The claims were challenged by Bausch & Lomb.
The National Advertising Division has recommended that Alcon Laboratories Inc. discontinue claims that because they are preservative-free, the company’s Clear Care and Clear Care Plus contact lens solutions are “more like natural tears.”
The claims were challenged by Bausch & Lomb, a competing maker of products for contact-lens patients.
The National Advertising Division is an investigative unit of the advertising industry’s system of self-regulation and is administered by the Council of Better Business Bureaus.
Alcon plans to follow the recommendations, Primary Care Optometry News reports.
Both parties sell lens-care solutions intended to clean and disinfect contact lenses, including multi-purpose solutions, the National Advertising Division notes in a press release. A primary difference between peroxide solutions and multi-purpose solutions, is that peroxide solutions rely on hydrogen peroxide as a disinfectant, while multi-purpose solutions rely on other disinfectants. Alcon’s Clear Care products are formulated with hydrogen peroxide. B&L’s competing multi-purpose solution products are sold under the brand names Biotrue and renu.
The National Advertising Division notes: “A recommendation by NAD to modify or discontinue a claim is not a finding of wrongdoing and an advertiser’s voluntary discontinuance or modification of claims should not be construed as an admission of impropriety.”