As two family companies with a passion for eye care, Laboratoires Théa and Labtician Ophthalmics recognized an opportunity to work together to bring innovative new products to Canadian patients. In 2018, this shared vision resulted in the formation of Labtician Théa, an ambitious Joint Venture with a 5-year term.

By focusing on supporting Canadian Eye Care professionals provide optimal care to their patients, the Labtician Théa Joint Venture has achieved its goals of creating a strong presence in the Canadian marketplace and offering Canadian Eye Care Professionals the most comprehensive suite of products and services available in the industry.

With the successful completion of the agreed-upon 5-year term, as of January 1, 2023, the Joint Venture will terminate, resulting in a stronger Labtician Ophthalmics with a new Therapeutics Division to complement its existing Surgical Division, and the launch of Théa Pharma Canada Inc., an affiliate of Laboratoires Théa, based in the Greater Toronto Area. As two separate entities, Labtician Ophthalmics and Théa Pharma Canada will be better positioned to service and support the Canadian Eye Care community for many years to come.

“Our partnership with Labtician Ophthalmics has allowed us to get to know the Canadian Eye Care professionals and understand their needs and that of their patients. It was a great way to introduce them to Théa and bring innovative best-in-class products to market that are supported by strong clinical evidence,” says Fiona McCloskey, Managing Director of Labtician Théa and Théa Pharma Canada. “With the launch of Théa Pharma Canada in 2023, our goal is to continue to provide ECPs and patients with new innovative treatments and solutions for a wide range of ocular diseases including Dry Eye, Glaucoma, Allergy and more over the years to come. We are thankful for our partnership with Labtician Ophthalmics and excited for this exciting new chapter in our journey as Théa Pharma Canada.”

This unique Joint Venture has also been a success for the team at Labtician Ophthalmics.

“Working with the world-class team and products at Théa allowed us to demonstrate our unique ability to platform other companies in the Canadian marketplace and showcase our skill of developing unprecedented business models and executing against them,” says Polydor Strouthos, President of Labtician Ophthalmics. “We built on our expertise in regulatory, cross-functional marketing, and customer expansion, and increased our capacity to launch products and entities. We bring innovation to practice and will provide our valued customers with more best-in-class products, services, and innovative solutions due to a stronger Labtician Ophthalmics with a new Therapeutics Division to complement our existing Surgical Division.

When mutually beneficial opportunities arise, Théa Pharma Canada Inc. and Labtician Ophthalmics Inc. will leverage their strong relationship and shared family values as Partners of Choice.

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CooperVision revealed findings from multiple studies that advance scientific understanding of contact lens comfort factors during the 2022 Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) meeting. The annual event ran from May 1-4 in Denver.

Comfort remains the key factor in maintaining contact lens satisfaction among patients. While numerous product developments have significantly improved the wearing experience over the last few decades, comfort considerations and improvement continue to be of substantial interest to eye care professionals and consumers.

Two of the works focus on helping protect the ocular surface from hyperosmolarity of the tear film, which has particular relevance for contact lens wearers who are symptomatic, especially those with dryness. Conducted with the Herbert Wertheim School of Optometry & Vision Science at the University of California, Berkeley, the research team designed and employed a novel model to quantify a non-measurable yet critical factor: tear film osmolarity behind a contact lens.

“We concluded that contact lens materials with low salt diffusivity are better at protecting the cornea from hyperosmolarity and that osmolarity behind a contact lens reaches a steady state within the first hour. Our findings also illustrate that midday lens removal and reinsertion alone cannot prevent post-lens tear film hyperosmolarity,” said Cheng-Chun Peng, a Senior Scientist at CooperVision who co-authored the ARVO-delivered paper and poster.

“If tear film break-up on the cornea is believed to cause discomfort, contact lenses could theoretically help protect the ocular surface from osmolarity spikes. While pre-lens tear film hyperosmolarity is primarily due to evaporation, little is known about salt accumulation within and behind a contact lens. A better understanding of this factor could lead to substantial gains in future lens innovations and patient care.”

Additional CooperVision comfort science being presented at ARVO 2022 includes research regarding corneal sensitivity changes in symptomatic neophyte contact lens wearers, an evaluation of discomfort-associated conjunctival epithelial cell gene expression, and preliminary results from the Neurosensory Abnormalities in Ocular Surface Disease study. Those projects were conducted in conjunction with Indiana University, Universidad de Valladolid, and Tufts Medical Center, respectively.

CooperVision’s additional ARVO 2022 research presentations, including advancements in myopia management and other contact lens topics, can be viewed at arvo.org/annual-meeting/. 

Click HERE for the full press release.