A new daily disposable multifocal contact lens that takes pupil size into account has been launched to optometrists around Australia.
Johnson & Johnson’s Global Director of new product development R&D, Dr. Kurt Moody, flew from Jacksonville in the United States to launch the 1-Day Acuvue Moist contact lens, which he described as a “dynamic solution to a dynamic problem”.
Dr. Moody said 1-Day Acuvue Moist had been developed using intuitive technology the company calls ‘IntuiSight Technology’.
“Our early learnings indicate that some lenses are successful on some patients and others are not because of pupil size… pupil sizes vary tremendously. A study in 2010 on 609 eyes (to be published in Optometry and Visual Science), shows the natural variation that occurs with our pupils. As we get older our pupils become smaller and less responsive; our myopic patients have bigger pupils than out hyperopes.” With this knowledge in mind, rather than making one lens design, Dr. Moody said Johnson & Johnson made 183 designs, from a +6 to a -9 in quarter dioptre steps; with a low, mid, and high add.
“Every lens in our trial lens set has a unique design targeted towards that variation,” said Dr. Moody. “We have received our US and our worldwide patents – so for the next 15 years the only company that can do this customisation is J&J. That separates us from everybody else.”
He said IntuiSight Technology achieves “remarkable” consistency of near, intermediate and distance vision, irrespective of whether the wearer is a +6 or a -9.
Dr. Moody said that because of the design, the new lens is a product that patients can age with. “Frequently the product fitted to a patient when they are 45 won’t be appropriate as the patient ages. With 1-Day Acuvue, we do as well with the low add patients as we do with the high add patients.”
Additionally Dr. Moody said because the technology has been put into a daily disposable modality and in a moist platform, “comfort levels excel”. Subjective patient feedback as well as tests that resulted in a lack of upper and lower lid staining had indicated that the lens’ infinity edge causes “much less epitheliopathy”.
Dr. Moody said he expected the new lens would help increase Johnson & Johnson’s market share of multifocal contact lenses, which until now has flat-lined at about 6 per cent, and was “step one in a portfolio of products to come”.
He said the biggest limitation to the new lens was that it is a spherical multifocal, as opposed to a toric, which meant it would work “very well” on patients with ¾ of a dioptre of astigmatism or less. “Once you get above this… I would say, the success would go down dramatically. About 45 per cent of the population would fill that criteria of ¾ of a dioptre of astigmastism or less,” he said.
He said Johnson & Johnson had produced a fit guide for the new lens that made the fitting process much more successful. “The guide gives 94 per cent success in fitting the first lens with up to two changes”. A prototype exists for a patent pending electronic guide, which is expected to be in the market within the next nine months.
