European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 1, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                What s new Incon tac lenses by Jonathan Gill new York times using the 1970s the Contact Lens went from an medical Novelty to a mass Market consumer product in the United states. But the $1.5 billion Industry is still experiencing growing pains. The explosive 30 percent annual expansion of the late 1970s brought Price wars in Early 1980s. As the Cost of lenses dropped so did profits bringing on a wave of merger activity. When the dust began to Settle Early this year the number of Lens wearers in the United states had reached More than 20 million but growth had slipped to less than 10 per cent. Today five companies make close to 90 percent of All lenses in the United states a handful of optical chains sell half of All lenses and multimillion Dollar advertising campaigns Are the Rule for both. Hard lenses soft lenses and everything in Between Are now available including disposable bifocal and coloured lenses. Cleaning solutions alone Are a $400 million Industry. Yet for All the upheavals the fundamental goal of the Industry is still the same. Our Competition is not Bausch & lomb and it s not Wesley Jessen said Clive l. Pollard a spokesman for Sola Barnes Hind a subsidiary of Pilkington ltd., the British optical giant. Spectacles said Pollard that s our  with a 20 percent share of the Market Sola is the second largest american Lens maker. Nowhere is that More apparent than in the Industry wide race to fit 30 million aging baby Boomers with bifocal Contact lenses. Because available bifocal lenses Are , uncomfortable difficult to fit and often fail to focus sharply both close up and for distances none has met with Success. So the recent approval of a Fluor polymer Lens by the Federal food and drug administration which regulates the manufacture and Sale of co tact lenses has attracted the attention of All of the major companies. According to researchers a bifocal made with Fluor polymers the same substance used in Teflon frying pans could solve the problems of bifocal lenses and open up the Industry to a whole new group of Consumers. Half of the people in the . Wear glasses said Fred Fritz a spokesman for Wesley Jessen the third largest Lens manufacturer Best known for its Success last year with coloured lenses. Only 20 percent of those people Wear Contact lenses. That is the Opportunity we All focus  in search of an antidote to flattening growth companies have been increasing research and development budgets which were Cut As growth slowed in the Early 1980s. Almost without exception that i hate to go grocery shopping with my husband. It s hard to explain. He does t really say anything. He just stands around watching like a conscience waiting for me to do something dumb. Sometimes he looks at me the same Way the kids do when i m watching a movie on television the moment they enter the room both of the principals in the movie take off their clothes and hit the sheets. It s not a look of disappointment it s More like Shock. I throw a Box of cookies into the cart and his eyes Widen As he says did you mean to buy 13 ounces for the same Price As a Pound of the same cookies or hell pick a quart of milk out of my cart study it and say is it important that the expiration Date was two Days ago or do you have a recipe calling for sour milk but what really frosts me is when on the Way to the car to unload the cart All i have to say is i Don t have investment is directed at bifocals and new materials that will Combine the Good vision correction of hard lenses with the Comfort of soft lenses. Smith Kline Beckman s allergen optical subsidiary which bought International Hydron last november and now holds eight percent of the . Market plans to increase research and development expenditures at International Hydron 15 percent annually Over the next five years. Ciba vision corp., a division of Ciba Geigey ranked number four in United states Market share with 13 percent raised its 1988 Eye care research and development budget by 40 percent Over 1987. The Industry is becoming More research intensive said Eugene Melnitchenko an optical Industry analyst with the Davias Bro i age firm Eppler Guerin & Turner. The results Are already showing from frills like Sun lenses to genuine advances like Flur polymers not to mention the Many therapy a c uses of Contact lenses Melnitchenko said. The Only Way 1o get the Market to get going waa to introduce new products said Irving Bennett a fio Iida optical Industry Concu Tant. Bausch & lomb the largest american Lens manufacturer centring a Quarter of the Industry has increased Contact Lens research 20 per cent Over last year mostly in the area of bifocals and extended Wear lenses. The company s polymer technology corp. Subsidiary last december became the first company to receive Fra approval to Market Fluor polymer lenses. Bausch & lomb also recently introduced an extended Wear rigid Gas permeable Lens that unlike Normal hard lenses can be worn for several Days because of their Superior permeability. Paragon optical a subsidiary of Sola Barnes Hind the second largest Lens company with 20 percent of the Market received Fluor polymer marketing approval in january and is set to introduce a hybrid Lens already in use in Europe that combines the Superior vision correction of a hard Lens in the Center of the Lens with the Comfort of a soft Lens in the perimeter. Another interesting development is taking place in California and Florida where Johnson & Johnson s Vistakos subsidiary which holds 5 percent of the Market is test marketing the first disposable Contact Lens. At $520 per year Vistakos s bifocal which is thrown away after a week is thought to be too  to succeed. But Bausch & lomb and a number of smaller companies All say they Are close to introducing their own disposable lenses. It s such a convenience said Barry j. Farkas a new York optometrist and optical Industry consultant who helped Johnson & Johnson develop disposables that nobody quibbles about the Price of these  two new soft bifocal Contact lenses Alges distance Lens Reading Lens far the Alges Lens with bulls Eye pattern capitalizes on the Eye s natural function. Both optical Fields Are on Retina at same time.  Pupil far Retina the Hydro curve Lens uses asymmetrical curves to produce a progressive focal Power from Center to Edge correcting vision at All Points not just near and Distant. Progressive Multi focal Lens n it Sli Ven Harl unlike conventional bifocal Contact lenses that have to move across the Eye s surface to bring Reading optics into View these new simultaneous Lens designs above place both distance and Reading optics in front of the Retina at the same time just As in natural vision. The brain then selects the Correct focus and ignores other images.  Sass in the 1800s, the Bombeck drove a buckboard into a general store 60 Miles from their spread. As we Load up the Wagon i smile and say could t we Stop off at Mabel s cafe for Chicken and dumplings before heading Back to our empty lonely meaningless existence we can eat when we get Home he says. We got a whole Wagon full of  not unless you re going to eat a Hundred pounds of seed Oil for the lamps Lye for the soap 15 Yards of Gingham 50 pounds of flour and a new Saddle. I told you about general stores. You never come out with anything to  so where do you have to go in this town to get food he snaps. I told you. Drop by Mabel s and Well get Chicken and dumplings. Hey if it makes you feel better Well get pm to  c 1988ermabombeck anything for dinner. Let s Stop and get a pizza and he s All Over me. Are you saying that i just wrote a Check for $123 for two carts of groceries and you have nothing to Cook Don t Start i say. I Don t have time to explain it to  what i Don t have time to explain is the pressure put on women to buy non edibles Over food. The old time general store was nothing compared to today s temptations. After i be pushed my cart through the pet boutique the Florist Small appliances greeting cards cutlery books and magazines Light bulb Center cleaning supplies paper products pantyhose Carousel records and tapes toys Beer mugs ceiling fans encyclopedias candles stationery and Tennis shoes there s no Money or space in my cart for food. Stopping off at a fast food store on the Way Home from the grocery store has become such a familiar scene i feel we be lived it before. I know in another life Page 16 the stars and stripes monday August 1,1988