This Fort Worth company known for making eye drops is now also making hand sanitizer
One of Fort Worth’s oldest and largest companies is Alcon, which is known for making Systane artificial tears, contact lense solutions, lenses for cataract surgery and many other over-the-counter and surgical eye care products.
But these days, workers at the company’s research and manufacturing laboratories near the southeast corner of Interstate 35W and I-20 are just as likely to be making batches of hand sanitizer. The hand-rubbing agent is then donated to area health care providers and other first responders on the front lines of the coronavirus crisis.
“These are scientists and technical people, and they want to help,” Ed McGough, senior vice president of manufacturing and technical operations, said during a tour of the company’s lab. “They’re looking for creative ways of doing that.”
As McGough spoke, workers mixed batches of hydrogen peroxide, glycerol, denatured ethanol and sterile water — the key ingredients in hand sanitizer, as provided in World Health Organization guidelines.
The hand sanitizer is mixed in 10-liter containers, which are then placed in special quarantine cabinets inside the Alcon facilities for 72 hours, to give the sanitizer time to kill any remaining bacteria left in the product before it can be used, said Arjun Jaitli, Alcon manager of research and development operations
So far, Alcon has donated 50 liters of sanitizer to Baylor Scott & White All Saints Medical Center in Fort Worth, and has another 760 liters ready to donate to other North Texas organizations that need it.
Alcon labs in John’s Creek, Ga., and Germany also are making the sanitizer, McGough said. Those facilities normally make contact lenses, solutions and other products.
Workers at the lab also are trying their hand at making face shields, fashioning them from polyester plastic sheets, foam, Velcro strips and staples. The company has built about 2,000 of the shields, about half in Fort Worth and the rest at a facility in Lake Forest, Calif.
The company began in 1945, when pharmacists Robert Alexander and William Conner opened up a business — using the first syllables of their last names for the business moniker. They began selling solutions that not only treated red, itchy eyes but also eye infections.
In the 1950s, the company developed a Droptainer, a bottle that remains an industry standard for eye drop dispensers.
Last year, Alcon was spun off from parent company Novartis. Alcon is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, but its Fort Worth location is still considered not only a major operations center, but also the company’s innovation hub.
Alcon has so far been able to avoid laying off or furloughing employees, and hopes business will pick up as federal and state governments relax restrictions on non-emergency medical procedures, McGough said.
Alcon actually experienced an increase in demand for many of its eye drop and contact products in the initial weeks of the stay-at-home orders across the United States, as Americans stocked up on supplies, he said. But demand for products needed for laser and cataract surgeries have dropped significantly during that time.
The company’s campus is mostly empty these days, as many workers who would normally walk between buildings in the well-kept green areas are instead working from home.
But those who work in the manufacturing facilities are still showing up at work, and practicing social distancing as best they can, McGough said. And, so are the folks in the research labs, who are working on making sanitizer, and thinking of other ways to help the coronavirus first responders.
