Bausch & Lomb

Early years

In 1853, John Bausch and Henry Lomb, both German immigrants, established a small but ambitious workshop producing monocles in Rochester, New York.[15][16] By 1861, their operation had expanded to manufacturing vulcanite rubber eyeglass frames and other precision vision products.[17]

During the American Civil War, the Union blockade caused the price of gold and European horn to rise dramatically. This resulted in a growing demand for the Bausch + Lomb spectacles made from vulcanite.[18]

In 1876, Ernst Gundlach joined the company as it began to manufacture microscopes. Later that year, the Bausch & Lomb Optical Company won a distinction at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. The company also produced photographic lenses (1883), spectacle lenses (1889), microtomes (1890), binoculars and telescopes (1893).[19] From 1892 in cooperation with Zeiss in Germany, the company produced optical lenses. In this manner, at the end of the 19th century, the product range included eyeglasses, microscopes and binoculars, as well as projectors, camera lenses and camera diaphragms.

20th century

With the growth of the US army, under President Theodore Roosevelt and the buildup of the naval fleet, Bausch & Lomb received the commission, through the supplier Saegmuller, to manufacture high-precision lenses for optical measurement and founded a joint venture with Saegmuller. At the same time as this new expansion, a research department with five members was started to develop new products and improve old ones. A new alliance with the Zeiss company in Germany ensured competitive advantages for the three participants, Bausch & Lomb, Saegmuller and Zeiss, in terms of patent use and opening new markets. In 1902, William Bausch, the son of the founder, developed a process to create the desired lens shape directly by casting molten glass. Previously, the glass parts for the lenses had to be separated, ground and polished in a complicated process, and this brought significant savings in time and materials.

The company produced the first optical-quality glass in America during the early to mid-1900s. By the year 1903 the company began manufacturing microscopes, binoculars, and camera shutters.

The further development of the firm was affected by political events. Because of the World Wars and the consequent need for optical instruments such as field glasses, range finders, camera lenses, binocular telescopes, searchlight mirrors, torpedo tube sights, and periscopes, the product range could be considerably broadened. Until World War I, optical glass and the instruments made from it (including many military instruments) were often imported into most European and North American countries from Germany. The same was also true of chemical products and laboratory equipment. The outbreak of the war, with Germany's new enemy status, created a scramble to rapidly enhance the domestic industries.[20] In 1933, Bausch + Lomb started to honor outstanding high school science students with the Bausch+Lomb Honorary Science Award. In the 1930s, military products represented 70% of total production. The Ray-Ban brand of sunglasses was developed for pilots in 1936.

At a time when the cinema was being superseded by television, Bausch & Lomb developed improved optics for the CinemaScope process, which popularized the film-based anamorphic format and led most cinemas to double the widths of their screens.

In 1965 Bausch & Lomb acquired the patent for the hydrogel contact lenses created by Czech scientists Otto Wichterle and Drahoslav Lím. In 1971, after three years of development work, two years for the medical approval by the United States Food and Drug Administration and an investment of three million USD, Bausch + Lomb launched contact lenses made of Poly-HEMA. In contrast to the contact lenses previously available, made of glass and Lucite (acrylic glass),[21] the new lenses were softer. They were marketed under the brand name "Soflens".

In the 1970s, the company was a major producer of spectrophotometers for the dye and chemical business, such as the Spectronic 20.

A massive restructuring of the company began in the mid-1980s. What had been the core divisions, the production of lenses for various purposes, were sold off. The sunglasses division was continued as Ray-Ban and kept selling well due to effective product placement. By the planned acquisition of other firms, such as Polymer Technology Corporation and Dr. Mann Pharma, existing business areas such as contact lens production were strengthened and new ones were initiated.

In 1997, as a result of a series of company acquisitions, the division for the manufacture of surgical products was established. The Ray-Ban brand was sold in 1999 to the Italian Luxottica Group.

21st century

Since then, Bausch & Lomb has developed into a globally operating company which is one of the largest producers of contact lenses. As of 2022, about 12,900 employees in approximately 100 countries work for the firm.[1]

Competitors in the international eye care products market are Johnson & Johnson, Allergan, Alcon, MSD-Chibret, CooperVision, Menicon Co., Hoya Corporation, EssilorLuxottica and Carl Zeiss Meditec.[7]

In 2023, Bausch + Lomb Corp announced it would buy Xiidra from Novartis for $1.75 billion and pay additional $750 million in linked to future sales for Xiidra as well as two pipeline asset.[22][23]

In 2025, Bausch + Lomb's subsidiaries closed an offering of $790.6 million.[24]

Vision Care

In the last few years, several business areas in the Vision Care division have been developed in the framework of product diversification. The vision care segment is its main business activity, making up 58% of their quarter one 2025 revenue leading with the manufacturing of contact lenses.[28] The product assortment includes daily soft contact lens that are designed to be worn and discarded at the end of the day, such as the "Biotrue ONEday"[29] or "Bausch + Lomb ULTRA" silicone hydrogel lenses which can be changed after seven days without being taken out at night.[30] These newer lens ranges represent advancements in material science and design, offering enhanced comfort, moisture retention, and visual clarity for a variety of patients including those with astigmatism or presbyopia.[31]

Consumer Products & Eye Care

Additionally, Bausch + Lomb manufactures lens-care products including disinfectant solutions, eye drops and eye vitamins. For contact lens users, the company provides cleaning, disinfectant and rinsing solutions as well as rewetting drops. They have recently focused on expending their eye drops for individuals with dry eye symptoms, eye allergies or eye redness with products such as Lumify eye drops, launching in 2018, and Blink for dry eye relief. The entire Blink portfolio was acquired from Johnson & Johnson in 2023.[32][33] Lumify is the only redness reliever that's a selective alpha-2 AR agonist recommended by doctors for avoiding activity on the alpha-1 receptor which is associated with rebound redness.[34] Their eye vitamins and supplements portfolio includes various formulations aimed at addressing overall eye health, dry eye symptoms and macular health and reducing the risk of progression of Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD). This began with the launch of PreserVision in 2001 following their collaboration with the National Eye Institute on an AREDS study.[35][36][37] It grew in 2013 when Ocuvite eye vitamins to support eye health was launched.[38] The portfolio expanded recently with the launch of Blink NutriTears in 2024 intended to support tear film health.[39]

In 2026, Bausch + Lomb released a new version of the AREDS2 formula, PreserVision AREDS3.[40]

Pharmaceuticals

The Pharmaceuticals division manufactures pharmaceutical eye products, which accounted for about 26% of their 2025 quarter one revenue.[28] This segment consists of prescription medicines for post-operative treatments and treatments for a number of eye conditions such as glaucoma, eye inflammation, ocular hypertension, dry eyes and retinal diseases. The company's engagement with specific dry eye disease treatments has developed in recent years launching Miebo in 2023 after receiving U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in May[41] and acquiring Xiidra from Norvartis in September of that year.[22] These prescription medications target different aspects of dry eye disease, with Miebo addressing tear evaporation and Xiidra focusing on inflammation.[42]

Surgicals

The Surgicals division provides medical device equipment, consumables, and instrumental tools and technologies for the treatment of corneal, cataract, vitreous and retinal eye conditions. This includes interocular lenses and delivery systems, phacoemulsification equipment, and other surgical instruments and devices necessary for cataract surgery.[43]

On July 2, 2004, the company announced that it had licensed the intellectual property of Novartis.[44] Bausch & Lomb will pay the Ciba Vision unit of Novartis a royalty on net U.S. sales of its PureVision brand contact lenses until 2014 and on net sales outside the U.S. until 2016. But as of now, the brand FreshLook comes under Bausch and Lomb and Ciba manufacturers it.

ReNu product recalls

On April 11, 2006, Bausch & Lomb stopped shipments of its ReNu with MoistureLoc contact lens solution when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced there was a high correlation between use of the product and cases of suspected fungal keratitis.[50] The Centers for Disease Control found that "nearly all of the company's ReNu with MoistureLoc eye care products were linked to severe fungal eye infections".[51] Two class action lawsuits were filed against Bausch & Lomb in relation to the eye fungus problems.[52]