Santa Ana-based Advanced Medical Optics Inc.’s recall of its Complete MoisturePlus contact lens solution stands to benefit a couple of rivals: Cooper Cos. of Lake Forest, and Alcon Inc., which employs some 600 people in Irvine, analysts said Wednesday.
Advanced Medical said late Friday that it was recalling Complete MoisturePlus Multi-Purpose Solution because the product was linked to Acanthamoeba keratitis, an infection that can cause eye damage and blindness.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials said most of the patients who wore soft contacts used MoisturePlus in the month before their symptoms appeared,since 2005, 138 cases of the infection have been confirmed.
Advanced Medical’s shares dropped on that news, as did those of Bausch & Lomb Inc., a competitor and potential takeover target.
Advanced Medical said last week it could top a rival buyout bid for Bausch & Lomb, but analysts and investors now are saying a deal’s unlikely.
In a research note, Lawrence Keusch, a Goldman Sachs & Co. analyst, said Alcon, which makes contact solutions, and Cooper, a contact lens maker, are the most likely to gain from Advanced Medical’s problems.
Keusch wrote it was likely that optometrists would steer their patients toward Alcon’s Opti-Free solution, and that concerns about infections are likely to prompt increased use of daily disposable contacts, which carry the lowest corneal risk because no solutions are used.
