Global opportunity for Valeant

Valeant Pharmaceuticals, the company that owns Bausch & Lomb (B+L), expects seven of its products to generate $1bn (£719 million) in sales over the next five years.

The company’s chairman and chief executive officer, Joseph Papa, made the announcement during the 36^th annual JP Morgan healthcare conference in San Francisco (10 January).

Mr Papa revealed that included in the seven products, which have either been recently approved or filed with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is B+L’s daily Ultra contact lens and Lumify eye drops.

Lumify was approved by the FDA in December 2017 and is slated for release in the second quarter of 2018.

Mr Papa also detailed that there is a $6bn (£431m) opportunity globally for the company in the glaucoma market. He said that the market is expected to account for more than $11bn in revenue by the end of 2020.

B+L recently launched Vyzulta, which is designed to reduce intraocular pressure in patients with open-angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension.  

The pipeline of B+L launches includes silicone hydrogel daily contact lenses in the fourth quarter of 2018 and Ultra toric/multi-focal contact lenses in the first quarter of 2019.

Earlier this month (8 January), B+L also received CE mark approval from the European Commission for the Stellaris Elite vision enhancement system, the company’s ophthalmic surgical platform. The system is now available across Europe.

Speaking about the approval, Mr Papa said: “Because this surgical platform offers the opportunity to continuously add innovative upgrades and enhancements, it enables surgeons to customise their systems and expand their capabilities as their needs evolve without having to invest in a new surgical system.”