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Bausch & Lomb files lawsuit against Alcon alleging false advertising
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Bausch & Lomb has filed a lawsuit against Alcon, alleging that it made false advertising claims about Bausch & Lomb's contact lens solution, ReNu MultiPlus. The company seeks an injunction against Alcon's advertising campaign and damages for loss of sales due to the campaign, according to a press release from B&L.
The suit was filed with the United States District Court for the Western District of New York on June 26.
According to the release, the company alleges that Alcon's promotional use of a chart to demonstrate the safety of contact lens solutions, without scientific studies or clinical evidence to back the chart's safety assertions, could negatively influence patients and doctors. The chart measures safety of solutions based on corneal staining tests. It rates safety by a color-coded system, with green solution combinations safe, yellow combinations to be used with caution and red combinations unsafe.
Bausch & Lomb officials allege that Alcon uses a simplistic corneal staining technique, which measures only a subjective estimate and does not account for type and depth. The best evaluations take into account area, type and depth, Bausch & Lomb officials stated.
According to Bausch & Lomb, an average of eight out of 10 noncontact lens wearing patients have low-level corneal staining, while low-level corneal staining is found in successful contact lens wearers.
"Alcon's own research confirms that the staining identified in its promotional chart is both transient and asymptomatic," the press release from Bausch & Lomb said.
The chart was created with a research grant from Alcon.
"The color-coding or corneal staining levels is wholly arbitrary and without clinical relevance," Robert Moore, vice president and general manager of Bausch & Lomb's U.S. vision care and OTC eye care business, said in the press release. "Alcon's progressive encroachment and disingenuous actions are not only damaging the Bausch & Lomb brand, but also causing harm to the broader eye care marketplace."
Bausch & Lomb officials stated that ReNu MultiPlus has been used successfully by consumers for the past 10 years and is the top-selling formulation in the United States.
Ocular Surgery News attempted to obtain Alcon's response to the lawsuit, but a spokesperson said the company was not yet ready to issue a statement.