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Mallinckrodt Boss Calls Questcor ‘Ideal Strategic Fit’

Anaheim-based Questcor Pharmaceuticals Inc. will help create a “strong, nicely balanced specialty pharmaceutical platform” for Mallinckrodt PLC, according to the latter’s chief executive.

Mallinckrodt is spending $5.6 billion to buy Questcor, which makes injectable H.P. Acthar Gel for treating various conditions.

Mallinckrodt is based in Ireland for tax purposes but operates from suburban St. Louis.

“Questcor is another ideal strategic fit for Mallinckrodt. … Acthar is an exciting product and naturally driven injectable complex biological product,” Mark Trudeau, Mallinckrodt’s chief executive, told analysts and investors on the company’s May 8 earnings call.

Mallinckrodt’s deal for Questcor follows its just-completed acquisition of San Diego-based Cadence Pharmaceuticals Inc. for $1.4 billion.

Trudeau said that Acthar is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for 19 uses, including Questcor’s four major commercial areas of focus: multiple sclerosis exacerbations, kidney disorder nephrotic syndrome, infantile spasms, and rheumatology.

Mallinckrodt has said it will retain Questcor’s commercial operations as a separate business unit within specialty pharmaceuticals.

Don Bailey, Questcor’s chief executive, is stepping away from operations to join Mallinckrodt’s board. Steve Cartt, who’s currently Questcor’s chief operating officer, will lead Questcor’s commercial operations and report to Trudeau.

Trudeau said Mallinckrodt would be able to “maximize the value” of Synacthen and Synacthen Depot, which Questcor acquired development rights to last year from Switzerland-based Novartis AG. Questcor is in the early stages of evaluating Synacthen for possible clinical development.

Mallinckrodt has relationships with rheumatology and urology specialist doctors “which we believe will ultimately make the value of Acthar understood by more physicians and available to more patients,” Trudeau said.

Ex-Masimo Exec on Apple Health Team

Apple Inc. has reached into Orange County for talent as it reportedly works on building a “full health and fitness services platform” known as iWatch, according to published reports.

Dr. Michael O’Reilly, the former chief medical officer for Irvine-based Masimo Corp., is one of a group of health technology and hardware experts the computer giant hired in recent months, according to trade publication Fitness Industry News.

The anesthesiologist left Masimo last summer. He had served as the pulse oximeter maker’s chief medical officer and executive vice president of medical affairs. He also teaches at the medical schools of the University of California-Irvine and the University of Michigan.

O’Reilly has some familiarity with medical devices and how they relate to Apple technology. Masimo introduced an iPhone-enabled pulse oximeter called the iSp02 in late 2012. Masimo didn’t seek Food and Drug Administration for the approval because the device was intended for use by mountain climbers and airplane pilots.

Alliance HealthCare Makes Tech Buy

Newport Beach-based Alliance HealthCare Services Inc. said this month that it’s buying the assets of Vertical Health Solutions Inc. Alliance, a medical imaging and cancer treatment provider, is paying $1 million in cash and a two-year royalty fee for the assets.

Minneapolis-based Vertical Health does business as OnPoint Medical Diagnostics. It offers cloud-based software that assists in quality assurance for medical imaging. Alliance said in a news release that OnPoint software, which was introduced in early 2012, is now used by 81 hospitals and imaging centers in 30 states.

Alliance noted that buying OnPoint’s assets will become part of its RAD360 initiative.

“Hospitals, imaging centers, accreditation organizations and insurance companies all want the same thing—measurable, objective, performance-based quality control technologies that help to ensure image quality and equipment utilization,” Alliance Chief Executive Percy “Tom” Tomlinson said.

Ensign Buys Nursing Home

Ensign Group Inc., a Mission Viejo-based nursing home operator, is continuing to add properties to its portfolio.

It said on May 7 that it bought Mt. Ogden Health and Rehabilitation Center in Ogden, Utah, but didn’t release a purchase price.

Mt. Ogden has 108 beds. Ensign said it would retain ownership of Mt. Ogden’s real estate rather than including it in a previously announced plan to spin off its real estate business into a separate company from its healthcare operations.

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