It costs me £7 for a 200ml bottle of this stuff. It’s my all-in-one contact lens cleaning solution. Are they ripping me or what? I assume the only other ingredient is distilled water. Under the heading ingredients all it says is -
‘Polyhexanide 0.0001% w/v
Free of Chlorohexidine & Thiomersal’
Maybe I want some Chlorohexidine & Thiomersal (whatever they are) for my £7.
What is Polyhexanide? How much does it cost? Can I make my own contact lens cleaning solution?
polyhexanide is a very effective new antibacterial. Of course you are being ripped off in the cost. But its supply and demand -
Is there any way to get this solution from a cheaper source, like a local chemists or something? Has there been any studies into the long-term ingestion of this chemical? I use it to moisten my eyes every morning and 2 seconds after it hits the eyeball you can taste it running down the throat.
Of course you’re getting fleeced and you could easily prepare a similar solution. However, the question is, would you want to put it in your eyes? The cost of materials to the manufacturer is trivial. Remember though, that they have to strictly control the purity of all the ingredients and produce it under a carefully regulated environment (at least, in my opinion). Implementing such quality control in manufacturing and packaging costs money.
In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania several years ago there was a pharmacist who was compounding eye drops. He failed to keep things free of contamination. There were people who lost vision/eyes over the incident.