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AMO acquisition puts focus on the patient, J&J chairman says
Johnson & Johnson completed the acquisition of Abbott Medical Optics in an all-cash $4.325 billion payment, according to a J&J press release issued today.
The transaction includes ophthalmic products in three areas of patient care: cataract surgery, laser refractive surgery and consumer eye health, and the combined organization will operate under the name Johnson & Johnson Vision (J&J Vision).
“What we get very excited about, under the umbrella of J&J Vision, is putting the patient in the middle and bridging the two O’s [optometry and ophthalmology] to best serve patients,” Ashley McEvoy, company group chairman, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Medical Devices, said in an interview with Primary Care Optometry News.
“Optometrists play a strong role in primary eye health,” McEvoy said, and surgeons need to be in surgery and in the operating room. Leveraging the skill set of these professions to better serve patients is an important priority for the company, she said.
J&J pursued Abbott for many reasons, McEvoy explained.
“We really liked their strong, foundational base in surgical ophthalmics (they are No. 2), they have a very strong differentiated portfolio in IOLs, a very competitive platform in femtosecond lasers and a leadership position in refractive surgery, which is No. 1 in the world, with some neat innovation on the way,” she said.
McEvoy added that J&J Vision has a big opportunity in professional outreach for both eye care segments.
“In addition to tapping into what I’ll call our surgical platform,” she continued, “we also have access to J&J, a world leader in surgery, with over a hundred institutes that we can take advantage of, for curriculum with patient education and in the health care profession.”
At nearly $70 billion, eye health is one of the largest, fastest-growing and most underserved segments in health care today, according to the release. – by Abigail Sutton
Perspective
Back to TopIt’s my belief that because their contact lens care solutions market share is so small, initially the real push for J&J in this deal is to break into the surgical space with IOLs and medical devices, which doesn’t impact optometry much. I don’t see in the short term that it will shake things up at all.
As far as solutions go, it certainly opens things up. The name J&J carries a lot of value and impact not only in the health care industry, but in the consumer market. Perhaps they’ll rebrand existing products as opposed to developing new products in-house.
There is a general wariness in private practice optometry of big companies becoming even bigger, what their motives are and how well they will continue to align with and advocate for optometry. Essilor and Luxottica are the prime example of that right now. I have no reason to think J&J is going down a bad path in that regard, but we are curious to see how that plays out. It’s the dilemma we face as small business owners. Despite this wariness, big companies have resources and can oftentimes be effective in ways that small companies can’t in terms of bringing positive things into the industry.
Perspective
Back to Top
It is very positive for ophthalmology and optometry to have Johnson & Johnson make a significant additional investment in vision care. I have personal experience consulting for J&J from 1976 when it acquired Iolab from Peter LaHaye and built it into the No. 1 surgical and No. 2 pharmaceutical company in the world before it sold the business in 1994. It was a fantastic partner to ophthalmology and invested heavily in all the right things, including education, innovation as well as the key physician societies and publications. It is interesting that the new global president of Johnson & Johnson Vision, Tom Frinzi, was a vice president at Iolab in his early career. It must be an amazing experience for him to come back to J&J Vision at the senior management level today.
In optometry, and even among consumers, the J&J Vistakon and Acuvue brands for contact lenses and solutions are a worldwide market leader. My optometry colleagues tell me J&J has been a great partner to optometry for more than 35 years since it entered the field in 1981. I am a strong advocate of constructive collegial collaboration between ophthalmology and optometry to develop integrated eye care delivery models in the best interests of our patients. The merger of Vistakon and Abbott Medical Optics into Johnson & Johnson Vision suggests to me it agrees with this vision, as does the mission statement in the new J&J Vision website: “We deliver meaningful innovation to improve patients’ sense of sight and enhance professionals’ abilities to deliver better outcomes.”
I have met Ashley McEvoy, J&J company group chairman for vision and diabetes care. She is an extraordinarily talented and committed leader. She will bring great value to our field. I am very excited to see the leading health care company in the world increase its commitment to and investment in vision. We doctors, our professional societies and especially our patients will be significant beneficiaries.