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CIBA Vision’s (l to r) Ray Pasko, Francesco Balestrieri and George Pastrana discuss the economy’s impact on contact lenses during the recent SECO International. |
During last month’s SECO International here, Francesco Balestrieri—president, Americas region, for CIBA—noted, “Most wearers see their contact lenses as necessities, so they’re not one of the areas consumers cut when they start spending less. The market continues to show robust development.”
How robust? After seeing a 5 percent to 6 percent industrywide increase in new CL fits in last year’s fourth quarter, CIBA is projecting “a positive mid-single-digit growth rate” for the category in 2009, Balestrieri told VM. He added, “We believe we’ll see the same trends in terms of product as we saw in 2007 and 2008: growth led by silicone hydrogel and daily-disposable contact lenses.”
As previously announced, CIBA is currently focusing on the monthly and daily-disposable modalities, while continuing to urge patient compliance with recommended wearing regimens regardless of which lens the CL wearer chooses. “To have a healthy patient and a good-performing product, the way the patient wears his or her contact lenses is very important,” Balestrieri declared.
He said CL compliance has been shown to vary by type of CL, however, reaching only about 26 percent for biweekly lenses, versus from 56 percent to 76 percent for monthly CLs.
Last year, CIBA Vision partnered with the Centre for Contact Lens Research at the University of Waterloo’s School of Optometry for a study of compliance rates by type of contact lens. “Our goal was to gain more information on compliance so we can help educate both eyecare practitioners and consumers about it,” said Rick Weisbarth, OD, CIBA’s vice president of consumer affairs.
While working with behavioral scientists to understand why patients are non-compliant with their CLs, the company plans an education program this year on how to increase compliance, via an e-newsletter, a Web site, “webinars,” patient tools and other methods to be developed during the course of 2009.
In addition to education on CL compliance, CIBA is also expanding its Academy for Eyecare Excellence, now in 12 countries. The Academy’s Web site, www.cibavisonacademy.com, is currently receiving content from seven countries, with new content due from the Asia/Pacific region beginning in the second quarter.
And this year the company will launch a new “graduate” academy for recent optometry-school graduates, in conjunction with the First Practice Academy CIBA kicked off last year for ODs in practice one to three years.
—Cathy Ciccolella
