Taking the pulse of the UK contact lens market

A recent analysis of soft lens wearers in Europe suggested that the number of wearers in the UK is towards the top of the league table (Figure 1).1
Despite this, there has been concern that the UK market has reached a plateau in recent years and in 2001, the Association of Contact Lens Manufacturers initiated a 'market growth initiative' to promote the use of contact lenses. This report aims to review the current health of the UK contact lens market and is based on sales data submitted by 19 members of the ACLM for 2003.
Data provided by this organisation are very comprehensive as these companies are responsible for over 95 per cent of the contact lenses supplied into the UK market.
The key parameters used in this report are market size and 'wearer base' Ð the number of people who use contact lenses. 'Wearer base' can be expressed in absolute numbers or as a proportion of the adult population.
The size of the contact lens market in 2003 was £146.2m, made up of the sale of over 352 million contact lenses. Wearer base size was 3.05 million, representing 6.2 per cent of the adult population. Table 1 shows the number of wearers by lens type, indicating that the most commonly used lens type is soft frequent replacement (lenses replaced at least monthly, with the exception of daily disposables) with 45 per cent of wearers, followed by daily disposables (30 per cent), rigid (13 per cent), soft traditional (10 per cent) and silicone hydrogels (3 per cent).
Figure 2 illustrates the type of lens design worn by the 3.05 million wearers. A great majority (87 per cent) use spherical lenses, with 7.9 per cent using torics, 2.2 per cent wearing coloured lenses and 1.7 per cent using multifocals.

Comparison with previous years
The number of contact lens wearers remained about the same in 2003 as in 2002, although the three-year moving average suggests that the trend upwards has been maintained (Figure 3).
Analysis of the number of wearers by lens type confirms the trends seen in recent years. Traditional soft lenses accounted for about 70 per cent of all wearers in 1992, whereas this number stands at 10 per cent today. The other mainstream lens type in 1992 (rigid lenses) has seen a decrease in the proportion of wearers from about 30 per cent in 1992 to 13 per cent in 2003. However, this fall is exaggerated by the increase in the popularity of soft lenses over this 11-year period. In fact, the number of rigid lens wearers has only fallen from 490,000 in 1992 to 390,000 in 2003 Ð a 22 per cent reduction.
The expansion of contact lens wear during the 1990s was largely due to the introduction of frequent replacement lenses and daily disposable lenses in the first and second halves of that decade, respectively. These two lens types accounted for 2 per cent of contact lens wearers in 1992 and 74 per cent of wearers in 2003.
The biggest proportional change in wearers between 2002 and 2003 was for silicone hydrogels which showed a 32 per cent increase, although the absolute number of wearers remains relatively low.

Summary
The increase in contact lens wearers seen over recent years was consolidated in 2003 and the wearer base is 10 per cent greater than at the start of the ACLM's market growth initiative in 2001. Superficially, the main growth in wearers has been in users of daily disposable lenses, although it is important to consider that an apparent plateau in lens wearers (as is the case in frequent replacement wearers) is likely to represent the 'cancelling out' of new wearers fitted into that lens type with a similar number of drop-outs.2

References
1 Morgan PB. A comparison of soft contact lens markets in Europe. Global Contact, 2003; 35: 56-58.
2 Sulley A, Rogers J and Griffin P. (2002) Lapsed wearers Ð a bigger problem than we thought. Poster at the BCLA Clinical Conference, Birmingham, UK.

Dr Philip Morgan is Research Manager at Eurolens Research, UMIST and is an honorary member of the ACLMA recent analysis of soft lens wearers in Europe suggested that the number of wearers in the UK is towards the top of the league table (Figure 1).1
Despite this, there has been concern that the UK market has reached a plateau in recent years and in 2001, the Association of Contact Lens Manufacturers initiated a 'market growth initiative' to promote the use of contact lenses. This report aims to review the current health of the UK contact lens market and is based on sales data submitted by 19 members of the ACLM for 2003.
Data provided by this organisation are very comprehensive as these companies are responsible for over 95 per cent of the contact lenses supplied into the UK market.
The key parameters used in this report are market size and 'wearer base' Ð the number of people who use contact lenses. 'Wearer base' can be expressed in absolute numbers or as a proportion of the adult population.
The size of the contact lens market in 2003 was £146.2m, made up of the sale of over 352 million contact lenses. Wearer base size was 3.05 million, representing 6.2 per cent of the adult population. Table 1 shows the number of wearers by lens type, indicating that the most commonly used lens type is soft frequent replacement (lenses replaced at least monthly, with the exception of daily disposables) with 45 per cent of wearers, followed by daily disposables (30 per cent), rigid (13 per cent), soft traditional (10 per cent) and silicone hydrogels (3 per cent).
Figure 2 illustrates the type of lens design worn by the 3.05 million wearers. A great majority (87 per cent) use spherical lenses, with 7.9 per cent using torics, 2.2 per cent wearing coloured lenses and 1.7 per cent using multifocals.

Comparison with previous years
The number of contact lens wearers remained about the same in 2003 as in 2002, although the three-year moving average suggests that the trend upwards has been maintained (Figure 3).
Analysis of the number of wearers by lens type confirms the trends seen in recent years. Traditional soft lenses accounted for about 70 per cent of all wearers in 1992, whereas this number stands at 10 per cent today. The other mainstream lens type in 1992 (rigid lenses) has seen a decrease in the proportion of wearers from about 30 per cent in 1992 to 13 per cent in 2003. However, this fall is exaggerated by the increase in the popularity of soft lenses over this 11-year period. In fact, the number of rigid lens wearers has only fallen from 490,000 in 1992 to 390,000 in 2003 Ð a 22 per cent reduction.
The expansion of contact lens wear during the 1990s was largely due to the introduction of frequent replacement lenses and daily disposable lenses in the first and second halves of that decade, respectively. These two lens types accounted for 2 per cent of contact lens wearers in 1992 and 74 per cent of wearers in 2003.
The biggest proportional change in wearers between 2002 and 2003 was for silicone hydrogels which showed a 32 per cent increase, although the absolute number of wearers remains relatively low.

Summary
The increase in contact lens wearers seen over recent years was consolidated in 2003 and the wearer base is 10 per cent greater than at the start of the ACLM's market growth initiative in 2001. Superficially, the main growth in wearers has been in users of daily disposable lenses, although it is important to consider that an apparent plateau in lens wearers (as is the case in frequent replacement wearers) is likely to represent the 'cancelling out' of new wearers fitted into that lens type with a similar number of drop-outs.2

References
1 Morgan PB. A comparison of soft contact lens markets in Europe. Global Contact, 2003; 35: 56-58.
2 Sulley A, Rogers J and Griffin P. (2002) Lapsed wearers Ð a bigger problem than we thought. Poster at the BCLA Clinical Conference, Birmingham, UK.

Dr Philip Morgan is Research Manager at Eurolens Research, UMIST and is an honorary member of the ACLM