The Myopia Management Market: ‘How Big is Big?’

“How big is big?”

That was a question that Dwight Akerman, OD, MBA, FAAO, FBCLA, put to a panel of industry insiders at last week’s OIS Myopia Innovation Showcase. Dr. Akerman, chief medical editor of Review of Myopia Management and an ambassador for the International Myopia Institute, asked panelists to look into their crystal balls to define the opportunities that lie ahead in the myopia space.

“From a manufacturer’s revenue perspective,” asked Dr. Akerman, “what do you forecast the global myopia management market to be in five years and 10 years?”

Think Billions
Rajeev Garg, PhD, global head, myopia management strategy, CooperVision, said the way the market develops will depend on stakeholders around the globe and how industry drives education and awareness. “It’s not information that is easily available,” he said, “but it is a huge multibillion-dollar industrial market.”

Robert Kissling, MD, VP, medical & clinical affairs, Bausch + Lomb, said the five- and 10-year outlook is enormous, but that it’s unpredictable because someone could make a breakthrough in understanding the etiology of the disease, accelerating the pace of development. But he said, “The demographics are undeniable that it will be a place where every major eye care player will be.”

“I think it’s going to be extremely large,” said Heather Floyd, PhD, global program head for early programs in ophthalmology, Novartis, “especially if we continue to see the prevalence grow as expected.” She said a lot will depend on influences from industry, innovation that enters the market, and how physicians drive management of the market.

Alan Landers, OD, MS, Alcon’s head of search and evaluation, BD&L vision care, anticipates multiple product offerings in the next five years, with the market approaching $1 billion at that stage.

“Ten years from now,” he said, “you’re going to start seeing across multiple modalities, pharma, contact lens, ortho-k [ortho-keratology], specs, all of them being there; multiple billions at that point.”

Etiology Is Key
Reza Haque, MD, PhD, SVP and global head of the ophthalmic innovation center at Santen, said the growth of the myopia market will depend on investigators learning more about the etiology of myopia. “Now we are thinking about how to slow the progression of myopia,” he said. “There will be a time to come when we can reverse the process.”

“The opportunity is huge,” said Noel Brennan, BOptom, MScOptom, PhD, FAAO, clinical research fellow myopia control platform, Johnson & Johnson Vision, “but we’re probably a little more pessimistic about the rate of growth because we see the massive barrier in front of us in terms of getting the public educated about this.”

He said it will be a while before the market hits the $1 billion mark, and that a better question to ask might be, “In five years, what proportion of children can we actually have treated with myopia progression therapies?”