Bausch and Lomb donates eye drops for African patients

Bausch and Lomb has allied with fellow healthcare company Croma to provide donations of eye drops to improve care standards for patients in Africa.

The donations will be used by Light For the World – an Austrian organisation that supports people who have no access to ophthalmic care – for use in postoperative treatment of around 50,000 cataract patients.

This will be accomplished using contributions of Yellox, a highly effective, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug for postoperative ocular inflammation following cataract extraction that needs to be used only twice a day.

It is estimated that 39 million people worldwide are blind, with the top cause for blindness being cataracts, accounting for 51 percent of all cases.

Dr Calvin Roberts, executive vice-president and chief medical officer at Bausch and Lomb, said: "Proper postoperative care is the key to maximising the surgery's results – ultimately achieving the best possible outcome for the patient."

This comes after Bausch and Lomb acquired an exclusive global license for a potentially effective new treatment for ocular redness from Eye Therapies earlier this month.