Research and development are at the core of Synergeyes’ business model and were the foundation of its recent transition in focus. Bob Ferrigno, CEO at Synergeyes, explains: ‘We have intentionally shifted from being a hybrid contact lens company to a speciality CL company. Hybrid lenses are the core and foundation of our business, but we offer so much more than that; as we sat down to set out our purpose a few years ago we decided that purpose should be to improve quality of life by delivering personalised vision around the world.’
Ferrigno has been in his post for six-and-a-half years now, having moved from his previous position as president of North America at CooperVision. He says it feels like he has been working in the CL field for ever, but this has not stopped him driving the company forward.
‘About five years ago we set the flag in the ground to say we wanted to expand our footprint,’ Ferrigno says. ‘From a patient standpoint, this provided us the opportunity to take the expertise that we had and use it to add value for the practitioners and the marketplace. We’ve made significant progress but we have not yet achieved our full aspiration to become the world’s leading global speciality CL company.’
Valuable research
Synergeyes had previously shut down its research and development funding, but Ferrigno and the rest of the board began to pump resources into new research and development at the start of 2016. ‘We went out and did a lot of market research,’ he explains, ‘We interviewed customers around the world to find out how they were using hybrid lenses and to understand what their key needs were and how we could help them.’
The company used the results of its market research to redesign its products and develop new ones, but also made some key partnerships that allowed it to expand into the specialist CL space. Today, Synergeyes offers specialist lenses for patients with irregular corneas, presbyopia, astigmatism and for myopia management in children. It also boasts partnerships with several organisations, including the Brien Holden Vision Institute (BHVI), with which it has been able to secure a global licensing agreement for extended depth of focus (EDOF) hybrid lenses.
Ferrigno says the partnership with BHVI, and the EDOF technology, became the foundation of the Synergeyes iD multifocal EDOF product, part of the newly launched Synergeyes iD range of lenses that are individually produced for each patient using corneal curvature, horizontal visible iris diameter and Rx measurements. He notes this generation of silicone hydrogel lenses represents a complete redesign: ‘The lens design has a number of significant changes. These include a larger 8.5mm GP centre, a linear precision skirt for precise fitting, centration and balance so patients get the right amount of tension, and a larger back optic zone, which delivers better, clear stable vision.’
Key technology
However, the best part of the new product is the EDOF power profile on the lens, according to Ferrigno: ‘The Synergeyes iD multifocal EDOF lens has a power profile that is unique in that it is continuously and rapidly changing. The wave-pattern that is created is non-monotonic, meaning it varies in direction, and aperiodic, meaning it changes in frequency. What this gives you is what I call uncompromised vision from near to far, and what we’re seeing is that patients adapt much faster while practitioners have a much better success rate in fitting the lens.
‘Today, around the world, there are significant numbers of presbyopes not wearing multifocal lens because they find CLs hard to adapt to while practitioners often don’t have the time to fit them.’
Chair time spent fitting the lens has also been reduced, based on the company’s research. ‘We found that practitioners fitting these lenses went from 30 to 45 minutes of chair time when fitting other hybrids historically, to 15 minutes for this product. Because each lens is designed individually for each patient, they’re getting a level of comfort they wouldn’t get otherwise.’
The company plans to refine and promote its Synergeyes ID range in the coming year, with an irregular cornea-suitable lens coming in 2023. ‘We’re also looking to continue our research and development and forge new partnerships,’ explains Ferrigno, ‘We are continuing the journey to be the number on global speciality CL company.’