Wear contact lenses? Fort Worth’s Alcon has a new daily disposable for astigmatism
Fort Worth-based eye care manufacturer Alcon is expanding its popular new Precision1 line of contact lenses by offering a daily, disposable version of the product for people with astigmatism.
The move aims to expand what is believed to be an under-served segment of the contact lens market — people with astigmatism, a common condition in which the cornea of the eye is irregularly shaped.
Astigmatism, which can cause blurry vision, is common among people with both nearsightedness and farsightedness.
The condition can be corrected with “toric” contact lenses — which can simultaneously treat astigmatism along with another condition, including nearsightedness. But studies have shown that, while 41% of eye care patients are astigmatic, only 10% wear contact lenses that can correct it.
Lenses that correct astigmatism represent 23% of the $9 billion worldwide contact lens market, but there is much more room to grow, Alcon officials believe.
“PRECISION1, with its cutting-edge SMARTSURFACE® technology, has become the fastest-growing daily disposable contact lens brand in the U.S.,” Sergio Duplan, Alcon North America president, said in a statement. “We are thrilled to build on this momentum by introducing PRECISION1 for Astigmatism, Alcon’s first daily disposable, SiHy (silicon hydrogel) toric lens at a mainstream price. This innovation offers Eye Care Professionals a lens for more of their astigmatic patients to start in and stay in.”
Alcon officials hope that patients will find the Precision1 for Astigmatism contact lenses comfortable enough to wear on a long-term basis. Globally, contact lens manufacturers are working to reduce the number of people who become unsatisfied with their contact lenses and stop wearing them — or “drop out.”
About 65% of contact lens wearers who drop out have astigmatism, the company’s research shows.
PRECISION1 for Astigmatism is now widely available in the U.S., and will be rolled out worldwide beginning in February, company officials said.
Alcon launched its Precision1 “sphere” lenses in the United States in late 2019, and it quickly became one of the industry’s fastest growing disposable brands. Other manufacturers competing in the contact lens space include CooperVision, Bausch & Lomb Inc. and Johnson & Johnson Vision Care Inc.
Alcon is a publicly-traded company that employs about 4,500 people in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and 20,000 people worldwide. The company, which spun off from Novartis in 2019, is based in Geneva, Switzerland, although much of the research into eye care innovations takes place at the company’s traditional North American headquarters in Fort Worth.
Alcon operates from a campus near the southeast corner of Interstate 35W and I-20 in south Fort Worth. The company was founded in 1945 by Fort Worth pharmacists Robert Alexander and William Conner, whose last names were combined to form Alcon’s name and brand.
Alexander’s and Conner’s company created products to treat conditions such as itchy eyes, and developed the eye drop dispensing bottle that is commonly used today.
This story was originally published January 22, 2021 at 5:30 AM.
