Bausch + Lomb Acquires AcuFocus
Bausch + Lomb announced it plans to acquire AcuFocus, maker of the IC-8 Apthera IOL. In the deal, an affiliate of Bausch + Lomb will acquire privately-held AcuFocus, pursuant to a merger transaction with the parent company of AcuFocus.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The acquisition expand Bausch + Lomb's cataract surgical portfolio. The FDA approved AcuFocus' IC-8 in July 2022 as the first and only small aperture non-toric extended depth of focus IOL for cataract patients with up to 1.5 diopters of corneal astigmatism who also want to address presbyopia.
This month, the IC-8 was implanted commercially for the first time in the United States. It's also available in some European nations, as well as Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore.
“Cataracts are the largest contributor to global blindness in adults aged 50 years and older, with more than 15 million individuals, or approximately 45 percent of the more than 33 million cases of global blindness.[1] We believe that the IC-8 Apthera EDOF IOL will bolster our surgical portfolio by enhancing our IOL offerings, which is a strategic area of focus for Bausch + Lomb,” Joseph C. Papa, CEO, Bausch + Lomb, said in a company news release. “We will continue to focus on areas of unmet medical need that we believe will help drive long-term growth in our core segments, and importantly, help us achieve our mission of helping people see better to live better.”
"Bausch + Lomb is a legacy name in eye care with a fully integrated portfolio of offerings in eye health,” said Al Waterhouse, president and CEO, AcuFocus. “With its extensive development footprint and renowned commercial expertise, we believe Bausch + Lomb is best positioned to educate physicians about the IC-8 Apthera lens, and ultimately, ensure more cataract patients have access to this new IOL.”
Bausch & Lomb became a publicly traded corporation in May 2022, taking a step closer to becoming an independent company focused on eye health. It began trading under the symbol "BLCO" on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges.
References
1. Steinmetz, J. D., Bourne, R. R., Briant, P. S., Flaxman, S. R., Taylor, H. R., Jonas, J. B., ... & Morse, A. R. F. (2021). Causes of blindness and vision impairment in 2020 and trends over 30 years, and prevalence of avoidable blindness in relation to VISION 2020: the Right to Sight: an analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study. The Lancet Global Health, 9(2), e144-e160. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(20)30489-7
