One of Bausch & Lomb’s insurers is off the hook for personal injury claims stemming from the ReNu with MoisturLoc recall.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Michael Telesca found in favor of insurer Lexington Co. ruling that each alleged injury must be treated as a separate claim. Because of this ruling, Lexington will only have to pay claims that reach a certain liability threshold. (more…)
Hundreds of ReNu with MoistureLoc lawsuits have been “quietly” settled by Bausch & Lomb, the Associated Press is reporting. The confidential settlements, numbering around 600, have some concerned that the true facts about the epidemic of dangerous eye infections caused by ReNu with MoistureLoc in 2006 will never be made public.
Bausch & Lomb issued a worldwide recall of ReNu with MoistureLoc on May 15, 2006, after it was linked to an outbreak of Fusarium Keratitis, a potentially blinding eye infection. In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) ultimately confirmed 180 cases of Fusarium Keratitis in the U.S. linked to ReNu. The CDC said that bad hygiene habits among users were not to blame for the infections, but that the contact lens solution appeared to have poor disinfectant qualities. According to the Associated Press, at least 60 more Americans needed vision-saving corneal transplants. (more…)
Disturbed by the blinding eye infections caused by tainted ReNu with MoistureLoc and Advanced Medical Optics (AMO) Complete MoisturePlus, a Food & Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel has called for tougher testing and warnings for contact lens solutions. Critics of contact lens solution makers have long contended that current testing methods are not enough to insure the products’ safety. The FDA is not bound to follow recommendations of advisory panels, but in most cases, it does so.
In 2006, Bausch & Lomb issued a worldwide recall of ReNu with MoistureLoc Contact Lens Solution after it was linked to hundreds of cases of Fusarium Keratitis, a rare eye infection that has the potential to cause blindness. Following an investigation, the Centers for Disease Control determined that bad hygiene habits among users were not to blame for the infections, but that the contact lens solution appeared to have poor disinfectant qualities. (more…)
Bausch & Lomb’s Renu with MoistureLoc Contact Lens Solution was tested against an outdated strain of Fusarium that was an inadequate example of the types of pathogens that exist today. According to a study conducted by researchers at the Centers for Medical Mycology at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio, the quality testing Bausch & Lomb routinely performed on Renu with MoistureLoc and other contact lens solutions was no guarantee of their effectiveness. The researchers have concluded that such faulty test methods were directly responsible for the massive 2006 outbreak of Fusarium Keratitis linked to defective Renu MoistureLoc.
These latest findings have bolstered many Bausch & Lomb critics, who have long blamed the company’s poor quality control measures for the outbreak of the potentially blinding disease. “It’s ridiculous that a contact lens solution would only be tested against a microbe that has no real world relevance,” said Jerrold Parker, Managing Partner of Parker Waichman Alonso LLP, a law firm representing many Renu with MoistureLoc victims. “There is no way Bausch & Lomb could guarantee the safety of Renu MoistureLoc on the basis of these inadequate tests.” (more…)
Ronald Zarella, the Bausch & Lomb CEO who was at the helm of the company during the Renu with MoistureLoc recall debacle has resigned. Last year, Zarella said that he hoped that the sale of Bausch & Lomb to private equity firm Warburg Pincus of New York City would turn the company around. But Bausch & Lomb still faces hundreds of Renu with MoistureLoc lawsuits that could cost the company billions.
Two years ago, Renu with MoistureLoc was linked to Fusarium Keratitis, a rare eye infection that has the potential to cause blindness. The company pulled Renu with MoistureLoc from Asian markets in February 2006, and did the same in the U.S. in April, before finally issuing a worldwide recall on May 15, 2006. (more…)
More bad news fromBausch & Lomb, the maker of recalled ReNu with MoistureLoc Contact Lens Solution. The company, still reeling from the ReNu with MoistureLoc Contact Lens Solution recall, announced that it would be eliminating 250 jobs at one of its plants in the United Kingdom.
The Bausch & Lomb job cuts will hit workers at the company’s plant in West Lothian, Scotland. The Bausch & Lomb plant there manufactures contact lenses. The company is to cease the manufacture of its SoftLens One Day contact lens produced at the plant in 2008, replacing it with the technologically advanced SofLens Daily Disposable contact lens.
