Bausch Lomb

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Contact-lens provider Bausch & Lomb Inc. said yesterday it would delay filing its second-quarter financial report and warned that 2006 pretax earnings could be nearly 80 percent lower than it had once projected because of the recall of a lens solution. In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Bausch & Lomb forecast 2006 earnings before taxes in the range of $70 million to $80 million on net sales of $2.3 to $2.4 billion. In October 2005, before a worldwide recall of its ReNu with MoistureLoc solution, the company had projected pretax earnings between $325 million and...

The Irvine, Calif., maker of eye medications agreed to be bought by Bausch & Lomb Inc. for $500 million, or $9.10 a share - 8.6 percent more than Ista's closing price on Tuesday. Ista this year rebuffed a $327 million hostile bid by Valeant Pharmaceuticals International.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - Some eye doctors are still hoping that some of the lawsuits over a lens cleaner made by Bausch & Lomb will end up in court, so that the events that led to hundreds of fungal infection lawsuits will be aired publicly. That hasn't happened. Over the past year, the company has quietly settled nearly 600 lawsuits, with dozens of individual claims still to be resolved. The cost so far is about $250 million. The secrecy is what the company had in mind when it went private in 2007.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Trade Commission said yesterday that Swiss drug maker Novartis would have to stop selling a type of eye drug to complete its planned acquisition of eye care company Alcon. Novartis and Alcon are the only two companies that sell injectable miotics, a group of drugs used in cataract eye surgery. Sales of the two cataract drugs marketed by both Novartis and Alcon totaled $12.4 million in 2009. The antitrust regulator said that as it currently stands, Novartis’s purchase of Alcon would be anticompetitive for US consumers and would probably result in increased prices...

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Shares of Bausch & Lomb Inc. tumbled 17 percent yesterday after the eye-care products maker halted shipments of a contact lens solution linked by federal officials to a rare fungal infection that can cause blindness. Analysts cut their ratings, fearing the news could hurt sales of the company's other products. The stock dipped $9.83 to a 2.5-year low of $47.61 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Bausch & Lomb, which also makes contact lenses, ophthalmic drugs, and vision-correction surgical instruments, said late Monday it is voluntarily suspending US...

The Irvine, Calif., maker of eye medications agreed to be bought by Bausch & Lomb Inc. for $500 million, or $9.10 a share - 8.6 percent more than Ista's closing price on Tuesday. Ista this year rebuffed a $327 million hostile bid by Valeant Pharmaceuticals International.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Trade Commission said yesterday that Swiss drug maker Novartis would have to stop selling a type of eye drug to complete its planned acquisition of eye care company Alcon. Novartis and Alcon are the only two companies that sell injectable miotics, a group of drugs used in cataract eye surgery. Sales of the two cataract drugs marketed by both Novartis and Alcon totaled $12.4 million in 2009. The antitrust regulator said that as it currently stands, Novartis’s purchase of Alcon would be anticompetitive for US consumers and would probably result in increased prices...

LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. -- David Bushnell, an entrepreneur who transformed Bushnell Optical Corp. from a small mail-order business into the country's leading binocular brand, died March 24 at his Laguna Beach home of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, said his wife, Nancy. He was 91. An avid traveler, Mr. Bushnell bought his first two cases of binoculars in 1947 during an around-the-world honeymoon. He later tried to unload the binoculars, then considered exotic equipment, by taking out print ads targeted at racetrack spectators.

Many prominent people have seen their careers founder after inaccuracies were revealed in their academic or professional biographies, including two leaders of Yahoo Inc. departing Sunday. They are: — Scott Thompson, CEO — Leaves the company 10 days after a shareholder reveals his bachelor's degree from Stonehill College in Easton, Mass., was in business, not computer science, as described in a company bio and regulatory filings. — Patti Hart, director — Leaves Yahoo's board Sunday.

WASHINGTON - A decade after it first approved devices for laser vision-correcting surgery, the Food and Drug Administration is taking a closer look at grievances from patients, including blurred vision and dry eyes. An estimated 6 million Americans have undergone Lasik surgery, which permanently reshapes the cornea, a clear layer covering the eye. There are no guarantees of 20/20 vision, and the long-term safety of the procedure is still unknown. But the society of eye surgeons who perform Lasik says 95 percent of patients are satisfied with their results.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - Some eye doctors are still hoping that some of the lawsuits over a lens cleaner made by Bausch & Lomb will end up in court, so that the events that led to hundreds of fungal infection lawsuits will be aired publicly. That hasn't happened. Over the past year, the company has quietly settled nearly 600 lawsuits, with dozens of individual claims still to be resolved. The cost so far is about $250 million. The secrecy is what the company had in mind when it went private in 2007.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Contact-lens provider Bausch & Lomb Inc. said yesterday it would delay filing its second-quarter financial report and warned that 2006 pretax earnings could be nearly 80 percent lower than it had once projected because of the recall of a lens solution. In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Bausch & Lomb forecast 2006 earnings before taxes in the range of $70 million to $80 million on net sales of $2.3 to $2.4 billion. In October 2005, before a worldwide recall of its ReNu with MoistureLoc solution, the company had projected pretax earnings between...

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Shares of Bausch & Lomb Inc. tumbled 17 percent yesterday after the eye-care products maker halted shipments of a contact lens solution linked by federal officials to a rare fungal infection that can cause blindness. Analysts cut their ratings, fearing the news could hurt sales of the company's other products. The stock dipped $9.83 to a 2.5-year low of $47.61 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Bausch & Lomb, which also makes contact lenses, ophthalmic drugs, and vision-correction surgical instruments, said late Monday it is voluntarily...

LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. -- David Bushnell, an entrepreneur who transformed Bushnell Optical Corp. from a small mail-order business into the country's leading binocular brand, died March 24 at his Laguna Beach home of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, said his wife, Nancy. He was 91. An avid traveler, Mr. Bushnell bought his first two cases of binoculars in 1947 during an around-the-world honeymoon. He later tried to unload the binoculars, then considered exotic equipment, by taking out print ads targeted at racetrack spectators.