European ECPs gather in Prague

European contact lens launch at the Nová Spirála, Prague

More than 400 eyecare practitioners (ECPs) from 30 countries convened in Prague last week for the Europe-wide launch of Alcon’s new one-week soft contact lens innovation – Precision7 in both sphere and toric – approved for daily wear as well as extended wear.

Held ‘in the round’ at the Nová Spirála, with its circular rotating stage, the two-day event was hosted by Jonathon Bench, Alcon’s international director of professional education.

Aptly held in the capital city where Czech chemist Otto Wichterle invented the world’s first soft contact lens material, the meeting not only offered ECPs the chance to learn more about Precision7’s novel technology – but to hear expert insights on prescribing trends, clinical and pre-clinical trials, marketing and communications, and early-adopter feedback. ECPs were also able to try the lenses for themselves.

Over the course of two days, ECPs heard from a range of experts from the contact lens world including Professor Philip Morgan of the University of Manchester, Professor Lyndon Jones from the University of Waterloo, Canada, and Dr Fabrizio Zeri, associate professor at the University of Milano-Biocca and visiting fellow at Aston University.

The Alcon team presented the technology behind the lens – powered by a new soft lens material serafilcon A and Activ-Flo technology – and discussed how the lens was aimed at patients for whom ‘daily disposables are not an option’.

The art of communications, with a look at behavioural psychology, was also on the agenda – exploring pertinent strategies applicable to everyday contact lens practice.

Precision7 sphere and toric contact lenses are available at a number of select practices in the UK, and as Lumiere7 in Specsavers stores. The product will be officially launched in the UK at 100% Optical 2026 next February.

Read a full report of the event in the November/December 2025 issue of Dispensing Optics.