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BLOG: Suite deals at the AAO
When I return to my home base at SkyVision after our major conventions, I always reflect on my experience, and this year’s AAO in Las Vegas was no different. What was new? Were there any broad themes that seemed to run through the meeting? Am I returning home a different doc because I spent 4 days communing with my professional colleagues and our industry counterparts? Let’s go with nothing, perhaps and not even a little bit.
Anyone who’s been at this ophthalmology thing for more than 10 years has been to an AAO (or an ASCRS) that had all kinds of new stuff to learn about, maybe buy and use at home. Did you see anything truly new this year? The only thing we saw in Vegas was a “Coming Soon” sign. Seriously, the closest thing to new and different is Oculeve, the electric equivalent of a punch in the nose (electroceutical!), recently acquired by Allergan. Granted, everything about Oculeve is cool, but stacked up against, say, pupil tracking on an excimer laser, and, well ... .
If there was a theme running through this year’s convention, it was the “X Care Suite,” the bundling by industry of multiple ways to address a single care entity. Hats off to the aforementioned Allergan (for as long as we can say “Allergan”) for leading this movement. The dry eye team there not only added Oculeve to the formidable Restasis franchise, it also consummated the deal to bring Mimetogen to the market. On the glaucoma side, Allergan made an even bolder move, entering the truly surgical side of glaucoma by purchasing the AqueSys MIGS implant to go along with its topical and soon to be available injectable glaucoma meds, both of which will be important to dry eye docs. Alcon and Bausch + Lomb very quietly expanded their eye surgery suites, news that was overshadowed by a deal to talk about making a femto laser deal.
Was any of that enough to send me home a changed man, as it were? Nah. Not even close. But hey, my suite at the Venetian was really sweet, and, well, you know, there’s all kinds of sweet stuff just around the corner, maybe even at ASCRS.
Disclosure: White reports he is a consultant for Bausch + Lomb, Allergan, Shire and Eyemaginations and on the speakers board for Bausch + Lomb, Allergan and Shire.