Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis has been given approval by EU regulators to purchase a 52 per cent stake in eye care company Alcon in addition to the 25 per cent it already owns.
Novartis will be allowed to buy the stake from current owner Nestlé after agreeing to divest several products in the ophthalmological, pharmaceutical and consumer eye care sectors in the EU.
Johnson & Johnson Vision Care is supporting the Sight Care Group's 'Eye Love My Local Independent Optician' campaign to raise awareness of the benefits of independent local optical practices. Senior product manager of Johnson & Johnson Vision Care for UK and Ireland Shirley Bovonsombat said: 'Johnson & Johnson Vision Care is proud to be supporting a campaign that gives the independent sector a voice. We look forward to working with the Sight Care Group to help highlight the valuable contribution independents make to the eye care market.'
Kingsholm stadium in Gloucester is the venue for the Federation of Manufacturing Opticians (FMO) regional meeting on October 14. Meetings on frames, lenses and equipment will be held in the morning to discuss the current state of the market and are only open to FMO members. After lunch non-FMO members will be welcome to attend presentations on finance and insurance in optics as well as an update on Optrafair 2011.
Carleton has been appointed the authorised Canon distributor and service agent for the UK and Ireland. As a result the company will add Canon's line of digital retinal imaging systems, as well the associated control software to its brand portfolio. 'We are proud to work with Canon, as well as Optopol [which was acquired by Canon earlier in 2010] to realise their goal to become world number one in ophthalmic diagnostic equipment,' explained Nick Fitrzyk, managing director of Carleton.