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Australian News
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Tuesday, 07 February 2012 |
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 Vision Eye Institute Limited announced last week that Dr George Smith has joined the company as a new Doctor Partner.
Dr Smith has moved from the UK where he was Consultant Ophthalmologist at Walsgrave Hospitals NHS Trust and Director of the Corneal and External Eye Disease Service at the University Hospital in Coventry.
Dr Smith will be based at Vision Eye Institute Hurstville in NSW where he will specialise in diseases of the cornea and cataract surgery.
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Current Affairs
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Monday, 06 February 2012 |
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 After more than a decade on the market, extended-wear (EW) contact lenses still haven't caught on among patients and eye care professionals, reports the February issue of Optometry and Vision Science, official journal of the American Academy of Optometry. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins , a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. Despite their advantages, EW contact lenses—which can be worn continuously for up to a month— account for less than eight percent of contact lens prescriptions. The study was based on an analysis of worldwide prescribing data, led by Nathan Efron, BScOptom, PhD, DSc, of Queensland University of Technology, Australia.
Worldwide Data Show Stalled Growth in EW Lens Prescribing The researchers analyzed 14 years of data (1997 through 2010) on contact lens fittings by eye care professionals in 39 countries. They analyzed trends in EW contact lens prescribing, including patient and characteristics and fitting patterns. Extended-wear contact lenses made of an oxygen-permeable silicone hydrogel material first came on the market in the late 1990s. Modern EW lenses are designed to be left in the eye day and night for up to a month, without the need for daily removal and cleaning. The data suggested that use of EW lenses peaked in 2006, when they accounted for 12 percent of all soft contact lens prescriptions. However, the rate decreased in more recent years, falling to 7.8 percent in 2010. The rate varied between countries, ranging up to 27 percent in Norway.
Certain groups of patients were more likely to receive EW lenses, including men, older patients, and those not receiving their first contact lens prescription ("refits"). Efron and coauthors speculate that EW lenses are more likely to be prescribed for older patients who are experienced with contact lenses—and perhaps better able to afford the higher cost of EW lenses. Some men may prefer EW lenses because of their convenience for sports participation.
Most patients with EW lenses used some form of lens care solution. That suggested that they remove and store their lenses at least occasionally, rather than wearing them full time for the entire month. Nearly 30 percent of EW lens prescriptions were for conventional hydrogel lenses—possibly because they are less expensive than newer silicone hydrogel lenses designed specifically for 30-day extended wear.
Safety Concerns Are Key Issue "Despite the obvious benefits of lifestyle convenience" associated with EW lenses, "it seems that practitioners still prefer to prescribe, and patients prefer to wear, contact lenses for daily wear," Dr Efron and coauthors write. The drop in EW lens prescriptions during the mid-2000s may partly reflect the introduction of silicone hydrogel lenses designed for daily use. But safety concerns are probably the key factor behind the limited acceptance of EW lenses, Dr Efron and colleagues believe. The first EW lenses introduced to the market were associated with high complication rates. The problems were mostly eliminated by the current generation of oxygen-permeable silicone hydrogel lenses.
The rate of severe keratitis with modern EW lenses is low, around 20 cases per 10,000 lens wearers per year. However, that's higher than the 4 per 10,000 annual rate for daily contact lens wearers. Dr. Efron and coauthors conclude, "EW prescribing…is unlikely to become a mainstream lens wearing modality until the already low risks of ocular complications can be reduced to be equivalent to that for daily wear."
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Companies
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Friday, 03 February 2012 |
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 Safilo Group has announced that the license agreement for the design, production and distribution of Balenciaga sunglasses and prescription eyewear collections will not be renewed beyond the agreed expiration date of December 31, 2012. Safilo continues to implement the rationalization strategy of its portfolio of licensed brands, focusing resources, investments and know-how only on those brands which are relevant in the eyewear sector or have important growth opportunities. Safilo’s sales through the Balenciaga license were approximately Euro 3 million in 2011.
The Balenciaga eyewear licence will be taken over by Marcolin in 2013.
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Product News
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Thursday, 02 February 2012 |
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The new Blue Bay eyewear collection from Safilo presents new models of sunglasses and optical frames. These feature lively graphic designs and appealing plays on lines and shapes: the new models bring to mind a world of youth and colour, inspired by holidays and free time. With the genuine enthusiasm of their forthright personality, they are the perfect glasses to complement a fresh young trendy look.
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Holiday inspiration - These irresistible captivating sunglasses have a young feel and win you over with their wide shape. They are decorated with the new tropical graphics pattern in sparkling colours: purple, fuchsia, royal blue, white, gloss black, and Havana brown.
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Young spirit - These Eighties-inspired sunglasses with a unisex design are in injection-moulded acetate. They are decorated with a multi-pixel digital texture and are available in bright shades of blue, purple, white, red, and petrol blue.
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Modern style - Injection-moulded women’s sunglasses with a feminine shape that draws the eye to the elegant forked temples. They are embellished with an unique low-relief etched flower design in shades of pearlized purple, pearlized coral, black and Havana brown.
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Easy-to-wear appeal - Optical frames with a modern look in a soft butterfly shape. The temples are decorated with the new graphics pattern that recalls the colourful flight of butterflies. These are available in shades of lobster red/black, purple/fuchsia, dark green/purple, dark Havana brown/brown, crystal/white, and shiny black.
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Contemporary mood - Lightweight form with bold contrasts in volume for these metal optical glasses, with standout temples and lenses that are free at the sides. Their cutting-edge look is achieved through the use of a mix of ultra-light materials and by the bold matt colors: blue/yellow, brown/fluorescent green, ruthenium/turquoise, and matt black/grey.
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Companies
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Wednesday, 01 February 2012 |
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 Essilor is pursuing its development in China with the signing of two new partnership agreements that represent approximately €22 million in additional revenue.
Essilor has acquired a majority interest in Jiangsu Youli Optics Co. Ltd., a manufacturer of ophthalmic lenses in Danyang that generates around €15 million in revenue a year. Youli Optics (formerly Governor Optical Co. Ltd.) has nearly 1,000 employees and operates three plants that produce lenses for the domestic market and for export.
Essilor has also acquired a majority stake in another lens manufacturer, Jiangsu Seeworld Optical Co. Ltd., which has nearly €7 million in annual revenue and over 300 employees. Following the partnership agreements signed with Wanxin and ILT, these two new transactions illustrate Essilor’s commitment to extending its presence in the mid-range segment in China, while also making its offering more competitive in the rest of Asia.
In Europe, Essilor has also acquired a majority holding in Reize, which generates approximately €11 million in revenue and is a major player in the Swiss market, where it is BBGR's long-time distributor. With 60 employees and a prescription lens laboratory equipped with the latest high-tech machines, Reize will continue to be led by the current management team.
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Ophthalmology and Optometry
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Tuesday, 31 January 2012 |
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 Members of a University of Pennsylvania research team have shown that they can prevent, or even reverse, a blinding retinal disease, Xlinked Retinitis Pigmentosa, or XLRP, in dogs. The disease in humans and dogs is caused by defects in the RPGR gene and results in early, severe and progressive vision loss. It is one of the most common inherited forms of retinal degeneration in man. "Every single abnormal feature that defines the disease in the dogs was corrected following treatment," said lead author William Beltran, assistant professor of ophthalmology at Penn’s School of Veterinary Medicine. "We were thrilled," said senior author Gustavo Aguirre, professor of medical genetics and ophthalmology at Penn Vet. "The treated cells were completely normal, and this effect resulted from introducing the normal version of the human gene into the diseased photoreceptor cells."
The similarities between humans and dogs, in terms of both eye anatomy, physiology, disease characteristics and positive response to this gene therapy, raise hope for a clear path to human therapies. Beltran and Aguirre collaborated with Artur Cideciyan and Samuel Jacobson at the Scheie Eye Institute, part of the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. This achievement results from more than 10 years of close collaboration between the scientists at Penn’s veterinary and medical Schools and the University of Florida. In addition to others at Penn Vet, Scheie and Florida, researchers at the universities of Michigan and Massachusetts and the National Eye Institute at the National Institutes of Health contributed to the research.
The study will be published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The gene therapy approach used takes advantage of a viral vector - a genetically modified virus that doesn’t cause disease and is unable to divide to deliver the therapeutic RPGR gene specifically to diseased rods and cones. In the absence of treatment, these cells malfunction and progressively die. The research team has previously successfully applied a similar approach to two other heritable vision disorders that occur in both humans and dogs: Leber congenital amaurosis and achromatopsia. The present study was more challenging, as it was necessary to target both main classes of photoreceptor cells.
While the exact disease mechanism of the RPGR form of XLRP is still unknown, the researchers were able to successfully treat dogs with two different RPGR mutations. The mutations disrupt photoreceptors in different ways, but both ultimately cause them to become useless for vision. While this form of blindness is rare in dogs, it is common in humans. Patients with XLRP usually begin to lose night vision as children and become almost totally blind by middle age. This is the first proof that this condition is treatable in an animal model; a single subretinal injection administered to the diseased dogs led to functional and structural recovery. The dogs’ recovery was assessed using a variety of methods that are used clinically in patients, such as electroretinography and optical coherence tomography. The researchers feel the results are promising and relevant for translation to the clinic.
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