Cooper Launches Avaira Toric - Analyst Blog

CooperVision, a part of The Cooper Companies Inc (COO), the leading manufacturer of soft contact lenses, recently rolled out the Avaira Toric silicone hydrogel lenses for astigmatic patients in the domestic market. This latest addition to the Avaira family offers special help for such patients.

The wettable Avaira Toric lenses utilize the company's Aquaform Comfort Science permitting greater all-day comfort. This know-how creates a natural hydrophilic lens that maintains water, reducing dehydration and obviating the need for wetting agents. The Avaira Toric lens is manufactured from enfilcon A substance. Its water content is 46%.  

The Avaira Toric lens, released during June last year, met with good demand, and the launch was restricted to a few thousand clients who received a trial set. This latest lens from CooperVision is geared to ensure reliable outcome for a wide range of astigmatic patients regardless of their condition. 

According to the company, Avaira Toric provides greater stability and comfort with a design that utilizes a particular horizontal thickness, an optimal ballast, naturally moist lens material, lower modulus and greater water content.

Complementing its ease of use, Avaira Torics impart an enhanced visual experience to astigmatic patients – irrespective of either their axis or cylinder power. Furthermore, the lenses have a constant horizontal thickness in different powers to improve lens stability and a wide ballast band, which encircles the optic zone to optimize lens-lid interaction for higher comfort.

Cooper is a global medical products company specializing in a wide range of contact lenses for the vision correction market. The company is a leader in the high-margin toric lens market and benefits from strong demand for its Biofinity toric lenses.

The worldwide contact lens market is poised for accelerated growth. User preferences are shifting from low-feature commodity lenses to more expensive single-use and specialty lenses including the higher oxygen permeable lenses (silicone hydrogels). Higher lens prices, international expansion and increase in contact lens utilization rates in developed markets (given the declining drop-out rates) will act as tailwinds.

However, Cooper faces significant competition across each of its product segments from well-established contact lens manufacturers such as Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Novartis (NVS). Depressed levels of consumer spending have exacerbated competitive pressures on the company. Our overall Outperform recommendation on the stock is supported by a Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy).

 
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