optoblog.com

UPDATE 2-26-2011: Ciba and Walmart came to an agreement, and ClearCare will soon be available at your nearest Walmart very soon if it’s not there already.

Walmart will sell out their existing stock of ClearCare, but won’t be reordering more. Here’s from the memo dated 1-24-2011:

• Jan 1, 2001 Ciba Vision has incorporated a substantial cost increase to their Clear Care items throughout the industry.
• We take any and all cost increases very seriously especially if the supplier is unable to justify the significant increase completely.
• In the interest of our customers, we will not carry Clear Care until this matter is resolved.

They go on to suggest that the V.C. associates can ask the Doctor Partners to recommend a suitable alternative product.

Isn’t this what happened to Rubbermaid?

Tags: CL Solutions, contacts, optometrist, patients, Wal-Mart

I got a memo from Walmart Health & Wellness Ocular Wellness Team on 10-22-2010:

Effective October 21, 2010, Bausch and Lomb will halt the shipment of the Renu Sensitive care kit as they take a different approach to the Renu product in the market

An evaluation will be made in Q2 2011 and a decision will be made at that time as to it (sic) whether or not the shipments will resume.

When I got the Renu Sensitive starter kits a few months ago I was kind of wondering what the deal was. I mean, if I were a patient I’d be wondering, “Why does the same company offer three competing brands of contact lens multi-purpose solution: Renu Fresh (formerly MultiPlus), Renu Sensitive, and BioTrue?”

See also my entry about the ingredients of the common soft contact lens care systems.

I think the label “sensitive” is a complete marketing gimmick. Someone has dryness or redness with their contacts, so instead of asking their eye doctor, their first impulse is to look in the contact lens solution isle and think, “Yah, my eyes are sensitive, so I’ll buy the product that says ‘sensitive’ on it.”

Tags: CL Solutions, contacts

StainingGrid.com has updated their data to show the new Biotrue MPS from B&L.

It looks like it’s only half as bad as MultiPlus 😉

(Click image to enlarge.)

Tags: CL Solutions, contacts