Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

Bausch Health: A Buyout Bid Could Be the Ticket to Unlock ValueBausch + Lomb NYSE: BLCO said it plans to advance a dual-action dry eye treatment into Phase III development after a Phase II study showed statistically significant improvement in corneal staining at day 15, although the trial did not meet its primary endpoint at day 29.

The company also reported Phase Ib results for BL1332, an ocular surface pain candidate designed to block the TRPV1 receptor. The study met its primary endpoint in a capsaicin-induced pain model in healthy volunteers, according to the company.

Get Bausch + Lomb alerts:

It’s Time To Nibble On These Two Recent IPOs Chief Executive Officer Brent Saunders said the two programs represent “more than $2 billion in combined potential peak sales” and could provide growth opportunities beyond 2028. He said neither program is expected to launch within the company’s previously outlined three-year plan, though the associated clinical-development spending had been anticipated.

Dry Eye Candidate Shows Earlier Effect Bausch + Lomb’s dual-action eye drop combines the active ingredients in MIEBO and XIIDRA. MIEBO’s active ingredient, perfluorohexyloctane, or PFHO, is intended to reduce tear evaporation, while XIIDRA’s active ingredient, lifitegrast, acts as an anti-inflammatory.

Mayssa Attar, head of pharmaceutical R&D, said the four-week randomized, double-masked, active-controlled study enrolled 443 patients across six treatment and vehicle-control arms. The prespecified primary endpoint was change from baseline in total corneal fluorescein staining at day 29 compared with lifitegrast alone.

The combination treatment was numerically better than lifitegrast at day 29 but did not achieve statistical significance. However, at the prespecified day 15 assessment, the dual-action drop significantly reduced corneal staining versus lifitegrast alone, with a p-value of 0.0007.

At day 15, 41.6% of patients receiving the dual-action drop achieved a three-unit improvement in corneal staining, compared with 18.8% for lifitegrast alone and 31.6% for PFHO alone. The company said the combination treatment was administered twice daily, compared with four daily doses for PFHO alone, and used a 12-microliter drop volume versus 35 microliters in the lifitegrast-alone arm.

Attar said the combination numerically outperformed lifitegrast across several symptom-resolution measures, including itching, light sensitivity, blurred vision, irritation, burning and foreign-body sensation. Results versus PFHO were mixed, with the combination performing better on some measures and comparably or slightly below PFHO on others.

No new safety signals were observed, the company said. Instillation-site irritation occurred in 11.9% of patients receiving the combination therapy, compared with 21.2% for lifitegrast alone, while dysgeusia occurred in 10.9% and 15.2% of patients, respectively.

Yehia Hashad, Bausch + Lomb’s head of R&D, said the company expects to use day 15 as the primary endpoint in its next trial, while continuing to assess later time points. Management said it plans to use modeling and simulation work to determine the Phase III dose and dosing frequency.

During the question-and-answer session, Hashad said total corneal fluorescein staining has been used as an approvable endpoint in other programs. He added that the company has not yet said it has received FDA agreement on a 15-day corneal-staining endpoint, stating that it expects to speak with the agency.

BL1332 Pain Study Meets Primary Endpoint BL1332 is a topical TRPV1 antagonist intended to interrupt pain signaling on the ocular surface. According to the company, the molecule is approximately 100 times more potent and more water-soluble than its earlier-generation TRPV1 candidate, BL-1312.

The Phase Ib trial consisted of two parts. In the first, six healthy participants were used to identify a capsaicin concentration that produced a target pain response. In the second, 22 participants entered a double-masked, two-period crossover study in which each participant received BL1332 and a vehicle placebo on separate occasions.

The primary endpoint measured pain intensity five seconds after a capsaicin challenge. Mean pain intensity was 0.6 for BL1332 and 6.1 for vehicle, a statistically significant difference, the company said.

68.2% of participants receiving BL1332 reported complete pain resolution, compared with none receiving vehicle. Mean pain duration was 1.6 seconds for BL1332 versus 37.8 seconds for vehicle. No participants on BL1332 reported severe pain, defined as a score of 7 or higher, while more than one-third of vehicle-treated participants did. Attar said no treatment-emergent adverse events, serious adverse events or discontinuations were reported in either eye during the study. She also said an earlier Phase I study designed to assess systemic exposure and thermoregulatory safety found no hyperthermia, an issue that had affected earlier systemic TRPV1 antagonist programs.

Bausch + Lomb expects Phase II results for BL1332 in post-surgical ocular pain later in the year. Management said the Phase Ib findings support evaluating the candidate in additional acute and chronic ocular pain conditions, including pain associated with dry eye disease.

About Bausch + Lomb (NYSE:BLCO)Bausch + Lomb Corporation operates as an eye health company in the United States, Puerto Rico, China, France, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, Russia, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Poland, South Korea, and internationally. It operates in three segments: Vision Care, Pharmaceuticals, and Surgical. The Vision Care segment provides contact lens that covers the spectrum of wearing modalities, including daily disposable and frequently replaced contact lenses; and contact lens care products comprising over-the-counter eye drops, eye vitamins, and mineral supplements that address various conditions, such as eye allergies, conjunctivitis, dry eye, and redness relief.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected].

Continue following MarketBeat

Add MarketBeat as your preferred source on Google to see our latest stories in your feed.

Should You Invest $1,000 in Bausch + Lomb Right Now?Before you consider Bausch + Lomb, you'll want to hear this.

MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Bausch + Lomb wasn't on the list.

While Bausch + Lomb currently has a Hold rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys.

View The Five Stocks Here

Discover the next wave of investment opportunities with our report, 7 Stocks That Will Be Magnificent in 2026. Explore companies poised to replicate the growth, innovation, and value creation of the tech giants dominating today's markets.

Get This Free Report

Bausch + Lomb (BLCO - Free Report) came out with quarterly earnings of $0.16 per share, in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate . This compares to earnings of $0.07 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items.

A quarter ago, it was expected that this company would post earnings of $0.06 per share when it actually produced earnings of $0.08, delivering a surprise of +33.33%.

Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates two times.

Bausch + Lomb, which belongs to the Zacks Medical Services industry, posted revenues of $1.39 billion for the quarter ended June 2026, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 1.92%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $1.28 billion. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates three times over the last four quarters.

The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call.

Bausch + Lomb shares have lost about 2.8% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 8.5%.

What's Next for Bausch + Lomb?While Bausch + Lomb has underperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock?

There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately.

Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions.

Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for Bausch + Lomb was mixed. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to perform in line with the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and the current fiscal year change in the days ahead. The current consensus EPS estimate is $0.21 on $1.37 billion in revenues for the coming quarter and $0.80 on $5.47 billion in revenues for the current fiscal year.

Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well. In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank, Medical Services is currently in the top 32% of the 250 plus Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1.

Another stock from the same industry, Pediatrix Medical Group (MD - Free Report) , has yet to report results for the quarter ended June 2026. The results are expected to be released on August 4.

This physician group is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.57 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +7.6%. The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has remained unchanged over the last 30 days.

Pediatrix Medical Group's revenues are expected to be $477.34 million, up 1.8% from the year-ago quarter.