that have begun distributing plano cosmetic lenses through fashion retailers in Canada. 'Currently, Canadian regulations do not regulate the sale of plano lenses, unlike the US, Europe and Japan, where they are classified as a medical device and regulated as other contact lenses,' said Mr Osbaldeston. 'We believe that long-term successful wear of contact lenses is best assured when lenses are prescribed after a thorough examination by a licensed professional who is responsible for on-going patient care.' He added that patients were best served when they received thorough instruction on wear and care from knowledgeable, experienced dispensers. 'We are concerned that unsupervised dispensing of plano contact lenses may result in cases of ocular complications that could damage the public's perception of the safety of all cosmetic contact lenses,' he told the TPP. He urged the Programme to immediately review their policy and change their regulations so that non-corrective lenses were re-classified as medical devices.