UltraVision Receives FDA Approval For EpiCon Contact Lens.

Medical/Health Editors

MONTREAL AND CAMPBELL, Ca.--(BW HealthWire)--Feb. 9, 2000

UltraVision, Corp., (&uot;UltraVision&uot; or the &uot;Corporation&uot;) (CDNX:UVC.), announced today that the United States Food and Drug Administration, (&uot;FDA&uot;), has granted the Corporation approval to initiate marketing of the Corporation's EpiCon(TM) contact lens. The EpiCon(TM) contact lens is designed for vision correction in patients with severe pathological conditions such as Kerotoconus. The approval of the EpiCon(TM) represents UltraVision's eighth FDA approval for contact lens products in the last three years.

The EpiCon(TM) contact lens is the second carbosilfocon-based contact lens for which the Corporation has received FDA approval. UltraVision previously received FDA approval to market UltraCon(R), the contact lens industry's first molded Rigid Gas Permeable (&uot;RGP&uot; or &uot;hard&uot;) contact lens designed for frequent replacement.

Vincent Zuccaro, O.D., F.A.A.O., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of UltraVision commented, &uot;The world wide contact lens market totals approximately $US 4 billion. Existing RGP lenses, which are substantially less comfortable than soft lenses yet typically offer superior vision and ocular health, are worn by twelve million people around the world and represent approximately 20% of the total contact lens market in terms of product revenues. These patients cannot wear water-based disposable soft contact lenses for various physiological reasons. Our carbosilfocon-based contact lenses, the EpiCon(TM) and UltraCon(R), offer this substantial patient population, for the first time a contact lens product that combines the comfort and convenience of a disposable soft lens with the ocular health and acute vision afforded by a RGP lens.&uot;

Dr. Zuccaro commented further, &uot;The UltraCon(R) and EpiCon(TM) are not only for RGP or soft lens wearers. We also intend to target the entire astigmatic segment of the patient population requiring vision correction. Currently, 40% of the vision-corrected population has significant astigmatism, yet only 12.5% of these individuals wear contact lenses to correct their astigmatism. In the United States this represents a target market of 75 million patients. We believe this patient population also represents a tremendous opportunity for our Corporation.&uot;

The UltraCon(R) and EpiCon(TM) contact lenses are comprised of the Corporation's proprietary contact lens material carbosilfocon. Carbosilfocon is a water-free, bio-compatible, high oxygen permeable material originally developed for use in heart/lung surgery. Contact lenses comprised of carbosilfocon are designed to provide considerably more comfort than existing RGP lenses, while providing the acute vision correction of RGP lenses.

Gary Edwards, O.D., Vice President of Technical Affairs of the Corporation, remarked, &uot;With the approval of the EpiCon(TM) contact lens, UltraVision has again demonstrated our commitment to the development of innovative and clinically superior contact lenses. We are developing a family of carbosilfocon-based products, and this approval puts us one step closer to this goal. In the near future we intend to complete the design and clinical trials of carbosilfocon-based lenses designed for the correction of prespyopia.&uot;

Dr. Edwards further remarked, &uot;We have established significant proprietary protection for our carbosilfocon-based lenses. Our patents cover material composition and manufacturing process, and our proprietary designs were developed in-house by UltraVision personnel. We believe our proprietary position establishes extremely high barriers for any competitors attempting to develop similar products.&uot;

UltraVision has also developed a proprietary manufacturing process known as GelFlow Molding(TM) that improves quality and substantially reduces manufacturing costs when compared to traditional methods of manufacturing RGP contact lenses. UltraVision's carbosilfocon-based contact lenses will be manufactured in the Corporation's new manufacturing facility currently under construction in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. UltraVision intends to launch these lenses on a world-wide basis late in 2000.

UltraVision Corp. is a rapidly expanding global vision care company dedicated to the development, manufacturing, and marketing of high quality state of the art vision care products. UltraVision's broad product line includes eight FDA approved contact lens products and the UltraCon(R) and EpiCon(TM) contact lens lines, the vision care industry's first disposable' molded gas permeable contact lenses. UltraVision currently distributes its products in over forty countries around the world.

UltraVision's common shares trade on the Canadian Venture Exchange (UVC: CDNX)

Except for historical information, matters discussed in this news release that are forward-looking statements are subject to certain uncertainties including, but not limited to, the uncertainties associated with the continued growth of world wide specialty contact lens markets, timely production of products, the acceptance of new products, and additional risks as indicated from time to time in the Corporation's filings with regulatory bodies. The Corporation assumes no responsibility to update or supplement forward-looking statements that become untrue because of subsequent events.

The Canadian Venture Exchange has neither approved or dissapproved this press release.