April 13 (Bloomberg) -- Bausch & Lomb Inc. withdrew a contact lens cleaner linked to a dangerous eye infection from the U.S. market and offered refunds to consumers.

Wearers of contact lenses shouldn't use ReNu with MoistureLoc while the outbreak is being investigated, Rochester, New York- based Bausch & Lomb said today in a statement. The maker of contact lenses asked retailers to remove the solution from shelves, as many drugstores and supermarkets had already done.

The action may blunt criticism from securities analysts, marketing specialists and a medical ethicist who said this week that the 153-year-old optical products maker wasn't doing enough to inform the nation's 30 million wearers of contact lenses. Bausch & Lomb shares leadership in the U.S. market for the cleansers with Alcon Inc.

``It's a smart move, strategically,'' said branding specialist Tim Westerbeck at Lipman Hearne, a marketing firm in Chicago, in a telephone interview after the announcement. ``The net effect of the retail outlets taking the product off the shelves has made the product unavailable anyway.''

Bausch & Lomb stopped shipping ReNu with MoistureLoc cleanser to stores April 10 after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was probing 109 reports of a rare fungal eye infection that can lead to blindness. Retailers including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Walgreen Co., Albertson's Inc. and CVS Corp. began refusing to sell the Bausch & Lomb solution.

Share Price

Shares of Bausch & Lomb gained 56 cents, or 1.3 percent, to $46.17 today in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The stock had fallen for 15 straight days through yesterday, losing 32 percent, or $1.18 billion of market value.

Analysts at Banc of America Securities LLC cut their forecast for the stock to $40 from $49 and said the company wasn't properly managing the situation.

In today's statement, Bausch & Lomb said it asked U.S. retailers to remove ReNu with MoistureLoc from shelves temporarily and recommended that consumers switch to another solution until the investigation of the eye infection is concluded. The action doesn't apply to other Bausch & Lomb products or to ReNu with MoistureLoc made outside the U.S. The product isn't sold in Canada, the company said.

``Bausch & Lomb's first priority is the health and safety of consumers,'' said Chief Executive Officer Ron Zarrella in an open letter that the company said will be in newspapers starting tomorrow. ``If there is a problem with our product, we'll find it and we'll fix it. If there's not, when we come back you'll be able to know with absolute certainty that we've taken every possible step to ensure your safety.''

Refund Offer

Zarrella, 56, wasn't available for an interview today, said Meg Graham, a company spokeswoman. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration didn't ask Bausch & Lomb to remove the lens cleaner from the market, she said.

``We have been in discussion with the FDA and notified them,'' Graham said. ``This was not initiated by the FDA.''

The company offered a refund or a coupon for another Bausch & Lomb product to consumers who want to return their supplies of ReNu with MoistureLoc. The company directed them to the Web site http://www.bausch.com or the U.S. phone number (1) (888) 666-2258.

Bausch & Lomb sent a fax on its action today to more than 200 retail customers, made personal calls to key accounts and sent an e-mailed letter to 39,500 optometrists, physicians and opticians, spokeswoman Graham said in an e-mail. She didn't reply when asked whether U.S. regulators would classify the company's steps as a recall.

`Safe and Effective'

Zarrella said in an April 12 conference call that ReNu with MoistureLoc was ``as safe and effective as anything in the market'' and passed safety tests after the reports of infection. No cause-and-effect link has been found between the company's product and the eye infections, he said.

Of 30 cases reviewed so far by the CDC, 26 involved wearers of soft contact lenses who were using Bausch & Lomb's ReNu products, the company said in an April 10 statement.

Since then, the agency has heard from people who suspect they have the infection, said spokesman Tom Skinner in a telephone interview today. The agency is investigating the new information and will update its estimate next week, he said.

Arthur Caplan, director of the bioethics center at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, had criticized the company's failure to recall the cleanser in an April 12 interview. He didn't return a message on his mobile phone after the company's 6 p.m. New York time statement today.

Lawsuit Filed

``The way to protect their brand and show appropriate concern for their customers and patients is to say they don't know what's going on either, but until they do, they're pulling back the product that's out there,'' Caplan said in the interview earlier this week.

Nelson Huie, a New York man who says the company failed to warn users of the risk, filed suit today in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, seeking class-action status, unspecified damages and a halt to sales.

Parker & Waichman, a law firm based in Great Neck, New York, said it was retained by a 53-year-old man who was diagnosed with the infection last October after using the Bausch & Lomb contact lens cleaner.

The infection required the man to undergo ``lengthy and invasive surgery'' and left him with 15 percent vision in his left eye and awaiting an iris transplant, the law firm said today, declining to identify the victim.

Lawyers at the firm have heard from more than 500 people who claim to have suffered infections after using a Bausch & Lomb product, said Jason Mark, head of Parker & Waichman 's mass tort department, in a telephone interview.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jeffrey Tannenbaum in New York at jtannenbaum@bloomberg.net; Kerry Young in Washington at kdooley@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: April 13, 2006 19:36 EDT