Silicone Hydrogels: a new opportunity
European Lenses & Technology magazine talks to UltraVision CEO J. Keith Lomas and COO John Clamp about the launch of UltraVision's new range of Silicone Hydrogel contact lenses.
Above: John Clamp (left) and J. Keith Lomas (right) of
UltraVision
Please tell us about UltraVision’s new range of Silicone Hydrogels.
We now offer Silicone Hydrogel (SiH) contact lenses to any prescription and design. We’re concentrating on the more specialist areas where we can offer further benefits such as KeraSoft®3 our SiH lenses for keratoconus. This is a genuine ‘World’s First’ product and something we’re very excited about.
We started working on the SiH material with Contamac back in 2006 and the research & development time and involvement has been pretty intense.
We launched the material Definitive™ at the end of 2007. It is a new lathe cut 74% SiH material which is not plasma-treated. With a Dk of 60, this offers about four times the oxygen permeability requirements indicated by Holden and Mertz.
As well as being produced in the new SiH material, KeraSoft®3 also benefits from a re-design as a front-surface aspheric prismatic toric (or asphere) to provide greater stability of vision.
The original KeraSoft® lens was launched by us (Igel as we were called then) back in the early '90s and had success as a softer and more comfortable alternative to RGP lenses for keratoconus. Our successful sales and monitoring of returns has shown it to be one of our most successful contact lens types ever. Whilst few could argue against the obvious comfort benefits compared with RGP lenses, some said that soft lenses for keratoconus gave poorer levels of vision. In some cases we agreed, but also being an RGP manufacturer and supplier, including for keratoconus, we could also see the benefits of soft lenses, particularly in this sensitive situation where keratoconic patients can be effectively blind without comfortable and useful correction.
We were therefore able to combine the visual benefits from our massive investment in Spherical Aberration Management, Sam®, and Wavefront technology incorporation into contact lenses. We’ve got a growing suite of patents in this field. Incorporating this technology allowed us to launch KeraSoft®2 back in 2006.
The remaining argument was against the lenses being thicker than typical modern soft lenses, thus reducing the oxygen permeability. Now with KeraSoft®3 lenses in SiH, we have four time the oxygen permeability of before, hence our delight with the latest product in our KeraSoft® range.
KeraSoft®3 lenses offer major benefits and can be life changing for the wearers. For more general applications our SiH range for independent and high street practitioners is branded HydroWave® and is available in spheres, torics, multifocal and multifocal torics.
Our experience dictates that the toric and multifocal HydroWave® lenses in particular are well sought after, with little competition. The spherical versions are often chosen when fitting higher prescriptions, with us supplying lenses to +/- 30DS and with toric cylinders available up to -11DC, our lenses can fit virtually every demand.
For our hospital and more specialist practitioners we also offer our full SiH range for Bandage, Paediatric and Aphakic prescriptions and designs.
Will the range of products be available throughout Europe?
Absolutely. In the UK we supply directly to practitioners only. Internationally we work with local distributors.
We’re also rolling out our lens marketing through a number of newly launched, and to be launched, web sites such as www.kerasoft3.com
What are the characteristics of the newly developed lathe-cut Silicone Hydrogel material.
Our SiH material is naturally hydrophilic offering excellent wetting and comfort.
With a Dk of 60 it is four times more oxygen permeable than typical soft lenses and with a modulus of 0.38 comparable with soft materials for flexibility, unlike earlier generation SiH lenses which were much more rigid. It has no plasma-treatment which means the lenses can be cleaned properly without changing the characteristics of the lens. It means that the wearer is not therefore limited to only using ‘no-rub’ solutions.
What would you say are the key advantages of Silicone Hydrogel technology that the optician needs to communicate to customers.
As the material provides four times greater oxygen transmission than standard Hydrogel material, it allows longer wearing times, increased comfort and greater ocular health. It is also highly water retentive, making it ideal for dry eyes.
We support and hope that practitioners explain to their customers the importance of the eye getting lots of oxygen and the risks of reducing the available levels.
What kind of marketing tools are you offering to opticians to support the new products on offer?
As the world moves more electronic our customer feedback is for electronic copies of marketing literature for their own customization. This also works particularly well with our international distributors who can then have the files translated into their local language.
Our growing suite of SiH lenses has started with the beta launch of www.kerasoft3.com. We plan to add further websites dedicated to our SiH material in general use and a separate web site with a focus on presbyopia and our multifocal lenses.
UltraVision was awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise – Innovation 2006 for our wavefront technology, now included in these products. Along with UltraVision, our customers are allowed to use the Queen’s Award logo when promoting our products, underlining their quality and prestige.
Please comment on the growth of the Silicone Hydrogel market in Europe.
SiH contact lenses are often now the first choice lenses for practitioners. Until recently, these have been limited to mainstream prescriptions only. With the lenses now available for all parameters we expect significant further growth.
Interestingly, many countries have different approaches. In the UK, SiH are now really prevalent, they are less so in some Southern European countries like Spain and Italy. We expect high growth levels in those countries over the next few years.
And is this impacting the CL market generally in Europe. Please explain.
We certainly see strong signs of growth throughout Europe, but particularly with the more specialist lenses that offer greater benefits. Traditional lathe-cut soft and RGP lenses have come under pressure through the increase in availability of power ranges of mass market moulded lenses but the limited parameters available with disposable lenses mean they’re not suitable for everyone.
As the vast global CL companies focus on mainstream disposability companies like UltraVision can benefit through specializing.
In November you announced a preview of your latest patented UniqueWave® technologies, which offers complete aberration, design and fitting control. Please give further details.
UniqueWave® is an exciting technology that’s come from our Cambridge, UK, Research & Development offices. It allows practitioners to upload topography and aberrometry measurements via a website to design the ‘perfect lens’. Computer simulation on screen allows the practitioner to also evaluate what the fitting and visual effects will be on eye with movement and lid pressures taken into consideration.
These are not expected to be mainstream lenses for some years to come, but the most specialist of practitioners and the most demanding of customers can have something really very special indeed; unique contact lenses totally tailored for unique fitting and aberration control.
What further advances do you foresee in contact lens technology and Silicone Hydrogel technology in particular in the near and long-term.
We’ve been predicting this for years, but we really do expect wavefront technology to come more standard in contact lenses. We have vast amounts of data and sales over the years and experience to show the advantages.
Unfortunately, there has been some mis-information around re wavefront technology and its inclusion in contact lenses. Sometimes a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing and we really want better education out there of what is available and how it works. In most professions there are differing opinions on some technologies.
Over the years we’ve learnt that the best way to promote our wavefront technology lenses is to get people, practitioners in particular, to try them in their own eyes. Once people have experienced the benefits from our wavefront technology lenses they simply don’t want to go back to standard lenses.
Please add any comments that will give ECPs greater insight into UltraVision and its strategic vision for the future.
UltraVision’s strategy is to continue differentiating by offering the most successful contact lenses, typically being the most comfortable and offering the best vision.
Our product range covers all types of contact lenses, as that’s where the demand is. Our concentration on the more specialist lenses, though, offers real benefits to us, our practitioner customers and their patients.
The more advanced specialist lenses are not cheap commodities offered in pharmacies and supermarkets, but quality products from practitioners only. They offer real benefits to wearers which is more than repaid through increased loyalty to practitioners.
Our group turnover is now about four times greater than it was when we took over the company in 1996 and we aim to continue to grow both organically and through further corporate acquisitions and partnerships.
We continue to actively seek technology partnerships world wide, both with specialist practitioners and contact lens manufacturers alike.
