Partnerships, collaboration, consolidation will disrupt eye care over next 5 years
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
CHICAGO — Collaborations and consolidations within the eye care space will be potentially disruptive over the next 5 years, according to a market expert at Eyecelerator@AAO.
Market Scope CEO Kristen Harmon Ingenito discussed the importance of improving inefficiencies in the ophthalmic market to ensure its growth.
Collaborations and partnerships can take different forms, from the “really big, exciting partnerships like Amazon or Google Meta to companies that are very small but narrow focused with high core competencies and technological development, bringing those into a larger manufacturer that doesn’t have those core competencies but has the ability to speed innovation to market and come up with some creative solutions we haven’t thought of yet,” Harmon Ingenito said.
She used Amazon Prime delivery as an example.
“This changed the game for everybody,” she said. “Everybody has to start delivering things faster.”
EssilorLuxottica’s recent acquisition of Heidelberg is noteworthy, Harmon Ingenito said.
“They mainly play in the optometric space, but they have really looked at point-of-care clinics and getting direct-to-consumer products,” she said. “They’re also getting very technical expertise and bringing in manufacturing out of Japan and very specific markets. And they have started getting into the medical device business.”
According to Harmon Ingenito, EssilorLuxottica has ownership in Stellest myopia management spectacle lenses, the Nuance audio solution and Nikon. The company also owns optical brands including Kodak and Ray-Ban, as well as retail outlets such as Pearle Vision, Sunglass Hut, LensCrafters and EyeBuyDirect, “creating a sizeable footprint in the dispensing market and direct to consumer.”
“This is an interesting concept of going from partnership to collaboration to consolidation and bringing it in-house,” she added.
Harmon Ingenito listed what she considered “wild cards” — factors that could be particularly disruptive to the ophthalmic industry over the next 5 years.
“The most interesting is the impact of GLP-1 medications,” she said. “There’s an estimate out there that between 2% and 3% of the population in the U.S. is on these medications. If we actually do reduce our rate of diabetes, then potentially diabetic retinopathy rates decrease. The diabetic population is better controlled, so disease is less of an issue or less bad, which would be ideal.”
The weather has also played a disruptive role in the market. Damage from Hurricane Helene resulted in an IV fluid shortage as well as a shortage of quartz, which is used in the manufacture of semiconductors, Harmon Ingenito said.
“Disruption doesn’t necessarily mean just finding an unmet need or a disease we haven’t yet addressed (please do that also), but it can just mean making something easier,” she said. “There are a lot of places we can improve inefficiency in the market and address those constraints ... [so] we can continue to grow this ophthalmic market into the future.”
Collapse
Harmon Ingenito K. Strategic sight: Financial and commercial update. Presented at: Eyecelerator@AAO; Oct. 17, 2024; Chicago.
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts