BIOTECHNOLOGY : New Interocular Lens Is Touted as Boon for Cataract Patients

Wright Medical Inc., a fledgling company in San Clemente, is filling its first order for its most promising invention--a multifocal lens that can be implanted in the eye. The lens is supposed to eliminate the need for patients to wear glasses after cataract surgery.

Gene Currie, the company’s vice president of manufacturing, said the first shipment of 500 lenses is headed to a distributor in France.

The interocular lens is not yet approved for sale in the United States. However, Currie said the company expects a go-ahead from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin clinical tests of the lens in this country that may lead to marketing approval in the next 2 1/2 to three years.

Meanwhile, Currie said, Wright Medical has plans to expand sales of the lens overseas.

“We expect to sell 10,000 to 15,000 lenses in Europe by the end of the year, with an average sales price of $100 a lens,” he said.

Wright Medical was founded three years ago by Currie and two other former employees of Allergan Inc., a large manufacturer of eye-care products in Irvine. The other founders were George Wright, the new company’s chief executive and marketing expert, and Larry Blake, vice president of engineering and research.

The standard artificial lens used to replace the clouded natural lens that is removed during cataract surgery, Currie said, enables patients to see clearly at a distance but requires them to wear glasses for reading.

By contrast, Currie said, the lens manufactured by Wright Medical is supposed to allow a patient to see clearly both at a distance and close up. And unlike other lenses that are rigid, he said, the lens made by Wright Medical is of soft silicon that can be folded into a very small incision.

Currie said the design for the new lens, the Nordan VariFocal Lens, was developed by Dr. Lee Nordan, a San Diego eye surgeon and corneal specialist.