'30 Day Supply’ of Alcon Laboratories Eye Drops Lasts Only 20 Days, Class Action Claims

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A proposed class action claims that Alcon Laboratories has falsely labeled its Pataday Extra Strength Once Daily Relief eye drops in that a bottle lasts 10 fewer days than advertised.

The plaintiff, a New York consumer, says that although the labels on bottles of Alcon Laboratories’ Pataday Extra Strength Once Daily Relief eye drops, which include the statements “Once Daily Relief,” “Full 24 Hour,” and “30 Day Supply,” promise one drop per eye for 30 days, a bottle runs out of product after merely 20 days. The nine-page case claims that Alcon has run afoul of New York’s General Business Law and other states’ consumer protection statutes by misrepresenting the amount of product being purchased by consumers.

Per the complaint, the plaintiff had a prescription for the allergy itch relief drops prior to 2022. That year, the product became available over the counter and was no longer covered by the man’s insurance, the filing explains. After that, the plaintiff, “[m]ore attentive to the costs since he was now paying a higher out of pocket price,” the suit says, began to track how long a bottle of the drops would last.

The suit alleges that “over several months, Plaintiff observed that the bottles last approximately twenty days instead of the thirty promised on the label.”

Alcon’s false and misleading representations allow it to sell the product at a premium price, which the plaintiff would not have paid had he known the truth, the filing argues.

According to the case, the plaintiff’s experience is not unique. A 2017 ProPublica report found that drug companies purposefully manufacture eye drops “larger than a human eye can hold” so that patients “struggle to make pricey bottles of drops last.” The report explains that consumers are then forced to buy more bottles, enriching the drug companies. 

The report further claims that in the 1990s, Alcon developed the “microdrop” to administer a non-wasteful amount of solution to the eye. However, ProPublica’s investigation found that the company never adopted the microdrop because it is not as profitable as selling oversized drops.

The lawsuit looks to cover anyone in New York, South Dakota, West Virginia, South Carolina, Kentucky, Utah, Nebraska, Kansas, and Wyoming who purchased the Pataday Extra Strength Once Daily Relief during the applicable statute of limitations period.

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