History: An end to the CL stranglehold

The first soft contact lenses were made in 1961, a breakthrough from hard, uncomfortable contacts. However, commercial potential was constrained by low water-content (poor permeability), low-yields (high costs) and ragged-edges (poor comfort).

Although improvements were made, the facts were that these problems resulted in vision-threatening risks, which in turn resulted in expensive optician-provided aftercare needs. A Which? report from September 1991 showed that prices were very high at £54 per lens with cleaning solutions and protein removal tablets adding over £120 per year.

For 30 years, regulations that were primarily dictated by the US FDA, restricted experimentation for safer, more convenient and comfortable contact lenses. Award was my first contact lens business, which was located in my back garden. I discovered how to produce very low-cost and very high-quality soft lenses, giving rise to the creation of the world’s first daily wear/daily disposable soft contact lens. It was a true eureka moment for me.