Dual benefits

After positive results on the effectiveness of its new one-day myopia control contact lenses for children aged eight to 12, CooperVision’s myopia control senior director, Stuart Cockerill, and European professional services manager, Elizabeth Lumb, answered a number of OT’s questions.

When will the ‘MiSight’ dual-focus myopia control one-day contact lenses become available?

Stuart Cockerill: We’re approaching the three-year results in our long-term clinical study of the contact lenses, and we wanted to show long-term efficacy before we offered them widely to eye care practitioners (ECPs).

Limited numbers have been available in the region of Asia and in Spain previously, but the plan is to gradually start offering them to selected practices in the UK and Europe this year. We’ll be engaging with practitioners who are already highly engaged in fitting children or myopia control, so they will soon be able to offer them as part of their myopia management portfolio.

How will the dual-focus contact lenses compare in price to the single-vision equivalent?

Stuart Cockerill: They will be a bit more expensive than the typical single-vision, daily disposable spherical contact lens, but less than a toric or a multifocal, for example.

We don’t want price to be a barrier, as we want to make this product as accessible as possible.

Did you find the two-year interim results of the clinical trial of the product exciting?

Elizabeth Lumb: We’ve been really encouraged by the one- and two-year results and are really looking forward to what the three-year results will give us.

The contact lenses reduced the progression of both refractive error and axial length. There was quite a significant difference with our contact lens, compared to the control group. We are really excited by these results.

What are CooperVision’s hopes for this product?

Elizabeth Lumb: CooperVision has a really good understanding that myopia prevalence is going to be a significant global problem. We are therefore looking at ways in which we can reduce myopia progression, which would have a hugely beneficial outcome for longer-term eye health.

Practitioners are not actively fitting children with myopia control contact lenses at the moment.

CooperVision’s long-term goal is to see myopia management as the first-choice option for myopic children, and MiSight contact lenses have been specifically designed to help achieve this. There are other significant benefits of contact lens wear as well, for example children’s confidence levels increase. The results of our study mirrored this existing research.

The feedback from parents of the children in the study was that children adapt really well to wearing contact lenses and can handle them independently from the outset.

What advice do you have for optometrists wanting to offer myopia control options to their patients?                                               

Elizabeth Lumb: As a first step, they should take stock of the information already out there around myopia control, from conferences to the high-quality published research.

ECPs keen to offer the MiSight product should get in touch with CooperVision’s professional services team to register their interest.

Stuart Cockerill: The plan is to roll the product out in a controlled manner, but eventually they should be available to any interested ECPs.