Legal and financial worries still plague Bausch & Lomb

Sunday, 06 January 2008

Nearly two years after Bausch & Lomb issued the ReNu recall, the company is still embroiled in a number of financial and legal worries stemming from problems with the contact lens solution. Bausch & Lomb was forced to recall its ReNu with MoistureLoc contact lens solution in May 2006 after it was linked to an outbreak of the fungal eye infection Fusarium keratitis. The contact lens solution recall for ReNu with MoistureLoc has dealt a severe financial blow to Bausch & Lomb over the past two years. The company suffered a 20% profit loss in 2006 due to the ReNu recall. Some financial analysts have estimated that the company could be facing as much as $1 billion in damages from contact lens soolution lawsuits filed by patients who were injured after using ReNu with MoistureLoc. In addition, Bausch & Lomb has become tangled in a series of lawsuits filed over who should be forced to pay damages in the cases brought by injured ReNu users. Bausch & Lomb has sought a court order that would force four insurance companies to help pay the cost of these ReNu lawsuits. However, two of the insurance companies have already countersued Bausch & Lomb; the other two are expected to respond within the coming weeks. Both of the insurance companies who have already responded to Bausch & Lomb say that they are under no obligation to pay damages in the lawsuits because they do not qualify as “accidents.” The companies claim that Bausch & Lomb was aware of a link between ReNu with MoistureLoc and Fusarium keratitis infections several months before the ReNu recall, but failed to act in order to prevent a number of patients from being injured from their ReNu side effects.