Rapid Expansion

Following the Paris meeting of the International Congress of Ophthalmology in 1974, interest in and demand for intraocular lenses increased dramatically. The small implant department had been expanded to occupy the whole of the top floor of the Lorna Road site, but even this was not sufficient and demand, particularly from USA surgeons, far outstripped the supply.

In 1975, a distribution agreement was made between Rayner and Coburn, USA, followed later by a manufacturing and technology transfer agreement to allow Rayner lenses to be made in North America. In this same year, John Pearce developed with Rayner the first of the modern posterior chamber lens designs.

In 1978 the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) initiated the largest clinical study of IOLs ever conducted at that time. This resulted on December 11, 1981 in the study lenses (Choyce MkVIII and MkIX) becoming the first IOLs to be approved by the FDA as safe and effective.

To meet the continuing rapid increase in demand, the implant department was moved in 1978 to its own building in Wilbury Villas, Hove, East Sussex. The new facility allowed a much needed increase to be made in equipment and personnel. By the end of the decade Rayner Intraocular, as the company was now called, had increased its staff to 50 people. In the USA, some 100,000 lenses in total had been implanted in 1979 with over a quarter of these being Rayner lenses.