Brexit provides an opportunity for the revival of custom contact lens manufacturing in the UK, but only if industry leaders act promptly to make the government aware of the necessary steps.
Many small custom lens companies in the UK were set up initially to sell within the UK, if the business prospered and later decided to sell more widely than that was a happy outcome.
However, the EU single market regulations treat sales to geographically local customers as if they were to any country within the single market. In the case of custom contact lens manufacture the single market requirement was implemented by requiring all contact lenses manufactured in the EU to carry the CE mark. This in turn led to the imposition of extreme bureaucratic controls which effectively snuffed out what was a vigorous industry: There have been no start-ups in the UK since the CE mark was introduced, a truly astonishing statistic when you consider the grass roots activity of the 20 years prior to that. It is wholly false to suggest that the CE mark has improved product quality; this has been due exclusively to advances in custom lens manufacturing technology.
In the case of the custom contact lens manufacturing industry the body that must act is the ACLM. This organisation must urgently seek a meeting with the relevant government department at which it should seek to lift immediately the requirement for a CE mark for those UK manufacturers that do not intend to sell to the wider EU and crucially that any startups which do not plan to sell to the single market are also exempt.
The ACLM should not seek a meeting with the MHRA; there would be little point in that. The MHRA is a regulatory body; all it can do at this stage is to point out that the status quo continues. The action required needs to be political; the new government must be made aware it is essential for UK business to anticipate end state Brexit. The seeds must be sown now so that when Brexit takes effect we are up and running and not meandering about looking lost – as the political establishment now seems to be. Leadership, good management and a clear sense of direction of UK contact lens manufacturing is essential.
The ACLM needs urgently to re-establish itself as an effective trade association – a body that represents the best interests of all UK contact lens manufacturing. It should disassociate itself from the failed and discredited Euromcontact body and look exclusively at UK interests. Immediate action is required – but will we get it?
Tony Hough, Contact lens consultant and former president of the BCLA, Huntingdon