UK, Russia, Spain, Portugal, Canada, South Korea and Taiwan
Adopt the Comprehensive Approach
SAN RAMON, Calif., November 10, 2020—Less than a year after debuting its Brilliant Futures™ Myopia Management Program featuring the MiSight® 1 day contact lens in the United States, CooperVision is now expanding the comprehensive approach to multiple countries, including the United Kingdom, Russia, Spain, Portugal, Canada, South Korea, and Taiwan. This seeks to create a new standard of care by creating the optimal environment for compliance, satisfaction, clinical outcomes and long-term loyalty.
“Several years from now, I believe we will look back at late 2020 as an inflection point in the global myopia management movement,” said Dan McBride, President of CooperVision. “Never before has there been this degree of momentum, driven in large part by substantial investments CooperVision is making in evidence-based science, innovative products, and comprehensive clinical and practice management education in the form of Brilliant Futures™. Partnering with the optometry, ophthalmology and pediatric health communities, we have a real opportunity to change the lives of countless children in the decades ahead.”
Brilliant Futures™ has attracted robust participation during its selective U.S. rollout, with more than 1,500 eye care professionals now certified to fit MiSight® 1 day. The innovative lens is the first and only soft contact lens the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved* for slowing the progression of myopia in children, who at initiation of treatment are 8-12 years of age.1 During the past several weeks, a nationwide parent-focused advertising campaign featuring entrepreneur and actress Sarah Michelle Gellar—believed to be possibly the world’s largest-ever consumer myopia management awareness initiative—further accelerated adoption.
Complementing that success, Brilliant Futures™ is now coming to countries where MiSight® 1 day has been previously available, such as the United Kingdom in October. Indie Grewal, Optometrist and President of the British Contact Lens Association (BCLA), says myopia management “has the potential to revolutionize clinical outcomes and can allow us to change the trajectory of childhood myopia in practice.” The program will also be introduced this month in Spain and Portugal, which are current MiSight® 1 day markets.
In Canada, where MiSight® 1 day prescribing has steadily grown in recent years, the Brilliant Futures™ program became available last week, A pilot study conducted by the Centre for Ocular Research & Education (CORE), the University of Waterloo’s School of Optometry & Vision Science and the Canadian National Institute for the Blind determined that almost 30% of Canadian children aged 11-13 are myopic.2
Likewise, the program is launching in countries concurrent with the first availability of MiSight® 1 day. In Russia, this coincides with MiSight® 1 day’s new approval as a therapeutic contact lens and includes ECP-focused digital media and virtual events that began in late October. The lens is newly approved in South Korea for slowing myopia progression, with the program launch commencing this November.
Brilliant Futures™ was unveiled in Taiwan in late September, where MiSight® 1 day has become the first Taiwan Food and Drug Administration-approved product to control the progression of myopia in children. Myopia is estimated to affect approximately 960,000 Taiwanese elementary and middle school students.3
Advancing Myopia Management in China
In China, myopia has increased at a significant rate in recent years. While only 4.7 percent of children less than seven years old are myopic,4 prevalence soars to a stunning 80 to 90 percent once they reach 18 years of age.5 Equally concerning is a 11.7 percent rise in myopia during 2020 alone among children and teenagers, including a 15.2 percent increase in primary school students.6
In mid-October, the Center for Medical Device Evaluation of China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) granted priority review status to CooperVision’s MiSight® 1 day approval submission. In addition to ensuring faster evaluation of the application, the priority status provides more opportunities for company representatives to interact with the medical experts assessing MiSight® 1 day’s safety and efficacy data.
“We are experiencing a remarkable upturn in acknowledging that simply correcting for myopia is not enough, especially when we now have proven technologies to manage and help control its progression,” said McBride. “There’s still much to be done in establishing myopia management as the standard of care. With advancements such as Brilliant Futures™ and the contributions of other like-minded innovators, healthcare professionals, government officials and professional associations, this goal is clearly within sight.”
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* Indications for use: MiSight® 1 day (omafilcon A) soft (hydrophilic) contact lenses for daily wear are indicated for the correction of myopic ametropia and for slowing the progression of myopia in children with non-diseased eyes, who at the initiation of treatment are 8-12 years of age and have a refraction of -0.75 to -4.00 diopters(spherical equivalent) with ≤ 0.75 diopters of astigmatism. The lens is to be discarded after each removal.
1 Chamberlain P, Logan N, Jones D, Gonzalez-Meijome J, Saw S-M, Young G. Clinical evaluation of a dual-focus myopia control 1 day soft contact lens: 6-year results (2020 American Academy of Optometry Annual Meeting).
2 Yang, M., Luensmann, D., Fonn, D. et al. Myopia prevalence in Canadian school children: a pilot study. Eye 32, 1042–1047 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-018-0015-5
3 Lin, Yuhua. “Children’s Contact Lenses-A New Choice for Myopia Control.” HealthNews.com.tw. https://www.healthnews.com.tw/news/article/47569. Accessed 24 Sept 2020.
4 Dong L, Kang YK, Li Y, et al. Prevalence and Time Trends of Myopia in Children and Adolescents in China: A Systemic Review and Meta-Analysis. Retina 2020;40:399-411.
5 Chen M, Wu A, Zhang L, et al. The increasing prevalence of myopia and high myopia among high school students in Fenghua city, eastern China: a 15-year population-based survey. BMC Ophthalmol. 2018;18(1):159. Published 2018 Jul 3. doi:10.1186/s12886-018-0829-8
6 Chinese Ministry of Education. Published 2020 Aug 8. Survey of 14,532 students from nine provinces with overall prevalence of myopia compared to 2019 Dec.
About CooperVision
CooperVision, a division of CooperCompanies (NYSE:COO), is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of contact lenses. The company produces a full array of daily disposable, two-week and monthly soft contact lenses that feature advanced materials and optics, and premium rigid gas permeable lenses for orthokeratology and scleral designs. CooperVision has a strong heritage of addressing the toughest vision challenges such as astigmatism, presbyopia, childhood myopia, and highly irregular corneas; and offers the most complete portfolio of spherical, toric and multifocal products available. Through a combination of innovative products and focused practitioner support, the company brings a refreshing perspective to the marketplace, creating real advantages for customers and wearers. For more information, visit www.coopervision.com.
About CooperCompanies
CooperCompanies ("Cooper") is a global medical device company publicly traded on the NYSE (NYSE:COO). Cooper operates through two business units, CooperVision and CooperSurgical. CooperVision brings a refreshing perspective on vision care with a commitment to developing a wide range of high-quality products for contact lens wearers and providing focused practitioner support. CooperSurgical is committed to advancing the health of women, babies and families with its diversified portfolio of products and services focusing on medical devices and fertility & genomics. Headquartered in San Ramon, Calif., Cooper has a workforce of more than 12,000 with products sold in over 100 countries. For more information, please visit www.coopercos.com.
Media Contact
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