Queen Awards a Double for Contact Lens Innovation

Online, April 22, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Queen Awards a Double for Contact Lens Innovation

UltraVision CLPL, the largest independent manufacturer, supplier and licensor of contact lenses in the UK, has scored a double with a second Queen's Award for Enterprise - Innovation.

The group formed by two former school friends, J Keith Lomas, Group CEO, and John Clamp, Group COO, both aged 39, is expanding throughout the world with sales into more than 60 countries.

"To receive the Queen's Award once is a serious achievement, but twice is out of this world" said Lomas. "We were improving people's vision but now our team is taking our technologies to new levels and dramatically changing lives for the better for thousands more people every month".

The Queen's Award is the highest honour that can be bestowed on a UK company and was awarded specifically for KeraSoft®, patented soft and silicone hydrogel contact lenses for irregular corneas and keratoconus.

Patients can have irregular corneas for a number of reasons including disease, trauma, corneal transplants or failed laser surgery such as Lasik and other prescription changing operations. Standard contact lenses or spectacles do not successfully address such complexities so patients can have considerably reduced vision. The traditional approach was with hard or rigid gas permeable lenses, but the rigid surfaces on thinning tissue was often extremely uncomfortable and resulted in short wearing times or patients not even able to wear the rigid lenses at all; so minimal sight.

KeraSoft® lenses are a combination of the latest in soft and silicone hydrogel materials using geometries from complex mathematics to offer comfortable wear and excellent vision for all waking hours, engineered and developed by John Clamp. Optometrist Lynn White, Keratoconus Consultant, helped refine the design for a wide range of irregular cornea conditions through her close work with her patients.

"I had to persevere with rigid lenses for years as there used to be no alternative" said Gareth Beynon, a keratoconic patient from Rugby, Warwickshire. "I was limited to a maximum of six to eight hours of comfortable wear a day, five days a week so I had to choose when I could see; at home or at work. My life revolved around whether I could wear my lenses or not and had no spontaneity at all. I had to rely on others being present most of the time in case I had a problem with the lenses which was very frustrating. With the KeraSoft® lens, it's like the weight of the world has been lifted off my shoulders. I can now see throughout all my waking hours, have resurrected my motor racing hobby and have got my life back. This is genuinely transformational for me and others. The more people who hear about this the better".
KeraSoft® lenses are fitted and dispensed by optometrists and opticians in hospital departments, private and high street practices. Ophthalmologists are using the lenses both pre and post-operatively, following cross-linking surgery and as a safer and longer term solution than corneal transplants.

UltraVision CLPL states that KeraSoft® sales are growing by double digit percentages month on month. As well as launching directly in India with new dedicated operations in Trivandrum, Kerala, UltraVision CLPL is currently in licensing discussions with third parties to help accelerate the roll out of KeraSoft® around the world.

J Keith Lomas added "We've got game-changing technology here so need to maximise the positive impact on people's lives wherever we can".

Her Majesty The Queen will host a reception at Buckingham Palace later this year for the winners of the Queen's Award for Enterprise - 2010.

ENDS

Notes for Editors:
An excellent way to understand and demonstrate the positive effect of KeraSoft® lenses is to hear from patients themselves. A professional video from an unscripted unpaid patient is available for download at www.ultravisiongroup.com/media

Professional photographs, patient case studies and logos are also available on the same web page.

You may copy, reproduce, download, podcast, broadcast, transmit and make available to the public the video, images and case studies so long as they remain substantially in the same form as received and that you state ownership and copyright UltraVision CLPL.

Contact Lens Precision Laboratories Ltd is the parent company of UltraVision International Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary. The Group trades as UltraVision CLPL.

Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire Head Office, manufacturing, sales and distribution Cambridge, Cambridgeshire Research & Development offices and team
Turnover £2.5m to £3m
Employees 61

Mr. J Keith Lomas, Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Age 39
keith.lomas@ultravision.co.uk
Keith Lomas has more than seventeen years senior management experience in small and medium-sized entrepreneurial and extensive multinational companies. Keith was appointed Managing Director of CLPL in 1996. After leading the successful acquisition of UltraVision International in 2003, Keith was appointed as Group President and CEO.

Prior to his involvement in the contact lens world, Keith was an investment banker in the City of London. He worked at S.G. Warburg, Kleinwort Benson & Daiwa Europe. Whilst based in the City, Keith had global trading responsibility for multi-billion dollar risk portfolios. Keith is an active investor in property and technology companies and is a Board Director of Ubisense Limited, chairing its Audit Committee. Keith is a keen cyclist, tennis player and can often be seen watching live rugby.

Mr. John Haldyn Clamp, Group Chief Operating Officer (COO), Age 39
john.clamp@ultravision.co.uk
John Clamp, the head of the Research & Development at UltraVision CLPL, is responsible for the successful developments of KeraSoft®3 and KeraSoft® IC, and for the previous Queen's Award winning technology, SAM®. Other projects include working alongside specialist Swiss engineers, British ophthalmologists, and top university researchers; John is embedding MEMS sensors into contact lenses for the purposes of measuring intra-ocular pressure. John also drives the development of innovative 3D optical lens design software, machine control software, and the operations of the state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities at Leighton Buzzard.

John Clamp joined CLPL in 1993 and was appointed to the Board in 1996. Prior to that John was a research engineer in a number of entrepreneurial companies, developing innovative technologies. With a number of patents ranging from engine design to contact lenses to his name, John is also an active technology investor and part owner of Clamp Optometrists, an independent optometric practice in Cambridge.

Outside the office John is a keen yachtsman, diver and is currently taking his private pilot's licence.

Definitions

Cornea The front transparent part of the eye that covers the iris and pupil and refracts light as part of the eye's optical system.
Cross Linking Surgery involving strengthening the collagen connective tissues in the cornea using ultraviolet light to minimise further thinning of the tissues.
Keratoconus A degenerative disorder of the eye causing the cornea to thin and become irregular in shape resulting in poor uncorrected vision.
Lasik Short name for laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis; a type of laser surgery designed to change the shape of the cornea to aid vision.
MEMS Micro Electro Mechanical Systems; the technology of the very small, integrating mechanical and electronic systems.
SAM® Spherical Aberration Management; patented technology

Further Information and Availability
Directors are available for interviews for TV, Radio, Newspapers, Journals and Internet media.
For further information and assistance please email pressoffice@ultravision.co.uk or
contact:
Mrs. Pauline Maslin - Press Contact
UltraVision CLPL
Commerce Way
Leighton Buzzard
Bedfordshire
LU7 4RW
United Kingdom
Tel +44 (0)1525 243604 (Direct Dial)
Tel +44 (0)1525 381112 (Switchboard)
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Email pauline.maslin@ultravision.co.uk
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