Bausch + Lomb Acquires AcuFocus
Bausch + Lomb announced it has acquired AcuFocus, maker of the IC-8 Apthera IOL.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The moves bolsters Bausch + Lomb's cataract surgery portfolio. AcuFocus' IC-8 was approved by the FDA in July 2022 as the first and only small aperture non-toric extended depth of focus IOL for cataract patients who have as much as 1.5 diopters of corneal astigmatism and wish to address presbyopia at the same time. The IC-8 was implanted commercially in the United States for the first time this month (view EyewireTV's coverage here). It is also available in select markets across Europe, as well as in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.
"The mission for AcuFocus has been since our inception to develop and deliver small aperture technologies to patients so that they could achieve their best personal vision. And the acquistion by B+L helps us to achieve that mission in a very meaningful way," Yari Mitchell, Chief Business Development Officer for Acufocus, told Eyewire+. "In July of last year when we received FDA approval for our Apthera IC-8 IOL, the response from patients and physicians was just tremendous. The outreach and the inquiries just continue to flow in so this partnership with Bausch + Lomb allows us to get the lens to physicians and to patients so they can start experiencing the benefits of small aperature technology."
“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.”
In May 2022, Bausch + Lomb took a step forward on the path to becoming an independent company focused on eye health when it launched as a publicly traded company. It began trading under the “BLCO” symbol on the New York Stock Exchange and Toronto Stock Exchange.
In the deal, an affiliate of Bausch + Lomb will acquire privately-held AcuFocus, pursuant to a merger transaction with the parent company of AcuFocus.
References
- 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