Renu Contact Lens Solution Withdrawn in Middle East Too

Customers who bought Renu with MoistureLoc contact lens solution will be able to return it to the seller in exchange for two new bottles of another Bausch & Lomb solution, Renu MultiPlus.

Bausch & Lomb importer Einit announced the policy following a decision to recall the product throughout the world.

When asked why customers who bought the solution will not be able to get a refund, Einit Deputy CEO Yaakov Hiki said, "These are the manufacturer's instructions. You must realize that the withdrawal of the product is voluntary. Neither the Health Ministry not the United States Federal Drug Administration ordered it. Rather, the company voluntarily decided to investigate the matter."

The decision was reached following reports of dozens of people in the U.S. contracting a serious fungal infection in their eyes after using the product.

At first Bausch & Lomb announced that it was only withdrawing the product in the U.S., and that the solution sold in Europe and the Middle East was safe. But earlier this week it announced that it would be withdrawn in the rest of the world too.

Hiki said that this was only one of three different solutions sold by Einit, and that is the newest. Hiki said that it has only been on the market for six months and accounts for only four percent of the company's sales in Israel. The other two types of Renu contact lense solution, MultiPlus and Multi-Purpose, have been sold for years are not suspected of causing any problems.

The solution in question is sold only by optometrists, not by pharmacies.