Eye, the Jury

A hard crust of skepticism has formed on the imaginations of Wall Street analysts since the days when mere mention of "uranium," "transistor" or other buzz words could send a stock's price skyward. A new term, however, is having that effect today: soft contact lenses. Within six weeks after officers of Bausch & Lomb, a 118-year-old optical manufacturer, enunciated the words in March, their stock had nearly doubled. Competitors have said that they will market a soft contact lens, too, with similarly salutary results.

Invented in Czechoslovakia eleven years ago, the object of the excitement is a sliver of porous plastic, slightly larger than a regular contact lens, that becomes soft and pliable when it touches the tears of weak-eyed wearers. Because of its agreeable flabbiness, the soft contact lens can be fitted in one sitting, as compared to four for hard contact lenses. Ophthalmologists generally agree that the soft variety is more comfortable and less likely to become scratched or to pop out unexpectedly than the hard kind. There are some 90 million near-and far-sighted Americans, but only 10 million of them wear contact lenses. Millions more have tried contacts, but given them up because of eye irritation. Bausch & Lomb is betting on the likelihood that soft contact lenses, because they are usually non-irritating, will win a large share of the $400-million-a-year ophthalmic market.

Baby-Bottle Boil. There may be less to the soft revolution than meets the eye. Bausch & Lomb began marketing its Softens on a limited basis last week in Portland, Ore., but so far soft lenses are virtually unavailable elsewhere in the U.S., and company officers say they will not be sold nationwide until next year. One potential competitor, Griffin Laboratories of Buffalo, only last month received Food and Drug Administration approval to begin testing its product. Another manufacturer, Union Corp. of New York City, has not even applied for approval yet.

For all the eye-popping claims, some ophthalmologists have found disadvantages in soft lenses. They provide less visual acuity, and they cannot correct extreme astigmatism. Because the porous plastic they are made of drinks moisture like a sponge, soft lenses are difficult to keep sterile. Wearers of Bausch & Lomb Sofenses are advised to boil them for 15 minutes each night in salt water. Table salt is not recommended because of its iodine content, nor is tap water because of a variety of impurities. Each pair of Soflenses comes with a bottle of salt tablets and an electric sterilizer that resembles a baby-bottle warmer. The customer must buy his own distilled water.

Out of Focus. A few eye doctors find soft lenses potentially dangerous. "The instant and continuous comfort may be the treacherous element in the soft lens," according to Dr. G. Peter Halberg, corresponding secretary of the Contact Lens Association of Ophthalmologists. "If you get hurt by the hard lens, you usually know it immediately." A soft lens, he noted, may mask the warning discomfort of an eye injury. Indeed, Dr. Richard Troutman, surgeon director of the Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital, has already seen three "complications" involving experimental soft contact lenses. The patients later required cornea grafts.

Some investors are beginning to worry that the initial stock market euphoria has gotten out of focus, and Bausch & Lomb stock has retreated more than 20 points from its 1971 high of 147. At prices like those being charged by ophthalmologists in Portland--$325 to $400 a pair, or about twice the cost of some hard lenses--big demand for Softens may prove to be an optical illusion.

Still, there are plenty of optimists among U.S. ophthalmologists. It is within their ranks that the battle between hard and soft will be won or lost--because contact lenses are dispensed by prescription. While some ophthalmologists and optometrists bridle at the wholesale prices that Bausch & Lomb is charging them--about $100 a pair--others have become zealots. "I intend using the soft lenses on every patient I possibly can," said Dr. Mary Young, who maintains a 3,000-patient-a-year optometrical practice in Braintree, Mass. Until she tried on a pair herself at a Bausch & Lomb seminar last week, she had gone, red-rimmed and bloodshot, through 17 pairs of hard contact lenses.

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