SAN FRANCISCO -- The law firms Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, and Moscone, Emblidge & Quadra, LLP, announced today that Alexis Degelmann and Joseph Lin filed the first nationwide consumer class action lawsuit against Advanced Medical Optics, Inc. ("AMO") seeking reimbursement for their purchases of Complete MoisturePlus Multi-Purpose Solution. Degelmann and Lin, both residents of Northern California, purchased and used Complete MoisturePlus Multi-Purpose Solution to disinfect their contact lenses. The class action lawsuit was filed in federal court in San Francisco. 

"AMO aggressively marketed Complete MoisturePlus Multi-Purpose Solution as an effective contact lens disinfectant that doctors recommended," stated Wendy R. Fleishman, a partner at Lieff Cabraser. "This advertising campaign was false. Users of AMO’s Complete MoisturePlus Multi-Purpose Solution, according to government health officials, carry a seven-fold increased risk of developing an extremely painful infection of the cornea that can lead to blindness."

"The complaint charges that when AMO introduced its contact lens solution to the national market," explained James A. Quadra, a partner at Moscone, Emblidge & Quadra, "it was aware of studies showing that the disinfectant in its solution was inferior to other solutions. AMO owes consumers nationwide a full refund equal for their purchases of its product."

Joseph Lin, one of the plaintiffs in the nationwide class action lawsuit, said, “I thought the solution I was buying was the best on the market. I didn’t know that it could damage my eyes.”

On May 25, 2007, the Food and Drug Administration alerted health care professionals and their patients who wear soft contact lenses about a voluntary recall of AMO’s Complete MoisturePlus Multi-Purpose. The recall was undertaken because of reports of a link between a rare, but serious eye infection, Acanthamoeba keratitis, caused by a parasite and use of AMO’s contact lens solution.

The Complaint charges that AMO’s contact lens solution was ineffective in preventing the growth of protozoa microorganisms, including "acanthameoba." The protozoa acanthameoba are directly associated with a disproportionate risk and increased incidence of Acanthamoeba keratitis in users of contact lens solution products. The infection can be chronic, resistant to treatment, and require surgical interventions. It also can lead to blindness.

The class action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of all purchasers throughout the U.S. who brought the AMO solution from June 2003 to the present. Plaintiffs seek the return of all payments they made to AMO for its solution.

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