Wesley-Jessen back to rigid lenses

Sept.15, 1997 - World leader in the vision care industry, Wesley Jessen Corporation is going back in time. After closing many branch offices in the early 70' and discontinuing Hard Contact lens manufacturing in the early 80', WJ is going back again into the manufacturing of rigid contact lenses. Due to continuing growth, so they said, WJ is trying to build RGP Divisions for the states of Texas, Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois and California. The RGP Divisions will employ independent part-time sales representatives to contact new accounts for the manufactures Polycon® 2 and Fluorocon® contact lenses. Creators of the Aseptoplast® , Photo Electric Keratometer® and Asphercon® designs, amount many other terrific contributions, Wesley Jessen Corporation went into the commercial attitude after the death of N. K. Wesley with the Durasoft® and the Durasoft® Color lenses. Now, some one in the seventh floor is using the brain again. He or she deserves a raise. Going back to professionalism and the golden era of the company is the right decision.

The Johnson & Johnson pulls Acuvue ads after warning

Rockville, MD--Oct.14, 1997--Johnson & Johnson was pulling print and broadcast ads for special contact lenses made by its Vistakon subsidiary after the Food and Drug Administration said the company was improperly promoting the products.
The agency said Johnson & Johnson's Vistakon unit falsely implied in the ads that wearing the Acuvue UV-absorbing lens outside offered as much protection as a person would naturally have indoors.
The ads appeared in ``Time'' and ``Health'' magazines and on television.
The FDA said Johnson & Johnson should tell consumers in product labeling and in ads that the UV-Blocker lens is ``not a substitute for UV-absorbing eyewear.'' It also said that the ads were misleading because they implied that the contact lenses gave full eye protection from ultraviolet rays.
Johnson & Johnson did include such statements, but the print was too small or flashed so quickly on television that it did not ``counteract the overall message of the advertisements,''.
Another TV ad implied the lenses protected from radiation from fluorescent lighting and other indoor lights -- even though there is no proven danger from such lights.
In print ads, Johnson claimed the lenses block 95 percent of UVB light, but did not tell users that only 70 percent of UVA radiation was blocked. The FDA said that this information should be included in the ads also.
Spokesman from Johnson & Johnson, Jeff Leebaw, said Vistakon had notified the FDA that it had pulled broadcast and print ads, although some would still appear in November issues. Also, the company would make adjustments in future advertising for the lenses. ``Vistakon will change the ads to be in compliance with FDA requirements.''

Glasses made by big optical outlets are faulty-report

NEW YORK, N.Y.--Oct. 29, 1997-- Eyeglasses made at seven top optical chain stores failed to meet basic standards set by the industry for precision and workmanship in an unscientific survey, CBS News reported Wednesday.
A New York optometrist who helped write the industry's  standards for glasses, after examining glasses made at the seven stores, said in the report that glasses made at all seven outlets flunked.
``Every one of them fails the industry requirements,'' said the optometrist, Robert Rosenberg of the State University of New York.
``This is as though you went to the drugstore and the pharmacist gave you the wrong pill. It may not kill you but the strength of it is such that it's not going to cure what ails you,'' he said on CBS News' This Morning, in the first of a two-part series. The second part will air Thursday.
The program sent an undercover shopper to seven eyeglass  outlets in New York with a routine prescription for bifocals.
Problems with the finished eyeglasses -- which took between an hour and a week-and-a-half to make -- ranged from an incorrect astigmatism, correction to lenses being so loose that a piece of paper could be slipped between them and the frame, the report said. Other frames were warped or had a prism effect, which could  cause double vision.
The report also said that the undercover customer paid about $20 at each outlet for ultraviolet protection -- but three of the glasses came back with no such protection.
"You got worse than nothing. You got the feeling that you  had protection, which you don't have,'' said Rosenberg, referring to the decoy consumer.
The seven franchises involved in the survey were Pearle  Vision Express, Lenscrafters, Cohen's Fashion Optical, Sterling Optical Corp (EYE.N), Sears (S.N)  BJ's Wholesale Club and Costco Wholesale.
All seven agreed to fix the faulty eyeglasses free of charge after Rosenberg, who sits on the committee that writes industry standards, found they were faulty.

Bacteria and extended wear contact lenses back in the news.

NEW YORK, N.Y.-- Feb. 24, 1998--The Health and Human Service, Public Health Service, and FDA Ophthalmic Devices Panel of the Medical Devices Advisory Committee met on Feb. 12. Discussions included the development of contact lens extended wear clinical testing guidance for 7-days extended wear, prolonged extended wear beyond 7-days, and overnight use of contact lenses for orthokeratology

At the same time, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, report that pseudomonas seruginosa, bacterium known to cause eye infections in injured corneas, can also damage healthy eyes if it maintains contact with them long enough. This raises concerns about extended wear contact lenses, just as new 30-day lenses are being prepared for the market.

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