Cooper confident of lens market potential

CooperVision, the giant US contact lens manufacturer which bought Ocular Sciences this year, claims it has 'the strongest product pipeline in the industry'.
This is according to the chief executive officer of its parent company, Cooper Companies, which released its latest financial figures this week.
Announcing second-quarter results, Thomas Bender claimed that CV's new Proclear, biomedics and silicone hydrogel releases would allow the speciality lens maker to be well-positioned to compete in every major market category around the world.
'Over the next 12 to 36 months we will extend the range of our successful Proclear brand, which improves comfort for patients who experience symptoms relating to dryness during lens wear,' he said, 'and introduce an improved, second generation of silicone hydrogel products.'
In the six months to April 30, CV's worldwide revenue grew by 77 per cent - from US$182.1m (2004) to $310.6m - though it revised down its forecast for the whole of 2005 from $732m-$739m to $720m-$727m.
Cooper acquired Ocular Sciences at the start of the year and Robert Weiss, chief operating officer, said the integration process was going well.
'We anticipate that when the integration is completed, we will have exceeded $50m in operational synergies,' he commented.
Cooper reported that CV's European lens revenue - about 35 per cent of CV's total revenue - grew by 83 per cent, led by spherical lenses, up 82 per cent, and toric lenses, up 78 per cent.
A spokesman for the company said: 'The soft contact lens market remains strong according to independent market research data that measures shipments by contact lens manufacturers throughout the world and data from Health Products Research, (HPR) that measures patient visits to contact lens practitioners in the US.'
During the first calendar quarter, contact lens revenue worldwide reported by the four leading contact lens manufacturers grew 12 per cent, he said. Total patient visits to practitioners in the US grew 8 per cent.
david.challinor@rbi.co.uk