MUMBAI, February 2: Controversy is brewing over multinational Johnson and Johnson's (J&J) disposable contact lenses - Acuvue - launched in India last week, which has been touted as giving near-total (95 per cent) protection from the harmful Ultra violet (UV) rays. A similar advertisement saying that the J&J lenses provided full protection from UV rays was banned in the US by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) a few months ago.J&J's General Manager in Mumbai, Rahul Patni says the US government was responding to a particular sentence in the advertisement which could have eroded the market share of sun glasses. Most of the well-established brands in the sun glasses were against the contact lens which provides protection the harmful effect of sun rays, according to Patni, and this would have eroded their markets. Hence, the controversy.
"In United States, we have already withdrawn the ad and for India we have devised a new advertisement campaign," Patni said.
In India, while J&J still claim theirlenses provide 95 per cent protection from UV rays, they don't mention whether a user still needs to wear UV sunglasses or not. As sources of UV rays include sunlight, computer terminals and over-head office fluorescent lighting and other common sources, J&J added UV protection to its entire line of Acuvue disposable Contact lenses. The company claims that with the UV-blocking protection, Acuvue will now block up to 95 per cent of the potentially harmful UV rays. But a letter from the FDA to J&J in the US a few months ago, for example, states that while J&J "makes a 95% blockage claim for UVB (it) fails to inform the reader that UVA blockage is 70%".
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
