Evolution of Bausch & Lomb’s ReNu crisis

The story of how Bausch & Lomb mishandled its decisions along the way in the ReNu recall debacle is only now being understood. The company received a disturbing phone call from Dr. David Chu, a New Jersey ophthalmologist, on March 3. Three of his patients, it seemed, were afflicted with a microbe known to cause a potentially blinding infection—Fusarium keratitis. Bausch & Lomb was coming to the sobering realization that a medical mystery in a trio of Asian countries was also appearing in the United States. Worst of all, this escalating safety problem involved one of its most popular and lucrative products, ReNu with MoistureLoc contact lens solution. The company would be criticized in the coming weeks and months for a variety of actions and inactions. Perhaps a quicker response would have protected its millions of global customers and been better for business, too. Sometimes, events overtook Bausch & Lomb. For example, Dr. Chu shared his findings with other doctors and then called the Centers for Disease Control five days later, which the company had yet to do.