Solutions Industry Hit Hard
Samples Dry Up

BY JOSEPH T. BARR, O.D., M.S., EDITOR
OCT. 1996

Contact lens patients are not compliant with their contact lens care. We've known that for years. Only about a third of them clean, rinse and disinfect their lenses as they should, in a clean case with clean hands. Rarely do they have a serious problem as a result of poor compliance, and if they do comply, there is no immediate gratification. Thank goodness their eyes disinfect their lenses for them, in most cases.

Now, with the trend toward more frequently replaced lenses, the lens care solutions business in the United States has finally flattened and perhaps started to decline, making the manufacturers of these potentially very profitable products very nervous.

According to a 1995 nationally syndicated poll and other independent studies, eyecare practitioners give away 17 percent of daily and weekly lens cleaners, 17 percent of chemical solutions (three times more than in 1991) and 39 percent of rewetting drops (up from 22 percent in 1991). If you gave away 17 to 39 percent of your goods, you'd go broke.

What's a manufacturer to do? It's easy to say the manufacturers created this problem by distributing so many free kits and samples in the past. And certainly a sample kit per annual exam isn't excessive. But this is a real problem and without some control over giveaways, the solutions industry may need to cut research, advertising, promotion of professional care to consumers and support of the professions, which helps us all.

Unfortunately, patients and practitioners are addicted to an abundance of samples. We'll need to counsel our patients to look for the best value for proper lens care supplies, either through our offices or at retail. We may need to tell patients where they'll find the best buys in the solutions that we recommend. We may need to write prescriptions for lens care products, or even buy them as part of a lens replacement program to provide them to our patients.

It's certain that solutions companies will start to crack down on unethical behavior such as splitting free sample kits, unauthorized sales of samples, and giveaways every three months. Some companies have already started to decrease the number of samples they distribute. Clearly, providers will have to start purchasing more lens juice and charging patients more for solutions.

So, here's the prediction: There will be enough solutions to provide samples at dispensing visits but not at all follow-up visits. By curtailing samples, manufacturers should be assured high enough profits to allow them to reinvest in lens care research and professional support. CLS