In response to media enquiries, a spokesman for the Department of Health (DH) said information provided by Johnson & Johnson (HK) Limited indicated that the problem of its 1 Day Acuvue TruEye which led to a recall of 16 batches of the product was caused by failure to remove a diluent during the rinsing process.
According to Johnson & Johnson,the affected lots may contain lenses with trace amount of diluent agent that is intended to be extracted from the lens during the rinsing process. Due to a mechanical failure in the rinsing process this extraction was not complete. This diluent agent is an intended part of the 1Day Acuvue TruEye formulation and therefore is not considered a contaminant.
In relation to the recall, the spokesman added that Johnson & Johnson had been asked to deploy more staff to man its enquiry hotline and speed up recall and product replacement.
The spokesman said: "DH's investigation continues and the recall will be closely monitored."
20 August 2010