Matthorn Capital

The Ophthalmic Surgical & Vision Care peer group consists of Alcon, Bausch + Lomb, The Cooper Companies, STAAR Surgical, and Glaukos. These high-purity companies represent the core of the consumable and implant-driven ophthalmic sector, deriving the majority (or nearly all) of their revenue from contact lenses, intraocular lenses, cataract and vitreoretinal surgical equipment, glaucoma devices, ocular pharmaceuticals, and specialty vision correction implants.

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ NYSE) and EssilorLuxottica (EL.PA) were excluded from this Ophthalmic Surgical & Vision Care peer group due to insufficient revenue purity. JNJ is a diversified healthcare conglomerate with its vision care operations (primarily Acuvue contacts) representing only ~6% of total revenue. EssilorLuxottica focuses predominantly on eyewear frames, spectacle lenses, sunglasses, and optical retail, with only a minor and non-core position in contact lenses or broader ophthalmic medical devices and pharmaceuticals.

The Cooper Companies (COO): Excerpt from the 10-K form as per 2025-10-31:

CooperVision Competition
CooperVision competes in the spherical, toric and multifocal lens categories of the contact lens worldwide market against Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc., Alcon Inc., Bausch + Lomb as well as other smaller companies with limited product offerings. To a lesser extent, CooperVision also competes with manufacturers of eyeglasses and providers of other forms of vision correction including ophthalmic surgery.

Glaukos Corporation (GKOS): Excerpt from the 10-K form as per 2025-12-31:

In glaucoma, our MIGS offerings primarily compete against Alcon, Sight Sciences, AbbVie, Iantrek, and New World Medical. Our procedural pharmaceutical product competes with AbbVie Inc. However, there are a considerable number of large and small companies providing other surgical glaucoma technologies, laser-based therapies, and pharmaceuticals that currently provide competition or with whom we may compete should our broad clinical development pipeline be approved and commercialized. In corneal disorders, we currently have the only FDA approved bio-activated pharmaceutical therapy for the treatment of keratoconus; however, we are aware of companies such as Epion Therapeutics that are developing competitive corneal cross-linking products, and there are certain pharmacies that compound pharmaceuticals that may be used by certain physicians in place of our Photrexa or Epioxa products, and globally we compete against numerous providers of corneal crosslinking therapies such as PeschkeTrade GmBH. Our anterior segment pipeline, if approved, would vastly expand our competition to numerous large companies such as AbbVie Inc., Alcon, Inc. and Johnson & Johnson, as well as some small companies that provide medical technology and pharmaceutical therapies for several areas including dry eye and refractive conditions. Our posterior segment pipeline, if approved, may face substantial competition from large pharmaceutical companies such as AbbVie Inc., Novartis AG, Genentech/Roche, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Bayer AG, and there are also a considerable number of large and small companies with development efforts in the field.

STAAR Surgical Company (STAA): Excerpt from the 10-K form as per 2026-01-02:

Competition
[...]
We believe our primary competition in selling the ICL to patients seeking surgery to correct refractive conditions lies not in similar products to the ICL, but in laser surgical procedures. Alcon (formerly a part of Novartis), Johnson & Johnson (formerly Advanced Medical Optics or AMO), Bausch Health Companies (formerly Valeant, Bausch & Lomb or B+L), and Carl Zeiss Meditec AG, all market lasers for corneal refractive surgery and promote their sales worldwide.

Phakic implants that compete with the ICL are also available in the marketplace. The two principal types of phakic implantable lenses are (1) posterior chamber designs like the ICL, including lenses made by Biotech Vision Care, Care Group, and Eyebright and (2) iris clip anterior chamber designs, including lenses made by Ophtec.