France: a new case of counterfeit contact lenses

The second case of counterfeit contact lenses in France within two weeks: this time the victim is Johnson & Johnson Vision Care and its Surevue lenses, which represent around 20% of the French market for frequent-change lenses.

According to reports by Acuité, as in the case of CooperVision, the discovery was made after some opticians had returned packs of lenses to have the dioptric strength changed. This was how a wholesaler realized they were fakes: they were in the old square-shaped packs which were no longer produced after end 2003. In addition, the letter 'D' and the 'hourglass' pictogram on all the new J&J packs are missing from the fake packs.

Johnson & Johnson Vision Care alerted the Agence Française de Sécurité Sanitaire des Produits de Santé (Afssaps, the French association for the safety of health products) and it is checking batches to stop delivery to opticians immediately. In the next few hours, further steps will be taken to inform retailers and consumers.