Unilens Vision Inc. has announced the launch of the all new C-VUE(R) Advanced(TM) Custom Toric. The  product will be sold directly to independent eye care professionals and features a revolutionary trial program, an advanced hydration material and exceptional deliverability. The C-VUE Advanced Custom Toric is available in new convenient blister packaging with hioxifilcon D. The new product offering and hassle free trial/no returns necessary program will provide independent practitioners with an additional specialty C-VUE contact lens option. This contributes to patient retention and practice profitability.

Australian researchers at the Moorfields Eye Hospital in London have conducted a study which reveals that the rate of corneal infection related to contact lens is 4.2 per 10,000 wearers per year. The scientists, in the first study of its kind, seek to describe the incidence of infection associated with the two new kinds of lenses introduced with the expectation of reducing the risk of infection — daily disposable soft lenses (launched in 1995), and silicone hydrogel lenses (launched in 1999). Planned replacement soft lens is better and safe for the eyes. The new age soft lens, Silicone hydrogel lens users who kept their lenses in overnight had the greatest disease incidence. But, proper use of daily disposable lenses made them the one with the lowest risk of a severe form of disorder as elimination of storage reduced the probability of contamination.

Mark Byrne, a researcher at Auburn University, Alabama has claimed that he has developed a contact lens material that can prove to be helpful in getting medication into the eyes in adequate quantities. He has pointed out that the eye is adapted to keeping alien objects out. The contact-lens material developed by Byrne is capable of holding high concentration of medicines, releasing them slowly. The basis of the idea is to design the molecular structure of the lens material to emulate tissue-receptor sites within the body which are the targets of the drug. Byrne has established a company, OcuMedic, which will market the innovation. It has already been developing anti-fungal contact lenses to treat eye infections in horses.

Volk Optical, the industry leader in aspheric optics, will be displaying the new Optiflex® Surgical Assistant at the American Society of Retinal Specialists (ASRS) show scheduled to be held from October 11 to15 at Hawaii. The product designed for maximum control of non-contact lens position and focus, the Optiflex, provides clarity and precision of view during vitreo-retinal surgery. Its manual controls facilitate accuracy in adjusting lens positioning and focus control. There are mechanisms that ensure swift movement of lens out of the surgical field when it is not in use. Also on display from the Volk table will be the Digital Series BIO and Slit Lamp lenses.

SynergEyes Inc. has recently launched a revolutionary hybrid contact lens designed for people who need further vision correction after undergoing refractive vision surgery, such as LASIK. SynergEyes(R) PS (post-surgical) is also designed for patients who have experienced some type of corneal trauma or suffer from certain degenerative vision conditions. Approved for marketing by the FDA, SynergEyes PS hybrid contact lenses bond a “hard” and “soft” contact lens together resulting in a one-of-a-kind vision correction option that provides crisp, clear vision for surgically altered corneas in a comfortable, healthy contact lens.

A new study shows that soft contact lens wear does not accelerate the development of nearsightedness in children. Findings from the largest randomized three-year study, which tracked the myopic progression of 484 children ages 8-11 randomly assigned to wear glasses or contact lenses, indicated that there was no clinically meaningful difference between the two forms of vision correction for the treatment of nearsightedness, a vision problem experienced by approximately one-third of the population. The new research further dispels a long held myth that soft contact lenses increase myopia progression more than other vision correction options.

SynergEyes Inc. has launched special hybrid contact lenses for people over 40, who are suffering from presbyopia. The lenses are called hybrid because the design in it bonds a hard and soft contact lens together to effect vision correction in presbyopia patients. Thus, SynergEyes(R) Multifocal hybrid contact lens provide the comfort of soft lenses along with all the advantages of rigid lenses.

CIBA Vision, the eye care unit of Novartis, has announced a final global patent litigation settlement agreement with CooperVision, Inc. The agreement resolves all current patent infringement lawsuits between the two companies. CIBA Vision has licensed its Nicolson patents to CooperVision, while the latter company will pay the former a royalty on U.S. net sales of its Biofinity contact lenses until 2014 and on net sales outside the U.S. until 2016.

People who wear contact lenses sometimes face the problem of their vision fluctuating during the day. The answer to this problem may lie in the design of their contact lens, according to a new clinical study published in Optometry and Vision Science, the peer-reviewed journal of the American Academy of Optometry. The researchers indicates that their findings could be of particular relevance to people who wear soft toric contact lenses for the treatment of astigmatism, a common vision condition in which surfaces of the eye, including the cornea, have an oval shape.