Optimed has launched a range of fluorescein strips branded as OptiStrips.
According to Robert Sparkes, a director at Optimed, the company has been working with a large manufacturer of sterile strips to bring this product to market and has now formally gained its ARTG number, allowing the strips to be sold onto the Australian and New Zealand market.
Mr. Sparkes said OptiStrips will provide practitioners with a suitable replacement for Fluorets fluorescein strips which have until now been manufactured by Bausch + Lomb (B+L). B+L has announced that it will cease to supply the strips because their paper supplier had ceased the part of its business that was critical to manufacturing Fluorets. Company representatives said, “Despite our best efforts, we have not identified a viable alternative supplier willing to manufacture to the necessary standards”.
Optimed’s strips will be sold in easy dispense packs of 100 and 300/boxes and with a long expiration, providing greater versatility and cost savings for the practitioner.
Optimed’s strips will be sold in easy dispense packs of 100 and 300/boxes and long expiration…
The flourescein strips are a key product for the contact lens and dry eye world with five major uses:
- To check for corneal staining/foreign bodies/erosion;
- To check and monitor dry eye symptoms/tear film/break up time;
- To check nasal ducts;
- To aid the fitting of most types of RGP lenses from Sclerals to microcorneals; and even to hybrid lenses made of silicone;
- To stain foreign body particles trapped in the upper fornices – usually pieces of soft lenses.
