News
IOL Competition
09 Jan 2011
The global market for intraocular lenses (IOLs) used in cataract surgery continues to increase as the number of patients requiring cataract operations grows.
According to Global Industry Analysts, the world market for IOLs is projected to exceed $US3.7 billion by 2015.
Economic development in developing countries and an ageing population in developed parts of the world can be attributed to the increase in demand.
In particular, economic development is responsible for broadening the accessibility of advanced medical care to a greater population base.
While Europe and the United States are the two largest IOL markets, the Asia-Pacific looms as the fastest growing market for intraocular lenses.
The region’s intraocular lens market is forecast at just under $US50 million in 2012.
India has one of the highest cataract surgery rates so the potential for IOL manufacturers there is huge.
While the US based firm, Alcon, is the undisputed market leader in the global intraocular lens market, there are other IOL manufacturers making a name for themselves, one of them in Asia.
The Fred Hollows Intraocular Lens Laboratory in Kathmandu, Nepal, is part of the Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology (TIO), one of the country’s biggest success stories.
The Fred Hollows IOL Lab is renowned internationally for its high quality lenses.
It was the brainchild of Tilganga’s Medical Director, Dr Sanduk Ruit, and the late Professor Fred Hollows, an Australian eye surgeon.
The pair first met when Professor Hollows arrived in Nepal in 1985 as a consultant to the World Health Organisation.
They formed a special bond and the two eye surgeons conspired to overcome the obstacles of providing eye health services in developing countries by embarking on a journey to build a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility for intraocular lenses in Kathmandu.
New Zealand scientist, Sir Ray Avery, who had met Fred Hollows shortly before his death, supervised the construction and set-up of the laboratory.
While Fred had claimed “all we need is a bloody shed”, that “shed” is now a world class facility that has been producing innovative and superior intraocular lenses since 1995.
It produces both foldable and rigid intraocular lenses.
Since its humble beginnings in 1994, the Fred Hollows Intraocular Lens Laboratory has implanted more than 3.5 million intraocular lenses into the eyes of people whose sight might otherwise have been lost.
It now produces 400,000 intraocular lenses each year and has reduced the cost of the rigid IOL’s from $US100 to around $US4, making it a very competitive player in the global intraocular lens market.
So highly regarded is the laboratory that it’s the approved supplier for intraocular lenses to Vision 2020 Projects worldwide. (Vision 2020 is a global initiative, with the World Health Organisation, to eliminate blindness.)
From its headquarters in one of the world’s poorest nations, the Fred Hollows Intraocular Lens Laboratory has managed to capture a healthy share of the Asian market.
While it sends lenses to about 70 countries worldwide, it has 15 countries on its distribution list, 12 of those in Asia.
In Nepal, the Fred Hollows intraocular lenses penetrate 90% of the market with the remaining 10% going to foreign brands.
In neighbouring Pakistan, demand for the Fred Hollows IOL lenses is fervent.
“The brand is very popular in Pakistan, so much so that we can’t keep up demand“, says TIO’s sales and marketing manager, Santosh Sharma.
Pakistan is ordering in excess of 120,000 lenses annually from the Fred Hollows Lab.
Mr Sharma says the popularity of the Fred Hollows IOL lenses in Pakistan is so great that producers of inferior lenses have tried to sell their product in pirated Fred Hollows packaging.
“I brought a few boxes back to Nepal last time I was in Pakistan and tested the lenses”, Mr Sharma said.
“They were very bad and their expiry period was given longer than standard norms”, he adds.
Mr Sharma believes it was an Indian IOL manufacturer that produced the counterfeit boxes.
Indonesia was a recent addition to the distribution list, but Mr Sharma says India is slightly harder to crack, even though the two countries share a border.
“India is very difficult market to get into because so many other companies are in there with a lower rate”, he said.
Mr Sharma says some of these companies are geared for mass production and are therefore able to produce the lenses at a cheaper price.
However, he says the Fred Hollows Intraocular Lens Laboratory has been able to win over some of the Indian market because “they prefer our lenses rather than the Indian lenses”.
Mr Sharma said the laboratory’s sole objective “is to provide products which are extremely safe and of uncompromised quality”.
He pointed out that many hospitals are also conscious about purchasing from a non-government, not-for-profit organisation, like TIO.
“It’s always been a challenge capturing markets because there is always someone else there, but demand for our lenses is still very high”, Mr Sharma said.
“The US is a major player in China, but still we are finding some space in the market”, he said.
The fact that a medical team from Tilganga regularly goes into China to perform cataract surgery in remote provinces has helped boost sales.
The marketing and sales team recently signed Iran to its distribution list. Mr Sharma said “there are some populations untouched by cataract surgery in Iran”.
At the moment TIO is trying to break into Ethiopia with its product.
“We haven’t captured it, but we’re still trying”, he said.
The intraocular lenses were recently approved for sale in Australia by the Therapeutic Goods Administration – Australia’s regulatory agency for medical devices.
Approval for sale in the Australian market is considered a major coup for the Kathmandu laboratory.
In the future, the Fred Hollows IOL Laboratory team would like to expand their reach into the Eastern European market.
The team is now developing hydrophobic intraocular lenses.
Deputy General Manager of Tilganga, Rabindra Shrestha, says the lenses, which are popular in developed countries, reduce glare and are easier for surgeons to insert.
With these new lenses, Mr Shrestha has his sights on Poland, the Czech Republic and adjoining countries.
Representatives from the Fred Hollows IOL Laboratory plan to attend the next conference of the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons in Milan, Italy next year.
Mr Shrestha says “that will give us an opportunity to talk to distributors and hopefully get a foot into those markets”.
*In cataract surgery, IOLs are inserted into the eye through an incision usually as small as 1.8 millimetres.
About Tilganga
TIO is the implementing body of the Nepal Eye Program, a non profit, community based, non-government organization. With an aim to act as a model for treatment research and training, independent of, but in co operation with all other eye care centres and organizations in Nepal, the current TIO facility was opened in 1994.
