Alcon Inc. (Alcon) researches, develops, manufactures, distributes, and sells a full suite of eye care products.
The company operates within two key businesses: Surgical and Vision Care.
The company's Surgical business focuses on ophthalmic products for cataract surgery, vitreoretinal surgery, refractive laser surgery, and glaucoma surgery. The company's broad surgical portfolio includes implantables, consumables, and surgical equipment required for these procedures, and supports the end-to-en...
Alcon Inc. (Alcon) researches, develops, manufactures, distributes, and sells a full suite of eye care products.
The company operates within two key businesses: Surgical and Vision Care.
The company's Surgical business focuses on ophthalmic products for cataract surgery, vitreoretinal surgery, refractive laser surgery, and glaucoma surgery. The company's broad surgical portfolio includes implantables, consumables, and surgical equipment required for these procedures, and supports the end-to-end needs of the ophthalmic surgeon.
The company's Vision Care business comprises daily disposable, reusable, and color-enhancing contact lenses, and a comprehensive portfolio of ocular health products, including products for dry eye, ocular allergies, glaucoma, and contact lens care, as well as ocular vitamins and redness relievers. Alongside its world-class products, Alcon provides best-in-class service, training, education, and technical support for its customers.
The company's Surgical and Vision Care businesses are complementary and benefit from synergies in research and development, manufacturing, distribution, and consumer awareness and education. This allows the company to position itself as a trusted partner for eye care products across the continuum of care, from retail consumers, to optometry, to surgical ophthalmology.
Segments
The company operates through two segments: Surgical and Vision Care.
Surgical
In Surgical, Alcon researches, develops, manufactures, distributes, and sells ophthalmic products for cataract surgery, vitreoretinal surgery, refractive laser surgery, and glaucoma surgery. The surgical portfolio also includes implantables, consumables, and surgical equipment required for these procedures and supports the end-to-end procedure needs of the ophthalmic surgeon. Alcon also provides services, training, education, and technical support for its Surgical business.
Vision care
In Vision Care, Alcon researches, develops, manufactures, distributes, and sells daily disposable, reusable, and color-enhancing contact lenses, as well as a comprehensive portfolio of ocular health products, including products for dry eye, ocular allergies, glaucoma, and contact lens care, as well as ocular vitamins and redness relievers. Alcon also provides services, training, education, and technical support for its Vision Care business.
Markets
The company's Surgical and Vision Care products are targeted at addressing many of these unmet medical and consumer needs.
Surgical Market
The surgical market in which the company operates is estimated projected to grow approximately 6% on average per year from 2024 to 2029. The surgical market includes sales of implantables, consumables, and surgical equipment, including associated technical, clinical, and service support and training. Surgical implantables are medical devices designed to remain in the eye, such as monofocal, ATIOLs (advanced technology intraocular lenses), and stents placed in the eye during cataract surgery. Consumables include hand-held instruments, surgical solutions, equipment cassettes, patient interfaces, and other disposable items typically used during a single ophthalmic surgical procedure. Finally, surgical equipment includes multi-use surgical consoles, lasers, and diagnostic instruments used across procedures to enable surgeons to visualize and conduct ophthalmic surgeries.
Vision Care Market
The vision care market in which the company operates is estimated projected to grow approximately 4% on average per year from 2024 to 2029. The vision care market comprises products designed for use by eye care professionals and consumers. Products are largely categorized across two product lines: contact lenses and ocular health.
Strategy
The company's business strategy is to maximize the potential of the company’s near-term portfolio by growing key products; accelerate innovation and deliver the next wave of technologies; capture opportunities to expand markets and pursue adjacencies; support new business models to expand customer experience; and leverage infrastructure to improve operating efficiencies and margin profile over time.
Products
The company researches, develops, manufactures, distributes, and sells eye care products. The company's broad range of products represents one of the strongest portfolios in the eye care industry, with high-quality and technologically advanced products across all major product categories in ophthalmic surgical devices and vision care. The company is organized into two global business segments: Surgical and Vision Care.
Surgical
The company offers implantable products, consumables, and equipment for use in surgical procedures to address cataracts, vitreoretinal conditions, refractive errors, and glaucoma. The company's Surgical portfolio includes equipment, instrumentation, and diagnostics, IOLs and other implantables, and a broad line of consumables, including viscoelastics, surgical solutions, incisional instruments, surgical custom packs, and other products.
Cataract, vitreoretinal, refractive, and glaucoma surgeries are generally performed in hospitals or ambulatory surgery centers and are supported through a network of eye clinics, ophthalmic surgery offices, and group purchasing organizations. The primary ophthalmic surgical procedures for cataract, vitreoretinal, and glaucoma surgery are broadly reimbursed in most mature markets. Third-party coverage or patient co-pay options are also available for refractive laser correction and ATIOLs. Finally, a growing private pay market for premium surgical devices provides a mutually beneficial environment for patients, providers, and medical device companies by allowing patients to pay the non-reimbursable cost of a procedure associated with selecting premium devices, such as ATIOLs.
Sustainable patient access to quality eye care is core to the company's business. Alcon has invested significant resources to innovate new technologies, expand reimbursement pathways (public and/or private insurance), and teach new skills to clinicians around the world to improve patient outcomes and eye care access. Across its Surgical portfolio, the company sells a tiered offering of products intended to meet the specific needs of customers in markets around the world at different price points. Newly launched offerings that bring considerable technology innovation to the market are typically introduced at a price premium to offset the cost of research and development. As these products age and/or competitive products advance, prices typically trend downward, requiring continuous innovation cycles to maintain and/or grow the company's margins. The company also develops specific products to match customer needs in different customer segments, for example, premium-tier and mid-tier surgical consoles that can be manufactured and sold at different price points in different markets. Likewise, the company has introduced the Legion system to help fill the gap in access to phacoemulsification surgery. This affordable system brings some of the advanced features of the Centurion system, combined with greater serviceability, durability, and portability to developing markets.
Cataract
The company's installed base of equipment and extensive clinician relationships drive sales of its IOLs and consumables. The company considers the quality and breadth of its portfolio to be a key differentiator as a ‘one-stop-shop’ offering for its customers, synonymous with quality, reliability, and accessibility. The company's Cataract Refractive Suite covers every stage of the surgical workflow, from clinical planning to cataract removal and post-operative optimization.
The company sells Centurion, its vision system for cataract surgery, in most major markets. This system includes Active Fluidics technology, an automated system that optimizes anterior chamber stability by allowing surgeons to proactively set and maintain target IOP within the eye during the cataract removal procedure, thereby delivering an unprecedented level of intraoperative control.
The company also sells the LenSx Laser System in select major markets. The first femtosecond laser to receive FDA clearance for use in cataract surgery, LenSx is used to create incisions in the cornea, create a capsulorhexis, and complete lens fragmentation as part of the cataract procedure. This enables surgeons to perform some of the most delicate manual steps of cataract surgery with image-guided visualization and micron precision.
The company's Verion reference unit and Verion digital marker together form an advanced surgical planning, imaging, and guidance technology designed to provide greater accuracy and efficiency during cataract surgery. The company's ORA System provides key intra-operative measurements to improve the placement precision of an implanted IOL during cataract surgery.
The company's ARGOS biometer offers an integrated image-guided solution for every step of the surgical process, from post-operative measurement to surgical planning and intra-operative guidance for optimal IOL positioning. The ARGOS biometer provides efficient measurement, simplified workflow, precise measurement via swept-source OCT (SS-OCT), and integration with the rest of the company's cataract refractive suite.
The company's first application, SMARTCataract, to its digital health platform, SMART Solutions, enables remote cataract surgical planning and automated transfer of data from diagnostic devices to OR equipment, reducing time spent manually entering patient data into individual devices.
The company's NGENUITY 3D visualization system provides surgeons improved visualization by combining a high-dynamic 3D camera, advanced high-speed image optimization, polarizing surgeon glasses, and an ultra-high definition 4K OLED 3D display that offers improved depth perception. Within visualization, the company also sells the LuxOR surgical ophthalmic microscope with its proprietary ILLUMIN-i technology, which provides an expanded illumination field with a 6x-larger, highly stable red reflex zone.
In 2025, the company plans to launch Unity CS, the latest advancement in its cataract surgical platform. Unity CS integrates 4D Phaco technology, which delivers phacoemulsification that is two times faster with 40% less energy, enabling more efficient and safer lens removal during cataract surgery. The system also features streamlined workflows for faster setup, teardown, and intraoperative adjustments, helping surgeons improve operating room throughput and enhance procedural efficiency. Unity CS demonstrates the company's commitment to advancing cataract surgery with innovative solutions that meet the evolving needs of cataract surgeons.
Surgical Glaucoma
The company's innovative solutions for glaucoma surgery address critical unmet needs in the treatment of this progressive and potentially blinding disease. The Hydrus Microstent, initially launched in the U.S. by Ivantis, Inc. (Ivantis) in 2018 and acquired by Alcon in 2022, is a minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS) device designed to lower intraocular pressure by enhancing the eye's natural outflow pathway via implantation into Schlemm's canal. It is approved and marketed in several major markets, including the U.S., for the treatment of primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG).
In addition, the EX-PRESS Glaucoma Filtration Device offers a surgical solution for refractory glaucoma, functioning similarly to a trabeculectomy by shunting aqueous from the anterior chamber to a subconjunctival reservoir. Unlike traditional trabeculectomy, the EX-PRESS does not require removal of scleral or iris tissue, providing a less invasive option for complex cases. This device is approved and marketed in the U.S., Europe, Canada, Australia, China, and other markets.
Complementing these devices is the Voyager laser system, developed from the company's acquisition of BELKIN Vision's proprietary Eagle Direct Selective Laser Trabeculoplasty (DSLT) technology. This system represents a significant improvement in non-invasive glaucoma treatment, allowing for fast, incision-free, single-application procedures that broaden access to effective glaucoma management and reduce the burden on healthcare systems.
Together, the company's Surgical Glaucoma portfolio underscores Alcon's commitment to advancing glaucoma care by integrating cutting-edge technology, surgeon-focused solutions, and patient-centric approaches.
Implantables
An IOL is a tiny, artificial lens for the eye, which replaces the eye's natural lens that is removed during cataract surgery. The company's intraocular lenses (IOL) portfolio reflects a strong legacy of innovation, offering a comprehensive range of solutions tailored to diverse patient needs. The company's optics portfolio includes:
Monofocal IOLs: Deliver sharp vision at a single distance, addressing basic visual correction needs;
Toric IOLs: Correct preexisting astigmatism, enhancing visual outcomes for patients with this common condition; and
Presbyopia-Correcting IOLs (PC-IOLs): Include advanced trifocal lenses like Clareon PanOptix, which provide seamless near, intermediate, and distance vision, and Clareon Vivity, the company's extended depth of focus (EDOF) IOL that balances a broader range of vision with a visual disturbance profile comparable to a monofocal lens.
The company's IOLs are predominantly made of Clareon, an advanced hydrophobic acrylic material offering exceptional clarity, reduced edge glare, and enhanced stability.
The company also offers delivery systems to simplify the surgical process while ensuring precision:
AutonoMe: The first automated, disposable, pre-loaded IOL delivery system, designed for seamless and precise implantation of Clareon IOLs; and
UltraSert: Combines the control of manual systems with the safety and efficiency of a pre-loaded injector, offering enhanced ease of use.
Advanced Technology IOLs (ATIOLs), such as trifocal and EDOF lenses, provide significant patient benefits beyond standard monofocal IOLs, including improved vision at multiple distances or a broader range of focus. However, ATIOL adoption varies globally due to reimbursement and pricing models, with the US offering partial coverage through Medicare and commercial insurers. Outside the US, payment models are shaped by local healthcare policies.
Overall, the company's IOL portfolio is designed to deliver superior clinical outcomes, enhance patient satisfaction, and simplify surgical workflows, ensuring that surgeons can address a wide array of patient needs with confidence.
Consumables
To provide convenience, efficiency, and value for ophthalmic surgeons, the company offers Custom Pak surgical procedure packs for use in ophthalmic surgery. Unlike conventional surgical procedure packs, the company's Custom Pak surgical procedure packs allow individual surgeons to customize the products included in their pack, which results in less waste in the environment. The Custom Pak surgical procedure packs include both the company's single-use products as well as third-party items not manufactured by Alcon.
Vitreoretinal
The company's vitreoretinal surgical product offering is one of the most comprehensive in the industry for surgical procedures for the back of the eye. The company markets its vitreoretinal surgical products in substantially all of the countries in which it sells products.
For vitrectomy procedures, the company sells its Constellation vision system globally. In addition to the Constellation vision system, the company also sells a full line of vitreoretinal products, including procedure packs, lasers, and hand-held microsurgical instruments, as well as its Grieshaber and MIVS lines of disposable retinal surgery instruments. The company also offers a full line of scissors, forceps, and micro-instruments in varying gauge sizes, as well as a range of medical-grade vitreous tamponades, which replace vitreous humor during many retinal procedures.
The company continues to advance its portfolio with smaller gauge (27+) instruments and higher cut speed vitrectomy probes. The company also sells Hypervit high-speed vitrectomy probes, which operate at a speed of 20,000 cuts per minute (cpm). This increased speed helps reduce traction that can cause iatrogenic tears and post-operative complications.
Refractive products
The company's refractive products include lasers, disposable patient interfaces used during laser vision correction procedures, technology fees, and diagnostic devices necessary to plan the refractive procedures. The company's WaveLight refractive suite includes the EX500 excimer laser, designed to reshape the cornea, and the FS200 femtosecond laser, designed to create a corneal flap and to deliver laser refractive therapy as part of the LASIK refractive procedure.
The company's refractive portfolio also includes Contoura Vision, powered by the WaveLight Topolyzer VARIO diagnostic device, and the recently launched WaveLight Plus, the company's most advanced LASIK treatment designed to provide surgeons with the ability to perform more personalized laser procedures for patients with near-sightedness or near-sightedness with astigmatism.
Vision Care
The company's Vision Care portfolio comprises daily disposable, reusable, and color-enhancing contact lenses, as well as a comprehensive portfolio of ocular health products, including products for dry eye, ocular allergies, glaucoma, and contact lens care, as well as ocular vitamins and redness relievers.
The company serves its customers and patients through optometrists, ophthalmologists, and other eye care professionals, retailers, optical chains, and pharmacies, as well as distributors that resell directly to smaller retailers and eye care professionals, who sell the products to end-users. The vision care market is primarily private pay, with patients substantially paying for contact lenses and ocular health products out-of-pocket.
Sales of the company's contact lens and ocular health products are influenced by optometrist, ophthalmologist, and other eye care professional recommendations, the company's marketing and consumer education efforts, and consumer preferences.
Contact lens
Alcon is the number two company in the branded contact lens market based on market share in 2024. The company is the number one manufacturer of daily disposable SiHy lenses in the U.S. in 2024. This position is driven largely by the company's core brands, TOTAL, PRECISION, DAILIES AquaComfort PLUS, and Air Optix.
The company's TOTAL product line, with its water gradient technology, reduces end-of-day dryness, as the water content approaches nearly 100% at the outermost surface of the lens, and is designed to be a super-premium lens positioned to compete at the highest levels across the contact lens market. The company's TOTAL product line includes DAILIES TOTAL1, the first and only water gradient disposable contact lens in the market. The company launched TOTAL30, its premium offering in the reusable segment, in 2021 to encourage patients to trade up to a next generation, water gradient technology. The company also launched TOTAL30 toric and multifocal in 2023 to complete the TOTAL30 product family. DAILIES TOTAL1 in the multifocal offering provides a platform for expanding the presbyopia market, which the company believes is a potential multibillion dollar opportunity for market participants.
PRECISION1, the company's mainstream daily disposable SiHy lens with aqueous extraction and surface treatment, is priced between the super-premium DAILIES TOTAL1 and the more value-conscious DAILIES AquaComfort PLUS. PRECISION1 is designed for long-lasting performance and delivers precise vision, dependable comfort, and ease of handling. Following a successful introduction of PRECISION1 spherical lenses, the company introduced PRECISION1 for Astigmatism, a toric lens designed for astigmatic patients. In the U.S. and EU, PRECISION1 for Astigmatism features the PRECISION BALANCE 8|4 lens design for a stable lens-wearing experience.
DAILIES AquaComfort PLUS, the company's most affordable daily disposable contact lens in monofocal, astigmatism-correcting, and multifocal options, delivers dependable performance by working with tears to release moisture with every blink. This lens is designed for value-conscious wearers who want the flexibility and simplicity of a daily disposable lens.
Air Optix, the company's more affordable monthly replacement product line, features SiHy contact lenses in monofocal, astigmatism-correcting, and multifocal options, as well as Air Optix Colors and Air Optix plus HydraGlyde contact lenses. Air Optix plus HydraGlyde brings together two innovative technologies—SmartShield technology and HydraGlyde moisture matrix—for a unique combination of deposit protection and longer-lasting lens surface moisture.
The company continues to experience market growth driven by trade-up to premium lenses, expansion of toric and multifocal specialty lenses, as well as increasing penetration in emerging markets.
Ocular health
The company's key brands in its ocular health portfolio include the Systane family of artificial tear and related dry eye products, the Pataday family of eye allergy products, as well as the Opti-Free and Clear Care lines of multi-purpose and hydrogen peroxide disinfecting solutions, respectively.
Alcon is also a market leader in contact lens care in both multi-purpose (Opti-Free PureMoist) and hydrogen peroxide solutions (Clear Care and AOSEPT PLUS). The vast majority of the company's contact lens care products comprises disinfecting solutions to remove harmful micro-organisms on contact lenses, with a smaller amount of sales coming from contact lens rewetting drops to improve wearing comfort for contact lenses. The company benefits from strong synergies between its contact lens business and its contact lens care products.
The company's ocular health portfolio also includes artificial tear and related dry eye products marketed under the Tears Naturale and Genteal brands, products for the temporary relief of ocular itching due to ocular allergies marketed under the Naphcon-A and Zaditor brands, and vitamins for the maintenance of general ocular health marketed under the ICAPS and Vitalux brands.
Principal Markets
Alcon serves consumers and patients in over 140 countries worldwide. The US is the company's largest market, accounting for 46% of its net sales in 2024.
Research and Development
The company invested approximately $876 million, in research and development in 2024.
Acquisitions
On July 2024, Alcon completed the acquisition of BELKIN Vision Ltd., which expands the company's glaucoma portfolio with Direct Selective Laser Trabeculoplasty (DSLT) technology.
Marketing and Sales
The company's global commercial capability is organized around sales and marketing organizations dedicated to its Surgical and Vision Care businesses, and it customizes these efforts to the medical practice needs of each customer. In addition to direct promotion of its products, the company's sales representatives provide customers with access to clinical education programs, data from clinical studies, and technical service assistance. The company's selling models also include focused efforts in key channels, including strategic accounts, key accounts, and pharmacies.
In the company's Surgical business, its marketing efforts are supported by global advertising campaigns, claims from clinical registration and post-approval studies, as well as by the participation of marketing and sales representatives in regional and global medical conferences. Technical service after the sale is provided using an integrated customer relationship management system in place in many markets. All of the company's technical service in the US, and a high percentage of that service outside the U.S., is provided by service technicians employed directly by Alcon. In countries where the company does not have local operations or a scientific office, it uses distributors to sell and handle the physical distribution of its products.
In the company's Vision Care business, it supports its products with direct-to-consumer and ECP-oriented marketing campaigns, including advertising, promotions, and other marketing materials, as well as with retailer-focused marketing and promotional materials. The fast-evolving landscape for the company's Vision Care business varies significantly by country.
While the company markets all of its products by calling on medical professionals, direct customers and distribution methods differ across its business lines. Surgical products are sold directly to hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers, although the company sells through distributors in certain markets outside the US where it does not have local operations or a scientific office.
Intellectual Property
As of December 31, 2024, the company owned or had rights to approximately 2,400 patent families.
Competition
The company competes with a number of different companies across its two business segments—Surgical and Vision Care.
Surgical
The company primarily competes with Carl Zeiss Meditec AG, Bausch & Lomb Incorporated, Hoya Corporation, Glaukos Corporation, and Johnson & Johnson in the surgical market.
Vision Care
The company's primary competitors are Johnson & Johnson, Bausch & Lomb Incorporated, and The Cooper Companies, Inc. In addition, AbbVie, Inc. (Allergan) is a competitor in ocular health.
Government Regulation
The company's businesses are subject to varying degrees of governmental regulation in the countries in which it operates, and the general trend is toward increasingly stringent regulation.
Many of the company's devices are Class II or III devices that require premarket review by the FDA. The primary pathway for the company's Class II devices is FDA clearance of a premarket notification under section 510(k) of the FDCA. With a 510(k) submission, the manufacturer must submit a notification to the FDA that includes performance data that establishes that the product is substantially equivalent to a ‘predicate device,’ which is typically another Class II previously cleared device.
The company is subject to health care fraud and abuse and anti-bribery laws and regulations in the U.S. and around the world, including state and federal anti-kickback, anti-self-referral, and false claims laws in the US. In addition, the FCPA is increasingly used to prosecute relationships between US companies and healthcare providers outside of the U.S.
The company is subject to certain privacy laws and regulations that continue to evolve, including Swiss privacy laws, the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) with respect to some of its products, services, and business operations.
History
The company was founded in 1945. The company was incorporated in 1947. The company was formerly known as Alcon Universal S.A. and changed its name to Alcon Inc. in 2001.
