SAN RAMON, CALIF., May 9, 2022—CooperVision, a world leader in myopia control and management for children, has announced expanded roles for two prominent researchers, reinforcing the company’s commitment to combatting myopia, a chronic, progressive disease growing in both prevalence and severity.1
Baskar Arumugam, B.Opt., Ph.D., FAAO, has been appointed Senior Lead Clinical Scientist and David Hammond, BAppSci(Microbiol), BAppSci(Optom), Ph.D., COT, has been appointed Lead Clinical Scientist on the CooperVision myopia research and development team. Both play integral roles in research and product development at the leading edge of myopia control, including in-depth analysis of seven years of data from the MiSight® 1 day* clinical trial, the longest-running soft contact lens study among children.
Drs. Arumugam and Hammond co-authored works related to the MiSight® 1 day study’s six- and seven-year findings which were instrumental in demonstrating that MiSight® 1 day works for nearly all children with myopia,2† cuts myopia progression by half,3‡ works at any age a child starts treatment (8+),3§ works for as long as the child wears them,3§ and that myopia control benefits from MiSight® 1 day are retained after treatment.4,5║ This includes the peer review paper “Long-Term Effect of Dual-Focus Contact Lenses on Myopia Progression in Children: A 6-year Multicenter Clinical Trial” (Chamberlain P, et al.), now published in Optometry and Vision Science. Their paper “Myopia Progression on Cessation of Dual-Focus Contact Lens Wear: MiSight® 1 day 7 Year Findings” (Chamberlain P, Arumugam B, et al.) and companion poster (Hammond D, Arumugam B, et al.) also received widespread attention following the 2021 American Academy of Optometry Meeting.
“Our immense body of foundational and clinical research into myopia control and management has ignited global interest and action to take on this disease, energizing the eye care community, public health officials, and parents,” said Paul Chamberlain, BSc (Hons), CooperVision Director of Research Programs. “We are well into our second decade of leading this field, and investing even more resources to advance the science, evidence-based products, and clinical guidance. Baskar’s and David’s deep knowledge and insights are central to these efforts.”
Arumugam’s and Hammond’s contributions join those of international researchers who have been studying the technology behind MiSight® 1 day since the early 2000s, including the team¶ honored with the Garland W. Clay Award for their work on “A 3-Year Randomized Clinical Trial of MiSight® Lenses for Myopia Control” (Chamberlain P, et al.).
Arumugam joined CooperVision in 2018, following several years on faculty at the University of Houston, where he also completed a postdoctoral fellowship. He earned a Ph.D. in myopia and ocular growth from the University of Melbourne.
Hammond joined CooperVision in 2020. Previously, he lectured on optometry and vision science at Flinders University and served as tenured faculty at Deakin University. He earned a Ph.D. in optometry, as well as molecular biology and microbiology from Queensland University of Technology and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley.
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* Canadian Indications for Use: MiSight (omafilcon A) Soft Contact Lenses for Myopia Control may reduce the rate of myopia progression in children (6-18) and correct ametropia. Reduction of myopia progression was observed in children with wearing time of 12 hours (8-16 hours) per day, 6.4 days (5-7) per week in a clinical study. Permanent myopia control after lens treatment is discontinued is not supported by clinical studies. MiSight (omafilcon A) Soft Contact Lenses for Myopia Control are indicated for single use daily disposable wear. When prescribed for daily disposable wear, the lens is to be discarded after each removal.
†90% of myopic eyes respond to MiSight® 1 day treatment; ages 11-15 at start of wear, n=90.
‡Using measured and modeled data, pooled across ages (8-17), MiSight® 1 day slowed myopia progression by an average of approximately 50%.
§Children with myopia fit with MiSight® 1 day contact lenses ages 8-15 continued to experience slowed myopia progression as long as they remained in treatment.
║12 months post-treatment, evidence indicates that no accumulated myopia control benefits were lost following 3 or 6-years of MiSight® 1 day wear (on average, for children aged 8-15 at start of wear). Instead, eye growth reverted to expected, age average myopic progression rates.
¶Paul Chamberlain, BSc (Hons.); Sofia C. Peixoto-De-Matos, MSc; Nicola S. Logan, PhD; Cheryl Ngo, MBBS, MMed; Deborah Jones, BSc, FAAO; Graeme Young, PhD, FAAO.
About CooperVision
CooperVision, a division of CooperCompanies (NYSE:COO), is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of contact lenses. The company produces a full array of daily disposable, two-week and monthly soft contact lenses that feature advanced materials and optics, and premium rigid gas permeable lenses for orthokeratology and scleral designs. CooperVision has a strong heritage of addressing the toughest vision challenges such as astigmatism, presbyopia, childhood myopia, and highly irregular corneas; and offers the most complete portfolio of spherical, toric and multifocal products available. Through a combination of innovative products and focused practitioner support, the company brings a refreshing perspective to the marketplace, creating real advantages for customers and wearers. For more information, visit www.coopervision.com.
About CooperCompanies
CooperCompanies ("Cooper") is a global medical device company publicly traded on the NYSE (NYSE:COO). Cooper operates through two business units, CooperVision and CooperSurgical. CooperVision brings a refreshing perspective on vision care with a commitment to developing a wide range of high-quality products for contact lens wearers and providing focused practitioner support. CooperSurgical is committed to advancing the health of women, babies and families with its diversified portfolio of products and services focusing on medical devices and fertility & genomics. Headquartered in San Ramon, Calif., Cooper has a workforce of more than 12,000 with products sold in over 100 countries. For more information, please visit www.coopercos.com.
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- Holden BA, Fricke TR, Wilson DA, et al. Global prevalence of myopia and high myopia and temporal trends from 2000 through 2050. Ophthalmology. 2016;123(5):1036-1042.
- Chamberlain P et al. Long-term Effect of Dual-focus Contact Lenses on Myopia Progression in Children: A 6-year Multicenter Clinical Trial. Optom Vis Sci. 2022 Mar 1;99(3):204-212.
- Arumugam B, Bradley A, Hammond D, Chamberlain P. Modelling Age Effects of Myopia Progression for the MiSight 1 day Clinical Trial. Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 2021;62(8):2333.
- Chamberlain P, Arumugam B, et al. Myopia progression on cessation of Dual-Focus contact lens wear: MiSight 1 day 7 year findings. Optom Vis Sci 2021;98:E-abstract 210049.
- Hammond D, Arumugam B, et al. Myopia Control Treatment Gains are Retained after Termination of Dual-focus Contact Lens Wear with no Evidence of a Rebound Effect. Optom Vis Sci 2021;98:E-abstract 215130.