Santa Ana-based Advanced Medical Optics Inc.’s Chief Executive James Mazzo said Wednesday the company expects to lose Asian customers,some for good,from a contact lens solution recall.
“We expect to lose share and not get it all back,” Mazzo told investors at a US Bancorp Piper Jaffray healthcare conference in New York.
Advanced Medical, which makes contact lens solutions and eye surgery devices, hopes to offset the loss by gaining more surgery business in the U.S. and elsewhere, Mazzo said.
The company gets about 14% of its eye care sales from Asia Pacific. The company had total eye care product sales of $208.6 million through the first six months of 2006, about 28% of total revenue.
Last week, Advanced Medical shut down a plant in China and recalled 2.9 million bottles of its Complete MoisturePlus contact lens solution and Active Packs because of bacterial contamination in three lots made at the plant.
Most of those units were distributed in Japan. About 183,000 of those units made it into the U.S. and were also recalled. Advanced Medical normally supplies the U.S. market through a plant in Spain.
No complaints about Complete MoisturePlus have been lodged in the U.S. Only a handful was reported internationally.
Mazzo said he was confident that all four of the Chinese production lines would be back up by May, with the first line resuming production in February. He said that Advanced Medical’s working with the Food and Drug Administration and Chinese regulators to tear down and sterilize the lines.
Advanced Medical is looking to boost its eye surgery business, according to Mazzo.
The business has split in the U.S. because surgeons have cut advertising budgets. He estimated that laser eye surgery figures would remain flat until 2008, when new procedures are expected to be introduced.
