Myopia management keeps moving from the specialty clinic into the everyday dispensary. The latest example: on October 1, 2026, ZEISS Vision Care announced ZEISS MyoActive, a spectacle lens for children intended to slow myopia progression. Within days, a trade outlet covering Australia and New Zealand reported the regional launch there. ZEISS’s own release does not list every market and notes that not all products are offered everywhere; this article does not claim U.S. availability or FDA clearance.
What ZEISS announced
MyoActive is a defocus-based lens. Like several other myopia control lenses on the market, it puts myopic defocus around a clear central zone. ZEISS says the new part is a concept it calls Dynamic Signal Theory. The company’s argument is that the eye can adapt to an optical signal that never changes, so a signal that keeps varying may stay effective for longer.
To deliver that varying signal, the front surface uses what ZEISS calls M.O.V.E. technology (Micro Optical Variable Elements). These are microstructures with several defocus powers, laid out in a non-repeating pattern, so the retinal signal changes as the wearer’s eye moves across the lens. On the back surface, ZEISS uses its ClearFocus design, which the company says reduces peripheral hyperopic defocus.
The reported data
ZEISS cites one-year results from a two-year randomized, double-masked trial (NCT06563700) run by the Shanghai Eye Disease Prevention and Treatment Center. For the MyoActive comparison ZEISS reports, 112 children aged 7 to 13 were split evenly between MyoActive and ZEISS single vision lenses (56 per arm); ZEISS also notes the broader ongoing study enrolled 342 children across several lens designs. According to the company, children in the MyoActive group averaged 0.60 D less refractive progression and 0.22 mm less axial length growth than the single vision group at 12 months. ZEISS also reports that 98% of wearers fully adapted within one week.
Some context for students: these are manufacturer-reported interim results from one study in one population. The trial is still running, and the second year of data has not been published yet. Individual results vary. Decisions about whether a child should use a myopia management lens belong to the prescribing eye doctor.
Why it matters for opticians and assistants
Myopia control is now a dispensing skill. Every major lens maker now sells a defocus-based design for children, including ZEISS, EssilorLuxottica, Hoya and others. Opticians are increasingly the people explaining to parents what these lenses do and don’t do, and getting the fit right.
Fitting accuracy matters more. Lenses built around a clear central zone with treatment areas around it depend on accurate monocular PDs, fitting heights and frame selection. A child’s frame that slides down the nose can move the treatment zone out of place. These are basic optical measurements, and on a myopia management lens they carry real weight.
Know the vocabulary. Terms like axial length, peripheral defocus, hyperopic vs. myopic defocus and diopters of progression now show up in product training and in conversations with patients. They are also basic optics concepts that appear across the certification exams.
Expect questions. In ZEISS’s words, MyoActive is the “first myopia management lens applying Dynamic Signal Theory.” Parents who hear about it will ask how it compares with lenses they already know about. You’ll be in a better position to answer if you understand the general principles behind defocus designs, rather than any one brand’s marketing.
The bottom line
MyoActive gives practices another option for managing myopia in children and reflects how quickly lens makers are competing in this category. If you work in a dispensary, it’s a good moment to brush up on how defocus lenses work and why careful measurements matter for them.
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Sources
- zeiss.com (opens in a new tab)
- mivision.com.au (opens in a new tab)
- reviewofmm.com (opens in a new tab)
Published . optical.education is independent and isn’t affiliated with the companies named. More news.