Contact Lenses Market

Contact Lenses Market Latest Trends

The Contact Lenses Market is moving toward products that combine improved comfort, simplified replacement, and correction of increasingly complex visual conditions. Daily disposables are particularly influential because each wear cycle starts with a fresh lens and eliminates routine storage. In 2025, daily disposable lenses accounted for 49.05% of the market by usage. Manufacturers are consequently expanding one-day families from conventional spherical lenses into toric, multifocal, and combined multifocal-toric configurations.

Material science is another central trend. Silicone hydrogel platforms are being paired with surface treatments, water-gradient structures, wetting technologies, and deposit-resistant designs intended to maintain comfort during prolonged wear. Optical engineering is also becoming more specialized, with stabilization systems for astigmatism and progressive zones for presbyopia.

Pediatric myopia control represents a distinct development path. Soft daily disposable lenses designed to slow myopia progression are receiving regulatory approvals and broader geographic launches. This creates a product category extending beyond conventional refractive correction into active myopia management.

Digital lifestyles are influencing lens design as well. Manufacturers have developed products intended to address symptoms associated with sustained screen use, reduced blinking, eye tiredness, and dryness. At the commercial level, online replenishment and subscription-style purchasing are complementing professional fitting. Sustainability is also entering product strategy through reduced-impact packaging, manufacturing improvements, plastic-offset programs, and material optimization. Together, these trends are making contact lenses increasingly differentiated by clinical indication, replacement frequency, comfort technology, and lifestyle application.

Contact Lenses Market Dynamics

Contact Lenses Market dynamics are influenced by refractive-error prevalence, changing replacement preferences, product innovation, professional fitting practices, safety requirements, and consumer purchasing behavior. Vision correction remains the industry's fundamental demand base, while astigmatism, presbyopia, pediatric myopia, and cosmetic applications broaden addressable patient groups. Vision-correction applications held 59.02% market share in 2025. Manufacturers are responding by creating wider prescription ranges and combining multiple optical functions within individual lens platforms.

Competition increasingly centers on comfort, ocular compatibility, convenience, and clinical differentiation rather than basic refractive correction alone. Daily disposable adoption favors manufacturers with scalable production and broad prescription availability. Reusable lenses retain relevance where affordability or specific optical requirements influence purchasing. Online ordering increases replenishment convenience, but prescription controls and professional fitting maintain clinical involvement. Regulatory scrutiny, contact-lens hygiene, patient adherence, and environmental concerns surrounding disposable packaging simultaneously influence product development and commercialization decisions.

Drivers of Market Growth

Rising prevalence of refractive errors and demand for convenient vision correction.

Myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, and presbyopia create persistent clinical demand for corrective products. Contact lenses provide an alternative to spectacles while supporting sports participation, occupational requirements, cosmetic preferences, and unobstructed peripheral vision. Global projections indicate that myopia could affect 5 billion people by 2050, strengthening the long-term need for correction and management solutions.

The expanding refractive-error population is also encouraging manufacturers to move beyond standard spherical prescriptions. Toric products address astigmatism, multifocal designs serve presbyopia, and dedicated pediatric lenses support myopia-management strategies. Improved materials allow companies to serve patients who previously discontinued contact-lens use because of comfort limitations.

Professional awareness contributes to adoption because eye-care practitioners can match material, design, replacement schedule, and prescription parameters with patient requirements. Younger users are increasingly exposed to myopia-management options, while aging populations create demand for multifocal correction. These demographic and clinical factors support a wider contact-lens user base across multiple age groups.

Market Restraints

Contact-lens discomfort, dryness, and improper wear can limit sustained adoption.

Contact lenses interact directly with the ocular surface, making comfort and safe wearing behavior fundamental to retention. Dryness, irritation, deposit accumulation, unsuitable fit, and poor hygiene can cause consumers to reduce wearing time or return to spectacles. Research associated with toric users indicates that over 50% can experience contact-lens dryness, illustrating the importance of material and surface performance.

Improper lens handling introduces additional limitations. Sleeping in lenses not approved for overnight use, extending replacement schedules, exposing lenses to water, or failing to follow care instructions can increase complications. Reusable products require cleaning and storage procedures that some users find inconvenient.

Contact-lens suitability also varies according to tear-film condition, corneal health, prescription complexity, lifestyle, and environmental exposure. Professional evaluation therefore remains important even as purchasing shifts online. Manufacturers continue addressing these limitations through higher-oxygen materials, moisture technologies, daily replacement formats, and improved surface characteristics, but physiological differences between users prevent a universal lens solution.

Market Opportunities

Expansion of myopia-control and specialty contact lenses creates new clinical applications.

Contact lenses are evolving from conventional refractive correction toward products that address specific clinical needs. Pediatric myopia management represents a major area of innovation because progression during childhood can increase later ocular-health risks. In Japan, 77% of children aged six to eleven have been reported as myopic, illustrating the potential need for structured intervention in high-prevalence markets.

Specialty opportunities extend to multifocal-toric lenses, orthokeratology, rigid gas-permeable designs, prosthetic lenses, and products intended for irregular corneas. Combining optical functions enables manufacturers to reach patients who previously required compromises between visual correction and lens convenience.

Regulatory approvals for myopia-control lenses can expand professional treatment options and strengthen long-term relationships between manufacturers, practitioners, parents, and patients. Specialty products also depend more heavily on professional fitting expertise, supporting clinical channels despite growth in online replenishment.

Further opportunities exist in advanced materials and potential future applications involving sensing or therapeutic delivery. Companies capable of combining validated clinical performance with comfortable materials and scalable manufacturing can address increasingly segmented patient populations.

Market Challenges

Balancing advanced lens performance with affordability and sustainable disposal remains difficult.

Modern contact lenses increasingly incorporate sophisticated polymers, surface treatments, stabilization systems, moisture technologies, and complex optical zones. These capabilities can improve clinical performance but require specialized manufacturing, quality control, regulatory documentation, and precision tooling. Cost therefore remains influential when consumers choose between daily disposable and reusable formats. Industry feedback has indicated that 9 in 10 eye-care professionals may prefer daily disposables overall, while affordability can still lead patients toward reusable alternatives.

Environmental considerations create an additional challenge. Daily products generate recurring blister packs, foils, and lens waste, increasing pressure on manufacturers to improve packaging efficiency and disposal initiatives. Reducing environmental impact cannot compromise sterility or product protection.

Manufacturers must also maintain extensive prescription inventories covering powers, cylinder values, axes, additions, and base curves. Complex portfolios increase production and distribution requirements. At the same time, consumers expect reliable availability through clinics, optical retailers, and online channels. Successfully balancing performance, affordability, inventory breadth, safety, and sustainability is therefore an important competitive challenge.

Contact Lenses SWOT Analysis

Strengths

• Contact lenses provide direct refractive correction while preserving an unrestricted visual field compared with conventional spectacle frames.

• Silicone hydrogel materials support high oxygen transmission and accounted for 55.12% of material-based market share in 2025.

• Multiple product architectures allow correction of myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, and presbyopia through specialized optical designs.

• Recurring replacement schedules create continuous product engagement and encourage regular interaction between wearers and eye-care professionals.

Weaknesses

• Contact lenses require consistent hygiene and adherence to prescribed replacement schedules to support safe use.

• Ocular dryness can reduce wearing comfort, particularly during sustained digital-device use and low-humidity exposure.

• Complex prescriptions require professional fitting and may have fewer readily available product options than standard spherical correction.

• Daily disposable formats create recurring packaging waste, making environmental performance an increasingly visible product consideration.

Opportunities

• Pediatric myopia management creates a specialized clinical category with long-term patient engagement potential.

• Multifocal-toric products can address patients experiencing presbyopia and astigmatism within a single corrective lens.

• E-commerce provides convenient prescription replenishment and can complement practitioner-led fitting services.

• Advanced materials, smart sensing concepts, and drug-delivery research can expand contact lenses beyond conventional vision correction.

Threats

• Spectacles remain a simple, reusable alternative that does not require direct contact with the ocular surface.

• Refractive surgery can reduce dependence on conventional corrective lenses among suitable patients.

• Product recalls or safety incidents can negatively affect confidence across specific brands and lens categories.

• Intensifying competition among established global manufacturers increases pressure on product differentiation and practitioner relationships.

Contact Lenses Segmentation Analysis

Contact Lenses Market segmentation reflects differences in polymer composition, optical design, replacement schedule, clinical application, and purchasing channel. These categories allow manufacturers to address distinct patient requirements rather than relying on a universal product configuration. Daily wearers can prioritize convenience, while specialty patients may require customized optical characteristics.

Segmentation also affects manufacturing complexity and professional fitting. Material influences oxygen permeability and moisture behavior; design determines refractive functionality; usage establishes replacement frequency; application defines clinical purpose; and distribution determines how consumers obtain prescribed products. The market therefore operates through interconnected product and commercial segments.

By Material

Silicone Hydrogel, Hydrogel, Gas-Permeable (RGP), and Hybrid lenses form the principal material categories. Silicone hydrogel led the material segment with 55.12% share in 2025. Its strong position reflects oxygen-transmission characteristics and broad use across daily disposable, reusable, toric, and multifocal products.

Traditional hydrogel lenses remain relevant because established manufacturing systems and familiar handling characteristics support broad product availability. Gas-permeable lenses use rigid oxygen-permeable materials and are particularly important for patients requiring sharp optics or specialized corneal fitting. Their smaller physical diameter and rigid geometry distinguish them from soft-lens platforms.

Hybrid lenses combine a rigid central optical zone with a soft surrounding skirt. This structure aims to combine rigid-lens visual performance with soft-lens wearing characteristics. Material competition increasingly focuses on oxygen permeability, water management, surface wettability, deposit resistance, dimensional stability, and compatibility with advanced optical designs.

By Design

Spherical, Toric, Multifocal, and Cosmetic & Colored designs address different optical and appearance requirements. Spherical contact lenses represented 41.92% market share in 2025, reflecting their widespread use for straightforward myopic and hyperopic prescriptions. Their comparatively simple optical geometry supports extensive prescription availability.

Toric lenses incorporate stabilization mechanisms to maintain orientation for astigmatism correction. Manufacturers continue improving stabilization performance because rotation can affect visual consistency. Multifocal lenses use multiple optical zones or progressive designs to provide near, intermediate, and distance correction for presbyopic users.

Cosmetic and colored lenses alter or enhance iris appearance while products can also incorporate prescription correction. Their demand is influenced by fashion, entertainment, personal appearance, and specialty prosthetic requirements. Across design categories, manufacturers increasingly combine sophisticated optics with high-performance materials, enabling patients with complex refractive requirements to access disposable formats previously concentrated in conventional spherical products.

By Usage

Daily Disposable, Weekly/Bi-Weekly, Monthly/Quarterly, and Extended Wear formats differ primarily in replacement frequency and maintenance requirements. Daily disposables captured 49.05% market share in 2025. Their principal advantage is the use of a fresh sterile lens each day without routine cleaning or storage.

Weekly and bi-weekly products provide an intermediate replacement schedule for users balancing convenience and product utilization. These lenses require compliant cleaning, disinfection, and storage between wearing periods. Monthly and quarterly lenses remain established options across spherical, toric, and multifocal prescriptions and can offer practical choices for cost-conscious wearers.

Extended-wear products are manufactured for prescribed longer wearing periods and require materials capable of supporting sufficient corneal oxygen transmission. Clinical suitability remains essential because overnight wear carries different considerations from daily wear. Replacement strategy therefore influences hygiene behavior, consumer cost, packaging volume, practitioner recommendations, and manufacturer production planning.

By Application

Vision Correction, Therapeutic, Cosmetic, and Prosthetic & Specialty applications demonstrate the broad functional range of contact lenses. Vision correction retained 59.02% market share in 2025, supported by routine treatment of common refractive errors. These products span spherical, toric, and multifocal designs across numerous replacement schedules.

Therapeutic lenses can protect the ocular surface or support selected clinical management under professional supervision. Their role differs from conventional consumer correction because medical indications determine fitting and use. Cosmetic lenses focus on changing eye appearance and can be offered with or without refractive power depending on the product and regulatory framework.

Prosthetic and specialty products serve distinct visual or cosmetic requirements, including irregular corneal conditions and individualized ocular appearances. Specialty fitting frequently requires advanced practitioner expertise and customized parameters. Application diversification gives manufacturers opportunities to serve patient groups beyond routine refractive correction while strengthening the clinical role of contact-lens technology.

By Distribution Channel

Optical Stores, Hospitals & Eye Clinics, E-commerce, and Pharmacies form the principal distribution channels. Optical stores accounted for 45.98% market share in 2025, reflecting their combination of eye examinations, fitting services, prescription support, and product purchasing. Their professional-service component remains particularly important for new wearers.

Hospitals and eye clinics support patients requiring medical evaluation, complex prescriptions, therapeutic lenses, or specialist fitting. These channels have particular relevance where ocular conditions require close professional monitoring. E-commerce is strengthening repeat purchasing by allowing prescribed users to replenish products without repeated physical retail visits.

Pharmacies participate in contact-lens distribution in markets where regulatory frameworks and retail structures permit such sales. Omnichannel strategies increasingly connect professional consultation with digital ordering and home delivery. Distribution competition therefore depends not only on product availability but also on prescription verification, convenience, inventory breadth, consumer education, and continuity of professional eye care.

Regional Analysis

Regional performance in the Contact Lenses Market varies according to refractive-error prevalence, disposable income, optometry infrastructure, contact-lens penetration, product availability, and regulatory systems. Mature markets favor premium daily disposables and advanced specialty designs, while developing markets present opportunities through expanding eye-care access. North America maintains strong professional fitting infrastructure, Europe combines mature adoption with strict medical-device requirements, and Asia-Pacific has substantial potential linked to high myopia prevalence. Middle East & Africa remains comparatively underpenetrated but is developing through urban optical retail and expanding healthcare access.

North America

North America represents a highly developed contact-lens market supported by extensive optometry networks, established manufacturer distribution, and widespread consumer familiarity with prescribed lenses. The region accounts for a substantial global share, with market estimates placing it above 35% in recent industry assessments. The U.S. forms the central demand base, while Canada contributes a mature optical-care environment and adoption of premium lens technologies.

Daily disposable lenses are prominent because consumers increasingly prioritize hygiene and convenience. Toric and multifocal adoption is also supported by broad practitioner access and extensive parameter availability. Manufacturers frequently use the U.S. for early commercialization of advanced products, including multifocal-toric configurations and new replacement schedules.

E-commerce has changed replenishment behavior, allowing established wearers to order prescribed products through digital channels. Physical optical stores nevertheless remain important for examinations, fitting, prescription changes, and troubleshooting. Competitive activity is intense because leading global suppliers maintain extensive practitioner relationships and marketing operations across the region.

Europe

Europe maintains a significant Contact Lenses Market supported by mature optical retail systems, established practitioner networks, and strong adoption across major Western European economies. Recent industry assessments place the region at roughly 30% of global market activity. Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Spain form important national markets, while adoption continues developing elsewhere.

European demand increasingly favors products offering simplified care and improved wearing comfort. Daily disposable formats align with convenience-focused consumer behavior, while silicone hydrogel supports premium positioning across multiple optical designs. Presbyopia correction is important because demographic aging creates a broad population requiring near-vision assistance.

The European regulatory environment requires manufacturers to maintain medical-device compliance, clinical documentation, quality systems, traceability, and post-market surveillance. These requirements can strengthen confidence in established manufacturers while increasing commercialization complexity.

Sustainability is gaining strategic significance. Packaging optimization, responsible material selection, manufacturing efficiency, and plastic-management initiatives are becoming visible components of corporate product strategies. Online ordering is also expanding, creating a market where digital convenience increasingly operates alongside practitioner-led fitting.

Asia-Pacific

Asia-Pacific is strategically important because of its large population, expanding middle class, growing eye-care access, and high prevalence of myopia in several countries. Market estimates assign the region a share above 20% in recent assessments. China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and Southeast Asian markets provide distinct combinations of mature and developing contact-lens demand.

Myopia represents a particularly important demand factor. High rates among school-age populations have increased attention toward early intervention and dedicated management products. Japan's authorization of a soft myopia-control contact lens illustrates how regulatory developments can expand specialized treatment options.

Urbanization and digital-device use contribute to frequent near-work behavior, strengthening awareness of visual correction requirements. Cosmetic and colored lenses also have established consumer appeal in parts of the region.

International manufacturers compete alongside domestic and regional suppliers, particularly in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and China. Distribution includes ophthalmology clinics, optical retailers, specialty stores, and rapidly expanding online platforms. Growing practitioner education around pediatric myopia can further increase the role of clinically differentiated contact lenses.

Middle East & Africa

The Middle East & Africa Contact Lenses Market remains smaller than North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific but offers development potential through urbanization, expanding private healthcare, and growth in organized optical retail. Recent market assessments generally place the region below 10% of global activity. Gulf countries represent important premium-product markets because modern optical chains and private eye-care services provide access to international brands.

Demand varies significantly across the region. Higher-income urban populations can access daily disposable, silicone hydrogel, toric, multifocal, and cosmetic lenses, while affordability and practitioner availability can restrict penetration in lower-income areas. Cosmetic colored lenses have particular visibility in selected Middle Eastern consumer markets.

Hot and dry climatic conditions can influence comfort requirements, strengthening interest in moisture retention and surface technologies. Eye-care professionals therefore play an important role in material selection and fitting.

Africa presents longer-term potential as ophthalmic infrastructure, urban retail systems, and awareness of refractive correction expand. Distribution development and affordability remain critical factors determining how quickly contact lenses can gain penetration relative to spectacles.

Competitive Landscape

The Contact Lenses Market is concentrated among established multinational eye-care manufacturers with extensive intellectual property, precision manufacturing capabilities, regulatory experience, and practitioner relationships. Leading suppliers compete across daily disposable and reusable lenses while expanding toric, multifocal, pediatric myopia, and specialty portfolios. Estimates indicate that the four largest suppliers collectively control over 80% of branded soft contact-lens activity in major developed markets.

Competition increasingly depends on complete product families. Manufacturers seek to provide spherical, toric, and multifocal options within common material platforms so practitioners can retain patients within one brand ecosystem as prescriptions change. Advanced multifocal-toric designs extend this strategy to users with multiple refractive conditions.

Material technology is another major competitive field. Water-gradient surfaces, silicone hydrogel formulations, wetting technologies, deposit resistance, and oxygen transmission are used to differentiate comfort and wearing performance. Optical design is equally important for lens stabilization and multi-distance correction.

Professional education and fitting support remain central because practitioner recommendations influence initial product selection. Digital ordering platforms then help retain established users through convenient replenishment. Sustainability initiatives are emerging as another competitive factor, particularly in disposable packaging. Companies with broad prescription inventories, manufacturing scale, clinical evidence, and geographically diversified distribution retain structural advantages.

List of Top Contact Lenses Companies

• Alcon Inc. (Switzerland)

• Johnson & Johnson Vision Care (U.S.)

• CooperVision (U.S.)

• Bausch + Lomb (Canada)

• HOYA Corporation (Japan)

• Menicon Co., Ltd. (Japan)

• Carl Zeiss AG (Germany)

• EssilorLuxottica (France)

• Contamac Ltd. (U.K.)

• Euclid Vision Corporation (U.S.)

• SEED Co., Ltd. (Japan)

• St. Shine Optical Co., Ltd. (Taiwan)

Leading Companies by Market Share

• Johnson & Johnson Vision Care: ACUVUE maintains one of the industry's largest global installed wearer bases, with company disclosures identifying it as the world's leading contact-lens brand and external industry estimates placing its global branded soft-lens position in the upper-30% range.

• Alcon Inc.: Alcon holds a major global position through DAILIES, TOTAL, PRECISION and related contact-lens families, with industry estimates commonly placing its branded soft-lens market presence in the mid-20% range.

Investment Trends & Opportunities

Investment in the Contact Lenses Market increasingly targets manufacturing automation, advanced polymer science, myopia management, premium daily disposables, specialty optics, digital distribution, and sustainable packaging. Manufacturers require precision molding and high-volume sterile packaging systems capable of producing consistent lenses across extensive prescription ranges. A single advanced product family can require thousands of stock-keeping combinations when spherical power, cylinder, axis, and addition parameters are considered.

Myopia management is attracting strategic attention because it establishes a clinically differentiated category involving children, parents, and eye-care professionals. Regulatory approvals can create opportunities for long-duration patient relationships and practitioner-led treatment pathways. Companies with evidence-backed technologies can extend established products into additional geographic markets as local approvals are obtained.

Manufacturing investment is also being directed toward silicone hydrogel because the material supports premium daily and reusable products. Surface engineering and moisture technologies provide additional differentiation without relying solely on optical prescription.

Digital infrastructure represents another investment field. Online ordering, prescription verification, practitioner portals, inventory management, and patient communication tools can improve replenishment efficiency.

Sustainability creates opportunities for redesigned blister packaging, reduced material consumption, responsible sourcing, and lower-impact manufacturing. Investors and manufacturers can therefore target technologies that improve clinical performance while reducing packaging and production burdens.

Product Innovation & Development

Contact-lens product development is moving toward multifunctional lenses that address comfort, refractive complexity, lifestyle requirements, and clinical management simultaneously. Recent optical engineering has produced daily disposable lenses capable of correcting astigmatism and presbyopia within a single product. Such designs require precise stabilization and multifocal optics while maintaining acceptable movement and comfort on the eye.

Material innovation remains equally important. Water-gradient surfaces, advanced silicone hydrogel chemistry, moisture-retention systems, and biomimetic surface technologies are being designed to reduce friction and deposits. One recently introduced monthly multifocal-toric platform reported a 97% first-lens fitting success rate in supporting evaluations, illustrating the role of design optimization in practitioner efficiency.

Replacement schedules are also being reconsidered. While daily and monthly formats remain established, manufacturers have introduced intermediate replacement concepts designed to combine freshness with affordability.

Myopia-control development represents another important innovation pathway. Manufacturers are combining proven optical treatment concepts with newer silicone hydrogel platforms to improve material performance for pediatric users.

Digital lifestyle products are being designed to address eye tiredness and dryness associated with intensive device use. Longer-term development programs also explore smart contact lenses, biosensing, therapeutic delivery, and advanced diagnostic functions.

Recent Developments (2023–2026)

• In August 2026, CooperVision introduced MyDay MiSight 1 day in Canada, combining its silicone hydrogel MyDay material with ActivControl technology for pediatric myopia management.

• In February 2026, Alcon launched TOTAL30 Multifocal for Astigmatism in the United States, introducing a monthly water-gradient lens designed to provide multifocal vision correction for astigmatic presbyopes.

• In August 2025, CooperVision secured Japanese authorization for MiSight 1 day, making the product the country's first approved soft contact lens specifically indicated for childhood myopia correction and progression control.

• In June 2025, Johnson & Johnson launched ACUVUE OASYS MAX 1-Day Multifocal for Astigmatism, extending its daily disposable portfolio to patients requiring simultaneous presbyopia and astigmatism correction.

• In February 2025, Alcon expanded full U.S. commercial availability of PRECISION7 spherical and toric lenses, establishing its weekly replacement platform across standard and astigmatic prescriptions.

• In June 2024, Bausch + Lomb introduced INFUSE for Astigmatism in the United States, adding a silicone hydrogel daily disposable toric lens using its ProBalance material technology and stabilization design.

Scope of the Contact Lenses Market Report

The Contact Lenses Market report covers the commercial, clinical, technological, and competitive factors influencing prescribed soft, rigid, hybrid, cosmetic, and specialty contact lenses. Its analytical framework evaluates material, design, usage, application, distribution, regional performance, competitive positioning, product innovation, and manufacturer activity. Silicone hydrogel's 55.12% material share provides one reference point for assessing the transition toward high-oxygen soft-lens technologies.

Material coverage includes silicone hydrogel, hydrogel, gas-permeable, and hybrid platforms. Design analysis examines spherical, toric, multifocal, and cosmetic or colored lenses. Usage analysis evaluates daily disposable, weekly or bi-weekly, monthly or quarterly, and extended-wear products.

Application coverage includes conventional vision correction, therapeutic use, cosmetic applications, and prosthetic or specialty requirements. Distribution analysis considers optical stores, hospitals and eye clinics, e-commerce platforms, and pharmacies. The geographic framework evaluates North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Middle East & Africa while recognizing significant differences in professional infrastructure and consumer adoption.

The competitive assessment reviews manufacturers including Alcon, Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, CooperVision, Bausch + Lomb, Menicon, HOYA, ZEISS, and other specialist participants. The report also tracks pediatric myopia management, multifocal-toric innovation, daily disposable adoption, surface technologies, sustainability programs, digital purchasing, and recent manufacturer product launches.