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Zeiss purchase of Acri.Tec AG shows new focus on IOL technology
With an expanded portfolio that now includes lasers, diagnostic equipment and IOLs, Carl Zeiss aims to become more of a global force.
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Carl Zeiss Meditec is positioning itself as a global player with a more comprehensive product line now that it has completed the acquisition of Acri.Tec AG, according to company officials.
 Jorge L. Alió |
With an array of diagnostic equipment, an excimer laser and a femtosecond laser already in its product line, Carl Zeiss said it hopes that the addition of several IOLs from the acquisition could make the company a larger force to contend with in the global ophthalmic surgery market.
“Overall, we believe that Acri.Tec’s product portfolio is a very complementary product line to our current offerings,” Jutta Sesselmann, director of business sector implants/disposables at Carl Zeiss Meditec, told Ocular Surgery News in a telephone interview.
“We will have a very competitive portfolio,” she said.
Jorge L. Alió, MD, PhD, a former Acri.Tec consultant, told OSN he thinks Zeiss’ move underscores the company’s desire to play in the same arena as Alcon, Bausch & Lomb and Advanced Medical Optics.
“In terms of market sales, that will take some time because it is clear that the power of the big companies is really big and their place in many markets is difficult to overcome,” Dr. Alió said. “But keeping in mind the quality of Zeiss’ products, keeping in mind that they are getting into new areas, with great progress with the Acri.Tec lenses, they want to be considered in this category of companies.
“This is actually the type of company that is bad news for the big companies,” Dr. Alió said.
Acri.Tec’s major contribution to Carl Zeiss’ portfolio will be its IOL line, although the company also sells viscoelastic solutions, silicone oil, balanced salt solution and surgical instruments.
According to an estimate from Market Scope, which tracks data on the ophthalmic market, IOLs accounted for approximately 75% of Acri.Tec’s 2006 revenue, which totaled approximately $16 million last year.
“Carl Zeiss Meditec is targeting and is striving to be a complete solution provider, especially in ophthalmology and surgical ophthalmology, so IOLs, of course, are a critical part in that,” Ms. Sesselmann said.
IOLs
Acri.Tec will bring nine monofocal IOLs, six multifocal IOLs, six microincision IOLs, two bitoric IOLs, one multifocal toric IOL and two vitreoretinal IOLs to Carl Zeiss. With the acquisition of Acri.Tec and the company’s 2005 acquisition of IOLTech, Carl Zeiss now offers three different IOL materials.
“The former IOLTech was very well known for hydrophilic acrylic material, and it entered also into the hydrophobic material segment. Acri.Tec has a very special material — hydrophilic acrylic with a hydrophobic surface. So from a material [perspective], there is not really a lot of overlap,” Ms. Sesselmann said.
“We will in the future take the best of the two companies and build on their successes,” she said.
Strong presence in Europe
Market Scope estimates that approximately 88% of Acri.Tec’s 2006 revenues were generated by sales in Germany and other European countries and 70% of revenues were generated by sales in Germany alone.
“We have a very strong position, on the one hand, in Germany, which is the home market for Acri.Tec, and then, on the other hand, in France, which used to be the home market of the former IOLTech,” Ms. Sesselmann said.
“In Europe, they have to be considered a strong competitor from this very moment,” Dr. Alió added.
Market expansion
Carl Zeiss could soon see its market substantially expand beyond Europe, however, especially in terms of IOLs. The Acri.Smart microincision IOL family is currently in U.S. Food and Drug Administration trials. Ms. Sesselmann said that Carl Zeiss plans to proceed with this approval process.
The Acri.Smart IOL family is made of hydrophilic acrylic material with an hydrophobic surface, which has yet to gain ground in the United States despite wide use in Europe. Early reports of opacification associated with hydrophilic acrylic models from a number of manufacturers deterred many U.S. ophthalmologists from using the IOLs, although Ms. Sesselmann said that clinical studies show that current hydrophilic acrylic material does not cause opacification.
Ms. Sesselmann said Carl Zeiss hopes to gain a competitive advantage by offering a complete IOL portfolio, including IOLs for microincision cataract surgery.
Dr. Alió said he thinks this makes sense strategically.
“What they prove now with this decision to buy Acri.Tec is that they are going to enter into the market much more actively in terms of being suppliers of IOLs and, generally speaking, surgical devices … and that the way they want to enter is through the latest in cataract surgery, which is microincision cataract surgery,” Dr. Alió said. “The trend toward microincision is clear.”
With the Acri.Tec acquisition completed, Market Scope estimates that Carl Zeiss’ total global IOL revenues will be between $45 million and $50 million, or about 3% of the global market.
Ms. Sesselmann said that Carl Zeiss has made no decisions on whether to pursue FDA approval of any of its other lenses. However, if the Acri.Smart and other hydrophilic acrylic lenses are approved and become more widely used in the United States, Carl Zeiss could see its IOL market expand.
“Carl Zeiss Meditec has an international setup, and we will continue to expand the business on a worldwide basis,” Ms. Sesselmann said.
For more information:
- Jorge L. Alió, MD, PhD, can be reached at VISSUM, Instituto Oftalmologico de Alicante, Avda. de Denia, s/n, 03016 Alicante, Spain; 34-965-150-025; fax: 34-965-151-501; e-mail: jlalio@vissum.com.
- Jutta Sesselmann can be reached at Carl Zeiss Meditec, Avenue Paul Langevin, 17053 La Rochelle, France; 33-546-523-151; fax: 33-546-442-820; e-mail: j.sesselmann@meditec.zeiss.com.
- Jessica Loughery is an OSN Staff Writer who covers all aspects of ophthalmology. She also writes daily updates for OSNSuperSite.com.