8-K

                  SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSIONS

                         Washington, DC  20549

                   ___________________________________



                               FORM 8-K


                            CURRENT REPORT


                   Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of
                   The Securities Exchange Act of 1934


                   ____________________________________




Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported):     August 24, 2000



                       BAUSCH & LOMB INCORPORATED

         (Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)



New York                           1-4105                16-0345235
(State or other jurisdiction     (Commission          (I.R.S. Employer
 of incorporation)               File Number)        Identification No.)



One Bausch & Lomb Place, Rochester NY                       14604-2701
(Address of principal executive offices)                    (Zip Code)


Registrant's telephone number, including area code:      (716) 338-6000




ITEM 5.  OTHER EVENTS

On August 24, 2000, Bausch & Lomb Incorporated ("Bausch & Lomb")
announced that it was revising its estimate for revenues and earnings
for the second half of 2000 and for fiscal year 2001.  A copy of the
Bausch & Lomb press release containing this announcement, and the
related remarks by Mr. William M. Carpenter, Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer of Bausch & Lomb, are attached as exhibits hereto and
are incorporated by reference herein.

ITEM 7.  FINANCIAL STATEMENTS, PRO FORMA FINANCIAL INFORMATION AND
         EXHIBITS

(a)       Financial statements of businesses acquired.

             - Not Applicable

(b)      Pro forma financial information.

             - Not Applicable

(c)      Exhibits.  The following exhibits are filed as part of this
         report:

         99.1  Press Release dated August 24, 2000.
         99.2  Remarks of Mr. William M. Carpenter, Chairman and
               Chief Executive Officer of Bausch & Lomb, dated
               August 24, 2000.


                             SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the
registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the
undersigned thereunto duly authorized.

BAUSCH & LOMB INCORPORATED



/s/ Robert B. Stiles
Robert B. Stiles
Senior Vice President and General Counsel

Dated:  August 24, 2000



                            EXHIBIT INDEX

Exhibit No.   Description

99.1          Press Release dated August 24, 2000.

99.2          Remarks of Mr. William M. Carpenter, Chairman and
              Chief Executive Officer of Bausch & Lomb, dated
              August 24, 2000.

EX-99

NEWS                                                          BAUSCH
                                                              & LOMB
                                                     One Bausch & Lomb Place
                                                     Rochester, NY 14604-2701



For further information contact:
Holly Houston
716-338-8064 office
800-405-5314 pager
716-473-7104 home



BAUSCH & LOMB REVISES SALES AND EARNINGS ESTIMATES FOR 2000 AND 2001
- -  2000 EPS before one-time events in range of $2.69 to $2.72; 2001 EPS in
   range of $2.87 to $2.92
- -  Company is taking aggressive actions to address recently identified issues
- -  Strategic initiatives for long-term growth are on track
- -  President and Chief Operating Officer position is eliminated; Carl Sassano to
   leave Bausch & Lomb


 FOR RELEASE THURSDAY, AUGUST 24, 2000

 	ROCHESTER, N.Y. -  Following an intensive midyear global review of its
businesses, Bausch & Lomb (NYSE:BOL) is revising its sales and earnings
estimates for the remainder of 2000 and for full year 2001.  Based on this
review and quarter-to-date operating performance, the company has identified
market trends and business issues that will impact financial results over the
next 12 to 18 months.  Excluding the impact of the recent acquisition of
Groupe Chauvin, total company revenues for the remainder of 2000 are now
expected to be essentially flat to down slightly from 1999.  Including the
acquisition of Groupe Chauvin, revenues for the remainder of 2000 are
expected to grow in the range of two to four percent.  Earnings per share,
including the impact of the acquisition, should be approximately $0.70 to
$0.72 in the third quarter, and approximately $0.83 to $0.85 in the fourth
quarter, to end the year in the range of $2.69 to $2.72 before one-time items.

 For the year 2001, Bausch & Lomb is now expecting revenue growth in the
mid-single digits, excluding the impact of the acquisition, and in the upper
single digits inclusive of that acquisition.  Earnings per share in 2001
should be in the range of $2.87 to $2.92.

 There are four basic issues leading to this reduction in revenue and
earnings growth estimates:

- -  Slower growth in the vision care segment than the company previously
   projected
- -  Accelerated price pressure on U.S. multi-source (generic) pharmaceutical
   products
- -  Product supply constraints in the surgical intraocular lens (IOL) business
- -  Continued weakening of the Euro

	"We are deeply disappointed and frustrated to have to reduce our sales and
earnings expectations for the remainder of 2000 and for 2001," said William M.
Carpenter, chairman and CEO of Bausch & Lomb.  "We are moving aggressively to
address these issues and we are committed to taking the right actions to
improve our 2001 results over these revised projections."

Carpenter continued, "Despite our disappointment, I want to emphasize that our
recent analysis of our businesses has also validated our key initiatives for
future growth.  New contact lens products are yielding market share gains and
significant improvements in profitability in our vision care business;
increasing consumer demand and our technological leadership are driving
robust growth in the refractive segment of our surgical business; and the
development of Envision TD(TM), our breakthrough implant technology for
treating back-of-the-eye diseases, is on track and remains the top
development priority for our pharmaceutical business and the company.  While we
will move aggressively to improve our performance, we cannot and will not lose
focus on maximizing the considerable potential of these initiatives.

"We have not yet had the opportunity to fully explore all of the potential
corrective actions relating to the recently identified business issues and
their implications," added Carpenter.  "We are in the process of undertaking
a complete review of how we are structured and how we manage each of our
businesses to insure that we are providing long-term shareholder return.  I
promise that our response will be swift, comprehensive and effective.  The
number one priority of this management team is to develop and implement plans
to improve our performance."

	Bausch & Lomb plans to update the investment community, no later than the date
of its third-quarter earnings report, on its plans to improve the company's
performance.

Vision Care:  Expectations for category growth have moderated

Bausch & Lomb had previously reported a slowing in market demand for contact
lens care products in the U.S., impacting the amount of inventory carried by
retail customers and company revenues to date.  While Nielsen research data
indicated modestly reduced consumer demand for all lens care products in the
first half of 2000, data for the most recent few weeks - as well as customer
orders - suggest that consumer demand is softening even further.  Markets
outside the U.S. appear to be following the same trend.

Bausch & Lomb also noted other factors complicating the outlook for the vision
care segment.  New products, such as PureVision(TM) continuous wear lenses,
one-day lenses, and disposable specialty lenses such as SofLens66 toric have,
so far, drawn more of their wearers from existing products rather than
bringing new patients into the market, thus hastening the erosion of older
categories without contributing new growth.  In addition, with slower growth
in the overall category, competitors are reducing prices to gain market
share, resulting in lower revenue growth.

	Accordingly, the company has moderated its view of overall category growth, as
well as the performance of its vision care business for the remainder of 2000
and 2001.  The company anticipates that revenues in the vision care business
will be down slightly in the 2000 third quarter and up one to three percent in
the fourth quarter.  For 2001, the company now expects the vision care
business to grow in the low to mid-single digits, a pace that is consistent
with the company's revised view of the growth of the overall category.

Pharmaceuticals: Accelerated price pressure on U.S. multi-source pharmaceutical
products and weakening of the Euro

Bausch & Lomb has also revised expectations for its pharmaceuticals business
both in the U.S. and Germany.  During the second quarter, Bausch & Lomb
reported a decline in revenue growth due to the significant impact of
aggressive pricing competition in generic otic (ear) products in the U.S.
While the company had expected the entry of competition to lead to a gradual
pricing decline in this product line, the extent and speed of the price
reductions were unprecedented.  More recently, prices have been similarly
eroding in the company's other multi-source products in the U.S.

	The company's Dr. Mann Pharma business in Germany, which represents about 40
percent of the total pharmaceuticals segment, is expected to be further
impacted by the continued weakening of the Euro against the dollar.  Through
the first half of this year, currency reduced the reported growth rate of
Bausch & Lomb's pharmaceuticals business by several points, and the company
now expects to see the Euro impact total pharmaceuticals growth by about
five percentage points in each of the next two quarters.

	Bausch & Lomb expects full year 2000 revenues in the pharmaceuticals segment,
excluding the Groupe Chauvin acquisition, to decline 11 to 13 percent from
1999, with the third quarter down in the mid-teens and the fourth quarter
down more than 20 percent, including the significant negative impact of
currency.  Revenues in this business are expected to rebound to mid-to-upper
single-digit growth in 2001.

Surgical: Product supply constraints in the intraocular lens (IOL) business

	The major, although decreasing, share of Bausch & Lomb's revenues and
operating earnings in its surgical segment are currently derived from sales
of high-margin intraocular lenses (IOLs) and other disposables for cataract
procedures.  Challenges in this part of the business stem from rapidly
changing market dynamics in the U.S., which have been compounded by
manufacturing and supply issues for silicone lenses.

	In the U.S. market, cataract surgeons are shifting away from traditional non-
foldable PMMA lenses in favor of foldable lens technologies.  While Bausch &
Lomb manufactures both lenses, the shift from PMMA has been even faster than
anticipated.  Demand for the foldable silicone lenses has exceeded the
company's ability to supply them.

	Bausch & Lomb has been aggressively consolidating the multiple IOL
manufacturing facilities that were part of its acquisition of the Chiron
Vision and Storz companies in the U.S. and Europe.  The rapid integration
of manufacturing processes and product lines has limited the company's
ability to shift production to respond to increased demand for silicone
lenses.  The company estimates it will take six to nine months before it can
reliably meet demand and expand distribution to new accounts.

	Bausch & Lomb's refractive surgery business - a key growth driver for the
future - continues to grow robustly, with laser placements around the world
and the U.S. exceeding expectations.  However, in the U.S. the ramp-up in
procedures performed on each new machine is not occurring as fast as
originally estimated, since more of the placements have been in newly opened
centers than first expected.  The company still expects about $10 million in
incremental revenue benefit from the U.S. launch of the Technolas 217(TM),
but the makeup of those revenues will be more heavily skewed to laser sales
than to the per-procedure fees, with an associated negative impact on
operating margins.

Excluding the impact of the Groupe Chauvin acquisition, Bausch & Lomb now
projects revenue growth for the surgical segment of approximately 12 percent
for the full year 2000, and in the range of 10 percent for 2001.

President and Chief Operating Officer position eliminated; Carl Sassano
leaves Bausch & Lomb

	In a related action announced today, Carpenter indicated that the position of
President and Chief Operating Officer is being eliminated, and that Carl
Sassano, who currently holds that position, will be leaving the company.

"Given the significant challenges - and the substantial opportunities - facing
our operating units, I have decided that it is most appropriate to remove a
layer of management, bringing me in even closer touch with the day-to-day
activities of the business," said Carpenter.  "Carl leaves the company with
not only the personal appreciation and respect of our senior management and
Board of Directors, but also the deep affection and admiration of the
literally thousands of employees he has worked with, led, and mentored
during an outstanding career at Bausch & Lomb that has spanned more than
25 years."

                                #   #   #
Investor Relations contact:
Angela J. Panzarella
716-338-6025 office
716-352-5145 home


        Investor Conference Call Information

        10:00 a.m. (ET)
        The News Media is invited to listen only on this call.
        Call-in Number: 913-981-4900
        Rebroadcast Number - 888-203-1112; Confirmation # 945084.
        The rebroadcast of the conference call will be available starting at
        1:00 p.m. ET, August 24, through midnight August 25, 2000.

- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This press release contains, among other things, certain statements of a
forward-looking nature relating to future events or the future business
performance of Bausch & Lomb.  Such statements involve a number of risks and
uncertainties including those concerning economic conditions, currency
exchange rates, product development and introduction, the financial
well-being of key customers, the successful execution of marketing
strategies, the continued successful implementation of the restructuring
effort in reducing costs and expenses of manufacturing processes and
administrative functions, as well as the risk factors listed from time to
time in the company's SEC filings, including but not limited to the Form
10-Q for the quarter ended  June 24, 2000.

- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bausch & Lomb Incorporated is the preeminent global technology-based
healthcare company for the eye, dedicated to helping consumers see, look and
feel better through innovative technology and design.  Its core businesses
include soft and rigid gas permeable contact lenses, lens care products,
ophthalmic surgical and pharmaceutical products.  The company is advantaged
with some of the most respected brands in the world starting with its name,
Bausch & Lomb(R), and including SofLens(TM), PureVision(TM), Boston(R),
ReNu(R), Storz(R) and Technolas(TM).  Founded in 1853 in Rochester, N.Y.,
where it continues to have its headquarters, the company has annual revenues
of approximately $1.8 billion and employs approximately 12,000 people in
more than 50 countries.  Bausch & Lomb products are available in more than 100
countries around the world.  Additional information about the company can be
found on Bausch & Lomb's Worldwide Web site at http://www.bausch.com.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

EX-99

                                W. M. Carpenter
                        August 24, 2000 Conference Call

I know you have had an opportunity to see our press release this
morning revising our estimates for revenues and earnings for the second
half of this year and 2001. Let me say at the outset how deeply
disappointed and frustrated I am to have to come to you and make this
announcement.  In the next half hour or so I will cover a lot of
information, as I am erring on the side of giving you more than less.
Then we'll get to questions.

As I discussed at the time of our second quarter earnings
release, our revenues fell short of our expectations, as a result of
issues that we concluded at that time were short-term.  What has now
happened to change our view?

Last week, we gathered together key personnel from each of our
businesses from around the world for our annual mid-year strategic
business reviews.  Given the trends we saw in the second quarter, we
focused even more intensely than usual on market trends around the
world, our own performance through the second quarter and new
developments that have occurred during the first six weeks of this
quarter.  Since then we have been carefully assessing the impact those
trends would have on our future performance and our longer-term
strategies.  As a result, we have concluded that the issues we saw in
the second quarter and the trends that have surfaced this quarter will
impact our revenue and earnings growth over the next 12-18 months.

I will review the issues we have identified in detail in a
moment.  But before I do, let me briefly summarize them for you:

      -  In the vision care business we have concluded that category
growth is not as robust as we had originally projected, resulting in a
moderation in our expectations for both contact lenses and lens care
products

      -  In pharmaceuticals, the significant competitive pricing
pressures experienced in our otics (or ear drop) line earlier in the
year has expanded to other multi-source products in the portfolio
      -  In the surgical segment, we are facing some supply issues in
our higher margin cataract business

      -  And lastly, we will be affected by the continued decline in
the Euro.  Going forward, about 30% of our revenues will be generated
in Europe, and in the past several weeks the Euro has declined 5%.  If
it stays where it is, its decline over the course of the year will
negatively affect our results not only in the second half of this year,
but also through the first half of next year.

Now, before I go any further, I wish to underscore that although
our business reviews this past week revealed issues that we must and
will aggressively address, they also validated that our key initiatives
for future growth all remain on track.  Specifically:

      -  Our efforts to revitalize our contact lens business with new
products are yielding market share gains and significant improvements
in profitability.

      -  Our refractive surgery business continues its robust growth,
driven by our technological leadership and the explosive growth in
consumer demand.

      -  Envision TD, our breakthrough implant technology to treat
retinal and other diseases of the back of the eye, is on track, and
will continue to be the number one development priority for the
company.

Having said that, I want to assure you that our management team
is committed to taking appropriate steps to address the issues we are
facing, and we have already identified a number of actions to improve
our outlook that we will be evaluating over the next several weeks.
But in the meantime, we clearly recognize our obligation to apprise you
of our current projections based on the new information we received
last week.

With that overview, let me now address the trends we are seeing
in each of our businesses, starting with our vision care business.


VISION CARE

As we previously reported, we have seen a slowing in market
demand for lens care products in the US that has impacted our retail
customers' inventory carrying requirements and our revenues year to
date.  Through the end of the second quarter, consumer demand for all
lens care products (as measured by Nielsen research data) was down
modestly from prior year.  Consumption for chemical disinfectant
products (where our flagship product ReNu MultiPlus competes) was
holding about flat, with market data some weeks up a little, and some
weeks down a little -- but generally in line with our expectations.  It
was on this basis that we earlier estimated the rate that retail
inventories in the US would likely contract, and the resulting impact
on our revenues for the remainder of this year.

However, Nielsen data for the most recent few weeks, as well as
customer orders in the first half of this quarter, suggest that
consumer demand for lens care products in the US is softening even
further.  This new information is leading us to take a more
conservative position on the US lens care market and consequently, on
our estimates for revenues in the back half of this year and for 2001.

Now, while we have reasonably good syndicated market data inside
the US, we do not have the benefit of sophisticated tools like Nielsen
data to assess market trends outside the US, and the dynamics that
affect each market even within a particular region are different and
complex.  But during the past week, with the input of our people from
around the world, we have moderated our assessment of the overall
growth potential of the vision care category and our vision care
business as a result.

What are the factors that have caused us to revise our
expectations?

      -  First, is our assessment of the most recent data for the US
lens care market.  And, again, although we do not have sophisticated
data like Nielsen for the European market, the data we do have and our
recent experience in that market suggests that the European lens care
market is following trends that are similar to those in the US, and is
slowing.

      -  Second, we had anticipated that product innovation would have
a greater impact in growing the global vision care market than has
proven to be the case.  Innovations such as continuous wear lenses,
one-day lenses and disposable toric and bi-focal lenses, we believed,
would attract new wearers into the market and drive stronger category
growth.  But the acceptance of continuous wear lenses, for example,
requires practitioners to change long-held assumptions about safety,
and that's proven to be a formidable challenge.  While our revenues for
PureVision will about double from last year, which is terrific, the
acceptance of this very new technology is ramping up more slowly than
we had expected.  And overall, new technologies have drawn more of
their wearers from existing products (which is ultimately hastening the
erosion of older categories), rather than bringing new patients into
the fold.

      -  Over all, with slower growth in the category, competition for
share has put pressure on prices.  We have seen this in the past in the
US contact lens market, we're seeing it today in the European lens care
market, and it has recently become an issue in the disposable lens
market in Japan.  This pricing pressure has dampened category revenue
growth, with the strongest negative impact coming against older product
lines, where we still have a significant part of our business.

Although we don't have perfect data for most of the world, the
factors we considered last week require us to change our view of this
category and the potential for our own business within it.  We had been
viewing the combined contact lens and lens care market as having the
potential to grow at the rate of mid- to upper-single digits; we now
believe that the category will grow in the range of low to mid-single
digits.

What does this mean for our results?  We now anticipate that
revenues in the vision care business will be down slightly in Q3, and
up slightly in Q4 - in the range of 1% - 3% - with the shortfall
primarily in lens care.  In lenses, we expect mid-single digit growth
in both Q3 and Q4.  That estimate includes the anticipated negative
impact of currency changes, which, at current rates, have reduced those
projected results by approximately 2% each quarter.  Next year, we
anticipate our business will grow at a pace that is even with the
category -- in the range of low to mid-single digits.

We are, obviously, deeply disappointed that we must lower our
expectations for this business.   Our frustration is even greater
because the market trends mask a number of very good things happening
in our business:

         -  We have the strongest product line we've ever had.  Our new
products are growing robustly and driving share gains around the world.

         -  As an example, our new products are driving a turn-around
in our lens business in the important US market.  The US used to be our
problem area for lenses.  Now, all the signs are that our business
there is in resurgence, our share is growing, and we are continuing the
momentum with the launch of Bausch & Lomb two-week.

         -  In China, the actions we have taken to restructure our
distributor operations, which we discussed during our second quarter
conference call, are working.  We've seen a better run-rate there, and
we are doing absolutely the right things to make that a healthier, more
predictable business for us.

         -  And finally, the manufacturing and other initiatives we
announced last December have succeeded in improving the profitability
of our vision care segment.

So, to reiterate.  What has changed in terms of the vision care
business?  Our assessment of the growth in this category has moderated,
and with that, so has our view for the potential of our own vision care
business.  In light of these more modest expectations for growth, we
believe we must manage the vision care business with the recognition
that its strategic value in our portfolio will be measured by its
ability to leverage its revenue growth and generate cash for investment
in higher growth opportunities in our pharmaceuticals and surgical
businesses.

This year, even with the shortfall in high margin lens care
products, we anticipate the business will generate an operating margin
of more than 21% -- two points ahead of last year.  It will also
generate approximately $290 million in EBITDA.  Next year we anticipate
the business margins will hold to these levels.  But in order to get
additional leverage from this business, we will re-examine how the
business is structured.  We will also reassess the appropriate level of
capital and other investment we dedicate to the business.  These issues
will be an integral part of our assessment of our opportunities to
improve the company's performance.


PHARMACEUTICALS

Let me turn now to our pharmaceuticals segment, where we have
revised our expectations for both the US and German sides of the
business.

Let's start with the US.  As you'll recall, in the second
quarter, we reported that our revenues had been significantly impacted
by aggressive price competition for generic otics, (that is,
prescription ear drops).  As we had been discussing for some time, we
anticipated that, typical of multi-source pharmaceuticals in general,
the return of competition would gradually erode otic pricing throughout
this year.  But the very aggressive promotions by a competitor in the
second quarter resulted in prices "bottoming out" about two quarters
earlier than we originally had projected.  And, based on these
circumstances, we moderated our guidance for the remainder of the year
in this business during our second quarter earnings release call.

Recently, however, we have begun to see similar rapid erosion in
pricing for our other multi-source products in the US.  In the past,
our ability to hold pricing in multi-source has been based on our
ability to offer trade customers a unique bundle of both ophthalmic and
other products.  And up until now our ability to hold our prices in the
face of stiffening competition has been aided by our ability to
differentiate ourselves with the otics line.  However, as we look at
our experience to date in the third quarter and project out for the
remainder of the quarter and full year, we now anticipate revenues from
these products will trend below our original expectations, and these
dynamics will impact us into next year.

Our German Dr. Mann business, which represents about 40% of our
total pharmaceuticals segment, continues to be impacted by the decline
in the Euro.  Through the first half of this year, currency shaved
several points off our reported growth rates and we expect to see it
negatively impact our total pharmaceuticals growth by about 5
percentage points in each of the next two quarters.

As a result of these trends, we have reduced our expectations for
this business for the remainder of this year and for 2001.  In total,
we now anticipate full year 2000 revenues excluding the Chauvin
acquisition to decline 11%-13% from 1999, with the third quarter down
in the mid teens and the fourth quarter down over 20%, including the
significant negative impact of currency.  However, I want to note that
the negative comparisons from lower otic pricing and currency will be
factors for only part of next year.  Thus, we expect our
pharmaceuticals revenue to rebound to mid- to upper single digit growth
in 2001.  Still, this growth is short of our earlier projections.

Because the revenue issues we are facing mainly reflect pricing
declines, they essentially fall completely to the operating earnings
line.  While we fully intend to identify ways of minimizing this impact
through expense management, I want to assure you that we will not do
this at the expense of our committed investment in the Envision
program, or other key R&D projects.  In fact, we will significantly
increase our investment in Envision next year as we conduct our Phase
III clinical trials for posterior uveitis and diabetic macular edema
and begin meeting several of the key milestones toward
commercialization of the product.

As we've said on several occasions, Envision is the number one
priority of this company and we will not sacrifice the forward momentum
on this product.  We were encouraged by the FDA's granting of Fast
Track status to this product in May and have recently been notified
that it has been granted Orphan Drug status for its first new
indication, posterior uveitis, underscoring our view that this
technology will fill a significant unmet need in the medical community.

As a result of these factors, we now expect to post operating
margins in the very low double-digits in 2000, and in the mid-single
digits in 2001 for the pharmaceuticals business, exclusive of the
Groupe Chauvin acquisition.  Were it not for the higher investment in
Envision, margins in each of these years would have been in the high
teens.  But we are willing to sacrifice higher margins in the interest
of bringing this potentially blockbuster product to market.


SURGICAL

Finally, let me update you on trends in our surgical business.
The major share of our surgical revenues and operating earnings
are still derived from sales of high margin intraocular lenses (or
IOL's) and other disposables for cataract procedures.  We are
experiencing some challenges on this side of the business due to
manufacturing and supply issues for our silicone lenses.

There are basically two types of IOLs: PMMA (or non-foldable) and
foldable.  Surgeons prefer the foldable lens technologies, and there
has been a rapid shift away from the PMMA business and towards
foldables.  Our portfolio consists of both types of lenses, and we have
been impacted by the erosion in demand for the PMMA variety.  On the
other hand, demand for our silicone lenses is exceeding our
expectations.  Unfortunately, it is also exceeding our ability to
supply.

When we acquired Chiron Vision and Storz to form our surgical
business in 1998, a key element of our plan was an aggressive
consolidation of multiple IOL manufacturing sites in the US and Europe.
While that consolidation was successful on the whole, the rapid
integration of manufacturing processes and product lines into our
facility in Clearwater, Florida has limited our ability to quickly
shift manufacturing resources to ramp-up production of silicone lenses
as fast as necessary to meet the stronger demand.  As a result, we have
seen disruptions in service levels to our existing customers and pulled
back on expanding distribution of the products to new accounts as we
work to increase capacity and production volumes.

Not having a full complement of IOL's also limits our ability to
bundle and sell other associated high-margin cataract products, such as
viscoelastics, compounding the negative impact of our IOL supply
problems.

We are aggressively working to increase our supply of foldable
IOL's, but we estimate that it will take 6-9 months before we can
reliably meet demand and can start to take advantage of the market
opportunity for our silicone lens business.

While we have challenges in the cataract side of the business,
the refractive surgery business continues to grow robustly.  Both
inside and outside the US, placements of our Technolas 217 lasers are
exceeding our expectations.  However, as we said in our press release,
on average, the ramp-up of procedures on each new machine placed in the
US is taking somewhat longer than we first estimated.  Although we are
placing more lasers in the US than we had expected (we're well on our
way to exceeding 40 lasers), more of our placements in the US have been
in newly opened centers than we first predicted, and the ramp-up in
procedures in new centers is typically slower than in established ones.
Net-net, we still expect about $10 million in incremental revenue
benefit from the US launch of the Technolas 217.  But the mix of those
revenues will be more heavily weighted toward laser sales than we first
predicted.  And while that may serve us well longer-term, that mix
shift has a near term impact on our margin expectations for the
business, which I'll discuss a bit later.

Let me summarize our current expectations for the surgical
business.

While we previously anticipated that the surgical business would
report revenue growth in the mid-teens for the full year, exclusive of
the Groupe Chauvin acquisition, we now project growth in the range of
approximately 12%, with the majority of the shortfall being apparent in
the third quarter, when we expect revenue growth to be just under 10%.
Sales should rebound to low double digits in Q4, when strong sales of
lasers and other capital equipment should partially offset the impact
from the disruption to our IOL supply.  As we look ahead to 2001, we
now anticipate that as a result of the disruption to our IOL supply and
the continued significant impact of currency, the surgical business
will grow more modestly than we earlier projected, in the range of 10%
or so.

The loss of revenues from high margin cataract products will have
a significant impact on operating margins in our surgical segment.
And, while the placement of refractive surgery equipment (i.e. laser
and microkeratomes) is very important for future high margin annuities
of per procedure fees and microkeratome blades, the equipment itself
carries with it much lower margins than IOL's and other disposables for
cataract procedures.

As a result of this mix shift, as well as the significant
negative impact of currency in this business, we anticipate that
operating margins in our surgical business will be in the low teens
this year and expand to the mid-teens next year, exclusive of the
Groupe Chauvin acquisition.


SUMMARY OF EXPECTATIONS

	Let me sum up our expectations for total company revenue and
earnings in the third and fourth quarters of this year.  Excluding the
acquisition of Groupe Chauvin, we now anticipate revenues to be down
slightly in Q3 compared to prior year, and flat to up slightly in Q4.
Including the acquisition, we now anticipate revenues to be flat to
down slightly in Q3 compared to prior year, and up in the mid-single
digits in Q4.  The impact of lower lens care revenues, lower pricing in
established multi-source pharmaceuticals and disruptions in our
cataract business, as well as a deterioration in the Euro, all carry
significant margin penalties that we cannot offset.  As a result, we
now anticipate our operating earnings in each of the next 2 quarters,
inclusive of the Groupe Chauvin acquisition, to be down approximately
7% to 9% from the prior year.  As we said in our press release,
earnings per share should be approximately $.70 to $.72 in Q3, and
approximately $.83-$.85 in Q4 to end the year in the range of $2.69-
$2.72 before one-time items.  We expect to generate free cash flow for
the year in the range of $160 to $170 million.

	Looking ahead to next year, we now project that our revenue will
grow in the mid-single digits excluding the impact of Groupe Chauvin,
and will grow in the upper single digits inclusive of that acquisition.
Earnings per share should be in the range of $2.87-$2.92.

	To say that I find these results unacceptable would be a gross
understatement.  We can and will improve our 2001 results over these
projections, but to do so, we must do much more than trim expenses here
or there.  In light of our more modest projections for growth, we are
undertaking an intensive review of how we are structured and how we
manage each of our businesses to ensure we deliver the appropriate
long-term shareholder return.  My goal remains to generate 15% earnings
growth over the next few years.

To accomplish that goal, we must and will better leverage our
slower-growing base businesses.  They need to generate the
profitability and cash that not only yields an appropriate return to
shareholders, but also provides the fuel to nurture our growth.  And
even with the many issues we are facing right now, the good news is
that the fundamental drivers of our future growth have not been
affected:

      -  In vision care, we finally have the right new products for the
fastest-growing segments of the contact lens market.  Although the
market for older products is eroding faster than we anticipated, our
new products are growing and gaining share.

      -  In our surgical segment, we can and will address the supply
issues affecting our high margin cataract business.  And in the
meantime, we will continue to build on our leading position in
refractive surgery by expanding our presence in the US and introducing
our Zyoptix system for customized procedures outside the US.

      -  In our pharmaceuticals business, we will manage through the
shorter-term ebbs and flows in pricing that are inherent risks in the
multi-source pharmaceuticals business.  We do have a number of products
in the pipeline that will be available by 2002.  And, with our
acquisition of Chauvin and our investments in developing the
breakthrough technology of Envision, I am confident that we are doing
all the right things to transform our pharmaceuticals business to a key
driver of our long-term growth.

	Finally, let me address the final item that was noted in our
press release this morning - the elimination of the President and COO
position, which has resulted in Carl Sassano leaving the company.
Given the challenges we are currently facing, I thought it best to
remove a layer of management, putting me in even closer touch with the
day to day activities of the business.  I have a great deal of respect
for Carl and all that he has accomplished in his career with Bausch &
Lomb.  He certainly leaves the company with our thanks and best wishes.
For the foreseeable future I intend to be very closely involved and
play a very direct role in establishing the action plans for our
businesses and assuring their implementation.

I commit to you that the number one priority of this management
team and myself will be improving our performance.  I anticipate that
we will update the investment community, no later than the time of our
3rd quarter release, on how our near-term performance is tracking, as
well as our plans for the future.