The Japanese contact lens manufacturer Menicon has launched Miru, a daily contact lens that comes securely sandwiched between super-thin foil sheets.
Once opened, the slightly compressed lens ‘raises up’ and presents with the outer convex side (front curve) facing upward, ready for placing on the cornea with minimal handling.
Steve Newman, Managing Director of Menicon Singapore and the innovator behind Miru lens, said the new lens and packaging was primarily designed to increase safety by minimising patient contact with the back surface of the lens and removing the opportunity to store and re-use the lens.
…opened, the slightly compressed lens raises up
“Patients are irritated by putting their lenses on inside out, then having to take them out, wash them, turn them and re-insert them. A disc in our new packaging holds the lens gently but securely in place so patients can only touch it from the outside surface. This means that handled correctly, the back surface of the lens has a minimal chance to be contaminated when it is inserted into the eye,” said Mr. Newman.
He said unlike traditional blister packs used to house contact lenses, Miru packaging is easy to open, which lessens the likelihood of the lens breaking free when the seal is released on the packaging. Additionally, once the packaging is opened, it is reduced to two thin pieces of foil, which cannot be used to store the lens overnight.
The contact lens itself is made from Hema/GMA, which, Mr. Newman said, has “a sophisticated mid-water content lens that gives excellent end of day wettability and comfort”.
The Miru lens was launched in Japan in July under the brand name ‘Magic’ and Mr. Newman said the response has been positive. “There’s the ‘wow’ factor with Miru, people have never seen a lens stored in such a thin pack and once they adapt to that, it’s hard for them to go back to the more bulky, more difficult-to-use blister pack,” he said.
Now Menicon is taking Miru to the world with patient and practitioner education campaigns rolling our globally. Miru is available in Australia now.b
