eyesmart.com.au

The fourth quarter of 2011 confirmed the Luxottica growth trend experienced in all geographic areas throughout the year. The strong results achieved are due to the strength of the Group’s brand portfolio, the effectiveness of the various initiatives executed by Luxottica's businesses and a positive relationship with customers and consumers.

"2011 was a particularly important year in the history of Luxottica," commented Andrea Guerra, Chief Executive Officer of Luxottica. "On the one hand, we celebrated our 50th anniversary; on the other, we laid the foundation for lasting growth in the future as well. This trend is supported by our performance so far in 2012, both in terms of net sales and the orders portfolio. "2012 is expected to provide a wealth of opportunities for Luxottica which we believe will yield even further growth. We will continue to be simple and fast, to act decisively in all the areas where we are present, relying on our brand portfolio, our people, our investments in culture and technology and on our capacity to create even stronger relationships with customers and consumers. This approach will lay the foundation for continued improvement in terms of both net sales and profitability."

Luxottica's results improved during the fourth quarter of 2011 in North America, a key region for the Group, where consumer confidence continues to stay at strong levels. Net sales in U.S. dollars in the fourth quarter of 2011 increased by more than 9.0%. Both the Retail and Wholesale Divisions made essential contributions to results, with sales in Wholesale up by 17.0% and in Retail increasing 7.7% over the prior period in 2010. In Retail, LensCrafters and Sunglass Hut recorded the best results for the holiday season with comparable store sales for the fourth quarter of 2011 growing by approximately 5.0% for LensCrafters and by more than 12.0% for Sunglass Hut. 

For the Retail Division in Australia, comparable store sales for the "optical" business grew by approximately 10% in the fourth quarter of 2011, confirming the trend seen throughout the year. The trend in Australia was positive, due in part to the measures implemented by management during recent quarters. Comparable store sales of OPSM rose by 10.2% in the fourth quarter of 2011. Positive trends in comparable store sales have also been recorded in all fast growing markets in which the Retail Division operates, like China, South Africa and the Middle East.

Net sales for the Retail Division in the fourth quarter of 2011 were Euro 952.9 million (+12.7% at constant exchange rates and +14.4% at current exchange rates). For the full year, net sales were up by 5.7% at current exchange rates to Euro 3,766.1 million (+9.1% at constant exchange rates).

Novartis has announced that it received regulatory approval in China from the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) for Lucentis® (ranibizumab) to treat wet (neovascular) age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and is launching Galvus® (vildagliptin), an oral treatment for patients with type 2 diabetes approved in China as an add-on to metformin, the standard of care .

Wet AMD is a major cause of blindness and severe vision loss in people over 50. In China, there are an estimated 300,000 new wet AMD patients per year, and as many as 75 million people have uncontrolled type 2 diabetes. The number of people with diabetes in China has nearly quadrupled in recent years, making it the country with the largest number of adults with diabetes in the world.

Lucentis is the first licensed therapy in its class available to patients in China. The approval of Lucentis in China for the wet AMD indication is based on comprehensive clinical data and experience, including global and local Chinese clinical studies. Since its launch, Lucentis has become the standard first line therapy in the treatment of wet AMD and, to date, there are more than 1,000,000 patient-treatment years of exposure for Lucentis.

Lucentis is a humanized therapeutic antibody fragment designed to block all biologically active forms of vascular endothelial cell growth factor-A (VEGF-A). Increased levels of VEGF-A are seen in wet AMD and other ocular diseases such as diabetic macular edema (DME) and retinal vein occlusion (RVO). Lucentis has been designed, developed and formulated specifically for use in ocular disease with the aim of stabilizing and improving visual acuity in these patients.

In 2011, Novartis launched the Luminous(TM) program, one of the largest observational studies in ophthalmology, aiming to recruit over 30,000 patients from clinics across Asia, Australia, Europe, North and South America to further broaden the understanding of ocular disease and the use of Lucentis in its approved indications. Luminous is a five-year observational, international, multicenter program that is expected to provide long-term effectiveness and safety data for Lucentis as well as assess the treatment patterns and health-related quality of life issues of patients treated with Lucentis.

Lucentis is licensed for the treatment of wet AMD in more than 100 countries. Outside of China, Lucentis is also approved in more than 50 countries for the treatment of visual impairment due to DME, and visual impairment due to macular edema secondary to RVO, including both branch- and central-RVO. Lucentis has a well-characterized safety profile and Novartis systematically monitors the safety and tolerability of Lucentis for licensed indications on an ongoing basis. Its safety profile has been well established in a clinical development program that enrolled more than 10,000 patients across indications. Serious adverse events related to the injection procedure include endophthalmitis, retinal detachment, retinal tear and traumatic cataract. Other serious ocular events observed among Lucentis-treated patients included intraocular inflammation and increased intraocular pressure. Non-eye related serious side effects, although not common, include heart attacks, strokes and death.

Innovega Inc., a developer of wearable displays that are free from usual bulky optics, has demonstrated mega-pixel eyewear in a compact and stylish form-factor. Management now intends to accelerate delivery of designs, components and licenses to selected strategic partners.

"Conventional mobile device screens are too small to read and certainly too small to enjoy. Over the past months we have demonstrated contact lens enabled eyewear for mobile devices including smartphones, portable game devices and media players that deliver panoramic, high-resolution experiences for entertainment and planned Augmented Reality (AR) applications", said Steve Willey, Innovega CEO. "During this same period, we collaborated with partners to finalize initial specifications of launch platforms". Willey added, "Unless the display industry can deliver transparent, high-performance and compact eyewear, developers of AR and other compelling media applications will simply fail to create the excitement that consumers crave and the functionality that professional users absolutely need".

Innovega's new and natural interface comprises familiar, light-weight eyewear working with advanced contact lenses. One hundred million global consumers, including more than 20% of America's 18 to 34 year-old, already wear contact lenses. With low switching costs, Innovega expects many will join other early adopter groups who wish to access rich media while remaining fully involved in their real-world activities. Management believes that consumers will be thrilled to wear and benefit from its new lens-based eyewear given the unique combination of benefits that this new interface offers.

Innovega designers and partners considered the future of personal media, social networking, and mobile computing, and converged upon an aggressive design-point that meets today's needs as well as demands of high-performance AR which require a see-through and panoramic display interface. Innovega refers to its innovative product as a 'lifestyle interface', since consumers view their digital content in a way that is similar to how they see the world around them. By providing a transparent, fashionable, and comfortable interface that is consistent with today's active lifestyles, the architecture also eliminates the social barrier that traditional opaque and bulky video eyewear seems to create.

The Innovega iOptikTM architecture meets the demanding performance requirements of AR by eliminating the focusing optics that tend to limit the field of view of displayed media. Innovega replaces them with micro- and nano-fabricated optical elements that are integrated into otherwise conventional contact lenses. The recent demonstration of stylish, megapixel eyewear has proven the power of this proprietary architecture. Innovega will provide the new system to media and consumer electronics OEMs who wish to design natural display interfaces that consumers want and need. Innovega believes that its new personal display interface will become an essential social media and entertainment accessory.