- Johnson & Johnson Vision announced that it has named Lori Tierney president, Americas; Jacqueline Henderson president, EMEA; and Christoph Vonwiller president, Asia-Pacific. In these new positions, Ms. Tierney, Ms. Henderson, and Mr. Vonwiller now lead the end-to-end vision business in their respective regions, driving strategy, commercial excellence, and organizational alignment across both the company’s Vision Care and Surgical Vision businesses. The company also announced that Jun Morimura will remain president for Vision Care, Japan, building strategy and driving execution for the Vision Care business in the Japanese market.
- Bausch + Lomb Corporation (B+L) announced the appointments of Bob Bailey as executive vice president (EVP) and chief legal officer and Andrew Stewart as president, Ophthalmic Pharmaceuticals. Both Mr. Bailey and Mr. Stewart will join the executive management team of the company. Concurrent with these appointments, Christina Ackermann stepped down from her role as EVP, general counsel and president, Ophthalmic Pharmaceuticals, and left B+L.
- Valley Contax Inc., in partnership with Contamac U.S., announced the travel grant winner to attend Optometry’s Meeting in Washington, D.C. Applicants had to submit a short essay about why they chose optometry as a career. The award went to Rachael Lockhart from the class of 2024 at Northeastern State University, Oklahoma College of Optometry.
- Optometry Giving Sight (OGS) announced the appointment of Nikki Earich to development director, North America. In her new role, Ms. Earich is responsible for developing and managing the organization’s fundraising initiatives while building and strengthening partnerships with optometric practices, eyecare professionals, and other key industry stakeholders. Prior to joining OGS, she served as the director of development and fundraising at The District 75 STEAM Foundation in Mundelein, IL.
- The Tear Film & Ocular Surface Society (TFOS) announced its new global workshop report, entitled “A Lifestyle Epidemic: Ocular Surface Disease,” which will be published this quarter in The Ocular Surface journal. According to TFOS, the new report will focus on the direct and indirect impacts that everyday lifestyle choices and challenges have on ocular surface health.
- CooperVision is now accepting submissions for its 2023 Science and Technology Awards program. The program enables researchers around the world to explore new dimensions in vision care, with the goal of translating innovative ideas into practical solutions. Proposals may span proof-of-concept through translational stages and are eligible for two types of awards. The CooperVision Seedling Award is intended for investigation of early-stage concepts for a one-year period, with a maximum grant of $100,000. The CooperVision Translational Research Award is a two-year grant for substantive projects with funding up to $400,000. Interested applicants must submit a letter of intent before June 23, 2023. Additional information and the online application are available at coopervision.com/about-us/science-and-technology-awards .
- Alcon announced that Daniel M. Miller, MD, PhD, will join Alcon as a member of the research and development (R&D) team. Dr. Miller will serve as a senior scientific advisor to Alcon’s R&D team while continuing as a partner at the Cincinnati Eye Institute. He will also remain a chair of the medical executive board at Eyecare Partners. At Alcon, Dr. Miller will be instrumental in developing pharmaceutical strategies, assessing new retina technologies, and integrating future pharma innovations into the pipeline.
- Reps. Michael Burgess (R-TX) and Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE) recently introduced the Contact Lens Prescription Verification Modernization Act (H.R. 2748), which would amend the Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act to modernize verification of contact lens prescriptions, and for other purposes. The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. According to the Health Care Alliance for Patient Safety, if passed, this legislation will modernize the contact lens prescription verification process and make it safer for millions of contact lens wearers by prohibiting telephone calls with an artificial or prerecorded voice, also known as robocalls, from being used as a method for verifying patients’ prescriptions. Up-to-date information about this legislation is available at congress.gov .
- A new report from the Contact Lens Institute (CLI) indicates that the eyecare community has significant yet largely untapped upside opportunity by prescribing both contact lenses and glasses. “Double Duty: The Patient & Practice Potential of Dual Contact Lens & Glasses Wear” is now available for online reading or download from ContactLensInstitute.org . The latest CLI See Tomorrow series report draws from recently conducted custom research with more than 2,000 prescription vision-corrected U.S. adults, combined with insights from more than a dozen of the country’s leading eyecare professionals. It also includes previously unpublished data from The Vision Council, with whom CLI is partnering to extend the study’s reach.
- Treehouse Eyes announced the rollout of a new automated parent marketing platform to deliver target parents the right message at the right time about myopia treatment for their child. Developed with Engage Technologies Group, this video-based platform is now available to all Treehouse Eyes providers to deliver a powerful message to prospective parents, reduce chair time, and increase close rate for myopia management consultations, according to Treehouse Eyes.
- The International Myopia Institute (IMI) announced the release of the third series of its white papers in a special issue of Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science (IOVS) journal. The third series of white papers highlights evidence around onset, progression, and management of myopia in less typical young adult and pediatric populations, the role of the choroid in eye growth control and myopia management, and a detailed anatomical paper on non-pathological ocular tissue changes observed in moderate to high myopia. In addition, the series includes a report on the results of an international survey of practitioners on myopia management attitudes and strategies in clinical practice and a digest that updates the latest evidence from topics covered in previous editions. The 2023 IMI White Papers can be accessed at iovs.arvojournals.org and at myopiainstitute.org/imi-white-papers .In other news, IMI announced the release of recorded white paper interviews. The widely cited series of IMI White Papers were published in IOVS journal in 2019 and 2021 and now in 2023. Video recorded interviews of key findings with each of the lead authors from the white paper series are now available for viewing. The IMI white papers volume one and two, together with the interviews and the latest clinical summaries in up to 13 international languages can be accessed at myopiainstitute.org/imi-taskforce-interviews . The video recordings were funded by an education grant from Hoya.
- ABB Optical Group announced that the company’s ninth annual Optometry Student Challenge is now open for registration. Third- and fourth-year optometry students are invited to submit an abstract on a student-based case report or research study project for a chance to win a travel grant to attend the 2024 Global Specialty Lens Symposium. To begin, optometry students can visit abboptical.com/OptometryStudentChallenge and must register by Aug. 31. Topics are restricted to contact lenses and may include (but are not limited to) contact lens applications for presbyopia, keratoconus, corneal topography, post-penetrating keratoplasty or related irregular corneal surface, myopia control, lens care/solutions, custom soft lenses, ortho-k instrumentation for measurement of the ocular surface, and sports/performance vision.
- Alcon announced the expansion of the partnership with Plastic Bank. For each ton of plastic introduced in the marketplace, Plastic Bank will collect an equivalent amount of ocean-bound plastic in vulnerable coastal communities. Alcon aims to support the plastic removal of more than 990,000kg in 2023—the equivalent of stopping more than 49 million plastic bottles from reaching the ocean this year. Building on these efforts, for 2023, Alcon has extended its offset program to include Systane Eye Drops sold across more than 30 markets, including Australia, Egypt, France, New Zealand, and the United Arab Emirates.
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WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION/COVID NEWS
• WHO Ends Global Emergency Status for COVID-19
The World Health Organization (WHO) ended the global emergency status for COVID-19 on May 5, more than three years after its original declaration, and noted that countries should now manage the virus. In addition, WHO published a plan (bit.ly/3M8w8zR ) in May advising countries on how to live with COVID long term.
WHO’s Emergency Committee met on May 4 and recommended that the United Nations declare an end to the coronavirus crisis as a “public health emergency of international concern”—its highest level of alert—which has been in place since Jan. 30, 2020.
According to WHO data, the COVID death rate has slowed from more than 100,000 people per week in January 2021 to just greater than 3,500 per week to April 24, 2023. This reflects widespread vaccination, availability of better treatments, and a level of population immunity from prior infections.
Last year, U.S. President Joe Biden said the pandemic was over. As such, the U.S. has begun dismantling its domestic state of emergency for COVID, which officially ended May 11, meaning it will stop paying for vaccines and testing for many people and shift responsibility to the commercial market. The European Union also said in April 2022 that the emergency phase of the pandemic was over, and other regions have taken similar steps. Additionally, WHO’s declaration comes just four months after China ended its prolonged severe COVID restrictions and was ravaged by a big surge in infections.
• Conjunctivitis More Prevalent with Arcturus COVID Mutation
According to the World Health Organization, the newest COVID-19 mutation—XBB.1.16 or Arcturus—is variant of interest because it is being circulated and has the potential to spread widely and possibly evade immunity (bit.ly/3VPv9rr ). According to William Schaffner, MD, a professor of preventative medicine at Vanderbilt Medical University, Arcturus is causing symptoms that are different than previous mutations, such as more fever. Additionally, more cases of conjunctivitis are being linked to the new variant. Other Arcturus symptoms include sort throat, runny nose, sneezing, cough, headache, fatigue, muscle aches, and altered sense of smell.