Octane, an Aliso Viejo-based booster group for startup companies, is gearing up for its annual medical device and investor forum next month in Irvine.
More than 650 people from some 400 California companies are expected to attend the event, which is set for the Hyatt Regency Irvine on Nov. 9 and 10.
Thomas Fogarty, a heart surgeon, Stanford University professor, inventor, entrepreneur and investor, is one of the event’s headline speakers.
Fogarty has served as a founder, chairman or board member for more than 30 medical device makers.
Some of Fogarty’s companies include Arbor Surgical Technologies Inc., an Irvine heart valve maker, and BioLucent Inc., now Cianna Medical Inc. in Aliso Viejo, a maker of a breast cancer device.
Fogarty also invented the Fogarty embolectomy catheter, which is sold by Irvine’s Edwards Lifesciences Corp. and removes blood clots and abnormal particles from blood vessels. He owns a winery in Northern California’s Woodside.
One of the forum’s featured sessions is “The Big Deal: Medical Device M&A” and takes a look at three large Orange County medical device deals that have taken place in the past two years: Abbott Laboratories’ $2.8 billion buy of Santa Ana-based Advanced Medical Optics Inc.; the $700 million purchase of Irvine heart valve maker CoreValve Inc. by Medtronic Inc.; and Rochester, N.Y.-based Bausch & Lomb Inc.’s acquisition of Eyeonics Inc., an Aliso Viejo maker of replacement lenses, for an undisclosed price.
Session participants include James Mazzo, an Abbott senior vice president and president of what’s now Abbott Medical Optics; Daniel Lemaitre, former chief executive of CoreValve, and Charles Warden, a Newport Beach-based managing director with Versant Venture Management LLC.
Christopher Cox, a former congressman and former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission now with the Costa Mesa office of Bingham McCutchen LLP, also is a scheduled speaker.
Another keynote address will examine healthcare reform and implications for medical device companies. In recent weeks, medical device companies have been actively lobbying to cut or reduce a proposed tax on their revenue that would raise $40 billion during a 10-year period.
The forum also has a time where medical device makers will link up with potential investors. Presenting companies include CardioPolymers Inc., a Laguna Niguel company that is developing treatments for chronic heart failure, San Clemente-based orthopedic device maker Dallen Medical Inc., and NeoMatrix Inc., an Irvine maker of breast cancer diagnostic tests.
Peregrine Forms Unit
Peregrine Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Tustin drug developer, said it started an anti-viral research group within its research and development department.
The group is responsible for coordinating and expanding research with other companies working with its antibodies for preventing and treating infectious diseases such as viral hemorrhagic fevers, HIV, influenza and malaria.
Separately, Peregrine said a second-phase clinical trial of its bavituximab drug candidate in combination with a pair of other cancer drugs, showed that patients had a median progression-free survival rate of 6.5 months.
That compares favorably with a survival range of 4.2 to 4.5 months in patients who received only the other drugs rather than bavituximab, according to Peregrine.
Training Tool for Nurses
Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center, a Fountain Valley hospital that’s about to open a $50 million patient care pavilion, is implementing a training program for critical care nurses.
The hospital, one of three local facilities owned by Fountain Valley nonprofit Memorial Health Services, is using iStan, a patient simulation that looks like a real body.
The iStan dummy mimics symptoms and directly responds to treatments administered by trainees, including oxygen, intravenous drugs and defibrillation.
Human patient simulation technology is used by healthcare educational institutions to train doctors and nurses, by the military in Iraq and by the Department of Homeland Security to equip emergency workers to deal with weapons of mass destruction.
Medical Education Technologies Inc., a Sarasota, Fla.-based company, makes iStan.
Bits and Pieces:
HMWC CPAs & Business Advisors of Tustin said it sold its Medical Management Resources billing unit to Escondido-based California Healthcare Medical Billing Inc. A price wasn’t disclosed … The Irvine-based eye division of SurModics Inc., a Minnesota company, said it signed a licensing and development agreement with Roche Holding AG of Switzerland and its Genentech Inc. unit. Roche and Genentech are using SurModics’ drug delivery system to develop and commercialize a sustained formulation of their Lucentis drug for treating age-related macular degeneration, an eye disorder … Radient Pharmaceuticals Corp. in Tustin said its AMDL Diagnostics Inc. unit signed a research collaboration deal with CeTeCancer, a Chilean research laboratory. The deal will look at the effectiveness of Radient’s Onko-Sure cancer test for early detection and prevention of lung cancer … Five Orange County doctor groups recently won awards from the Integrated Healthcare Association, a Bay Area professional group, based on statewide pay for performance measures. They are: Bristol Park Medical Group Inc., Edinger Medical Group, St. Joseph Heritage Medical Group, St. Jude Heritage Medical Group and Southern California Permanente Medical Group-Orange County, the doctors’ group arm of Kaiser Permanente.
