Advertisement

PentaVision

Contact Lens Spectrum

Article

HISTORY OF CONTACT LENSES

THE ALLEN ISEN STORY...THE OTHER SOFT CONTACT LENS

By: PATRICK J. CAROLINE, FAAO, CRAIG W. NORMAN, FCLSA
Contact Lens Spectrum December 1, 2021 Vol 36, Issue December 2021 Page(s): 56

As 2021 closes, we pay our final tributes to the 50th anniversary of the first commercially available soft contact lenses. However, we would be remiss by not recognizing the many contributions made by a little-known U.S./Canadian company called Griffin Laboratories and its president Dr. Allen Isen. Dr. Isen graduated from Columbia University with an optometric degree in 1950 and later opened a practice in Buffalo, NY. He developed a keen interest in contact lenses and opened his own lab, Frontier Contact Lenses, in 1957. Dr. Isen provided eyecare services to then-Vice President Lyndon Johnson in the early 1960s and used those connections to establish a relationship with Otto Wichterle in Czechoslovakia, which was behind the Iron Curtain.

New Materials

In 1963, Wichterle re-engineered his original “moldable” hydrogel plastic into a dehydrated “latheable” state and called this material Xerogel. Using this material, Dr. Isen began his experiments with lathe cutting soft contact lenses.

Fearful of the patents of National Patent Development Corporation and Bausch + Lomb, plus the regulatory restrictions of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Dr. Isen formed Griffin Laboratories in Canada in 1964 and developed a new generation of soft lens material outside of the United States.

The first of these materials, Bionite, was developed by Dr. Isen and polymer chemist Kenneth O’Driscoll, PhD, from the University of Waterloo. Bionite was composed of hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) and other components that resulted in a water content of 55% as compared to Wichterle’s HEMA material of 38%. These initial lenses were lathe-cut and available in diameters ranging from 13.0mm to 15.5mm, with a power range from –20.00D to +30.00D. In the late 1960s, diagnostic fitting became popular with the base curves and diameters of 8.40mm/14.5mm or 8.4mm/14.0mm (Figure 1).

Figure 1. The birth of modern lathe-cut soft lenses: a late 1960s Griffin 12-lens diagnostic fitting set. Image courtesy of Contact Lens Museum in Forest Grove, OR
Figure 1. The birth of modern lathe-cut soft lenses: a late 1960s Griffin 12-lens diagnostic fitting set. Image courtesy of Contact Lens Museum in Forest Grove, OR

Griffin Laboratories was granted a U.S. patent for the lathe-cut Griffin Naturalens in 1972, but it was initially for therapeutic (bandage lens) applications only. Two years later, Drs. O’Driscoll and Isen were granted the first U.S. patent for hydrogen peroxide disinfection of soft lenses.

In 1971, Warner-Lambert and its subsidiary American Optical acquired the manufacturing and marketing rights to the Griffin Lens. In 1973, they received FDA approval for the therapeutic use of what was now marketed under the brand Softcon (Figure 2).

Figure 2. During the 1960s, pseudophakic bullous keratopathy was a prevalent complication of cataract extraction. Dr. Isen’s Naturalens, renamed Softcon, was applied as a bandage to the cornea of patients experiencing painful, recurrent corneal erosions and ruptured bullae. Image courtesy of Contact Lens Museum in Forest Grove, OR
Figure 2. During the 1960s, pseudophakic bullous keratopathy was a prevalent complication of cataract extraction. Dr. Isen’s Naturalens, renamed Softcon, was applied as a bandage to the cornea of patients experiencing painful, recurrent corneal erosions and ruptured bullae. Image courtesy of Contact Lens Museum in Forest Grove, OR

Lasting Impact

Dr. Isen’s work in the 1960s and the 1970s had a major impact within the soft contact lens industry. Besides the development of the first medium-water-content HEMA plastic, he established the fundamentals of lathe-cutting technology, described the 8.4mm/14.5mm fitting concept still in use today, and introduced hydrogen peroxide as a viable method for contact lens disinfection. CLS

Patrick Caroline is an associate professor of optometry at Pacific University. He is co-curator of the Contact Lens Museum. He is a consultant or advisor to Katt, Inc.

Craig Norman is an adjunct faculty member at the Michigan College of Optometry’s Vision Research Institute. He is co-curator of the Contact Lens Museum. He has received speaking honoraria or consulting fees from ABB Optical Group, Bausch Medical, Contamac, Euclid Systems, GPLI, Lentechs, Oculus USA, and Valley Contax.

What to Read Next