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Bausch & Lomb Inc. on Thursday withdrew a contact-lens cleaner linked to a dangerous eye infection from the U.S. market and offered refunds.

Wearers of contacts shouldn't use ReNu with MoistureLoc while the outbreak is being investigated, Bausch & Lomb said in a statement. The maker of contact lenses asked retailers to remove the solution from shelves, as many drugstores and supermarkets had done.

The action may blunt criticism from securities analysts, marketing specialists and a medical ethicist who said this week that the 153-year-old optical-products maker wasn't doing enough to inform the nation's 30 million wearers of contact lenses. Bausch & Lomb shares leadership in the U.S. market for the cleansers with Alcon Inc.

"It's a smart move," Chicago branding specialist Tim Westerbeck said in a telephone interview. "The net effect of the retail outlets taking the product off the shelves has made the product unavailable anyway."

Bausch & Lomb stopped shipping ReNu with MoistureLoc cleanser to stores April 10 after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was probing 109 reports of a rare fungal eye infection that can lead to blindness. Retailers including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Walgreen Co., Albertsons Inc. and CVS Corp. began refusing to sell the Bausch & Lomb solution.

Shares of Bausch & Lomb gained 56 cents, or 1.3 percent, to $46.17 Thursday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The stock had fallen for 15 straight days through Thursday, losing 32 percent, or $1.18 billion of market value.

The company's action doesn't apply to other Bausch & Lomb products or to ReNu with MoistureLoc made outside the United States.