Which? magazine criticised over lens price comparison

The contact lens sector has reacted to the latest media probe on pricing of daily and longer wear lenses.

As we stated in last week's Optician (March 31), Which? magazine has reported that some daily disposable lenses and re-usable soft lenses are virtually identical, an allegation which the Daily Mail made in July last year.

The Which? article, which was published yesterday (April 6), has gone further, claiming that daily lenses are generally £1 a pair, and 'long-life' lenses are nearly £6 a pair.

'This means,'  the article reads, 'that the 1.4 million people who use weekly or monthly contact lenses are spending as much as £190 a year more than wearers who simply clean and reuse their daily lenses.'

The new editor of Which?, Neil Fowler, said: 'Many people who wear long-life contact lenses may be paying over the odds. They're more expensive than daily disposables yet, in many cases, the lenses are virtually identical.'

The Consumers' Association magazine also lists four of the five manufacturers it has contacted, revealing what it claims to be the annual price difference (see table below). Johnson & Johnson comes off worst in the comparison claims, with an £192.92 annual difference.

Which? contacted an unnamed contact lens maker and an anonymous 'optician', each with 30 years' experience. They agreed that the daily lenses from four of the five manufacturers were virtually the same as the longer-life lenses.

'Our contact lens maker said he found no evidence that the 1-Day Acuvue lenses couldn't be worn for longer.'

Bausch & Lomb told Which? its SofLens Comfort monthly lens contains a more advanced material than its daily One Day one, but 'our expert said the label shows the Comfort has the same basic chemistry as the One Day but contains slightly less water'.

CooperVision's Biomedics 1-Day and longer-life Biomedics 55UV and Frequency 55 lenses have 'virtually identical fitting characteristics, thickness and material' said one of the Which? experts, who added: 'I would regard them as interchangeable.'

Sauflon's daily New Day and monthly Clear Comfort lenses were also said to be identical.

Only CIBA Vision emerges from the article unscathed: 'Its daily lenses are made of a more fragile material and in a different way from the monthly ones.' [continued below]