With an eye toward growing adoption of specialty contact lenses across Europe's Nordic region, CooperVision said it has acquired EnsEyes.

Kolding, Denmark-based EnsEyes supplies orthokeratology (ortho-k) and scleral contact lenses in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland. The company will operate within CooperVision's specialty eye care group. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“We have collaborated with EnsEyes for years, including its use of MyProcornea for lens ordering. Joining CooperVision will give its highly respected team more resources for growth, further build the expertise of our organization, and support eye care professionals’ soaring enthusiasm for specialty fitting,” said Juan Carlos Aragón, president of CooperVision's specialty eye care group.

San Ramon, CA-based CooperVision's specialty eye care group develops soft and custom rigid gas permeable lens designs, including orthokeratology and scleral lenses to address segments such as myopia management, irregular cornea, and presbyopia. The group’s brands include Blanchard, GP Specialists, No7 Contact Lenses, Paragon, Procornea, and Soflex.

Esben Nørregaard Sørensen, founder of EnsEyes and a former CooperVision executive, is expected to remain with the company.

In recent years there have been some noteworthy successes in the contact lens category. Most recently, Johnson & Johnson won FDA approval for a drug-eluting contact lens designed to treat allergic eye itch for contact lens wearers and reduce the need for eyedrops. That regulatory milestone came almost a year after the lenses were approved for use in Japan.

In 2019, CooperVision scored FDA approval for the first contact lenses designed to slow the progression of nearsightedness (myopia) in children. Before the agency approved the MiSight lenses, eyeglasses and contact lenses in the United States had only been developed to correct blurred vision, a symptom of myopia, but not for slowing progression of the common condition.

Earlier this year, medtech analysts at Needham & Co. issued a report in which they took a closer look at both the contact lens market and the intraocular lens market, noting how both markets are poised for growth.

"We believe both markets are attractive given their respective exposure to growth drivers that are somewhat insulated from pure volume growth," wrote Needham analysts David Saxon, Mike Matson, and Joseph Conway. "We believe each market's growth could increase to above its historical mid-single digit rate as a result of a mix shift to premium products."