ColorMax’s Color Vision Treatment OKd

Tustin-based ColorMax Technologies Inc. said the Food and Drug Administration has approved its new treatment for color vision deficiencies. About 8% of men and 0.5% of women suffer from color deficiencies or blindness. The majority have trouble distinguishing shades of red and green. Wearing glasses with ColorMax’s tinted lenses, patients can separate even subtle variations of color, company executives said. “Patients tell me they didn’t realize a firetruck was one shade and an apple another,” said ColorMax Vice President John Jantzi, a Vancouver, Canada, optometrist who tested the lenses on more than 100 patients. Earlier treatments for color blindness, such as a red-tinted contact lens called the X-chrome, could not be adjusted for the degree or types of vision deficiencies affecting patients, said James Bailey, a professor at the Southern California College of Optometry in Fullerton who leads ColorMax’s scientific advisory board. The lenses, which will cost $695 in adult frames and $495 in children’s glasses, will be sold through a network of about 200 optometrists that ColorMax plans to establish in the next year. ColorMax stock rose $1 to close at $7.13 in over-the-counter trading.