Contact Lenses and Solutions in the US

PROSPECTS

Contact lenses grow amid mounting concerns about eye health

Contact lenses and solutions experienced strong growth in both current value and volume terms in 2019 as both product innovations and an increasing concern for eye health among US consumers drove demand. As consumers of all ages become increasingly dependent on digital devices, digital eye strain is becoming a mounting concern.

Daily disposable lenses continues to lead growth

Daily disposables lenses continued to be the fastest-growing category within contact lenses in 2019 as the comfort and ease of use of daily disposable lenses appeal to an increasing number of new contact lens wearers. At the same time, contact lens manufacturers and eye care professionals alike are encouraging existing users of frequent replacement lenses and conventional lenses to switch to daily disposable lenses due to their eye health benefits, offering consumers rebates and incentives on new daily disposable lenses.

Telemedicine seeks to disrupt contact lenses

While stories of internet-based start-up companies upending traditional business models have become almost commonplace in the US in recent years, contact lenses has been largely shielded from such disruption due to the necessity of visiting an eye care professional for an eye exam prior to renewing a prescription. Now, some companies are offering an alternative by way of ocular telemedicine.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Johnson & Johnson Vision Care continues to lead contact lenses

Contact lenses in the US is consolidated, with global eye care companies Johnson & Johnson Vision Care Inc, Alcon Laboratories Inc and CooperVision Inc consistently accounting for the lion’s share of sales. Of these three, Johnson & Johnson Vision Care continued to lead sales of contact lenses in 2018, benefitting from its Acuvue family of brands’ extensive product portfolio and strong brand recognition in the US market.

Novartis AG spins off Alcon Laboratories Inc

In April 2019, after eight years of full ownership of the Alcon brand, Swiss-based Novartis AG completed a spin-off of Texas-based Alcon Laboratories Inc. On 9 April 2019, Alcon began to trade on the New York Stock Exchange with a market valuation of about USD28 billion under the symbol “ALC”.

Optical shops remains the largest channel while internet retailing continues growing

Internet retailing continued to be the fastest-growing channel for both contact lenses and contact lens solutions in 2019, as a growing number of companies are offering efficient and cost-effective solutions for ordering contact lenses online. While their store channels maintain a sizeable proportion of the category’s overall sales, chained drugstores and hypermarkets in the US like Walgreens and Walmart, respectively, have seen contact lenses sales grow through their own e-commerce sites, as have purely non-store-based retailers like 1-800 Contacts.

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