Medical software maker Quality Systems Inc.’s battle with a dissident shareholder isn’t over just yet.
Ahmed Hussein, a big shareholder and director of Irvine-based Quality, said earlier this month he plans to appeal an Orange County Superior Court ruling that rejected his request to set aside the company’s board vote in September.
At issue is whether 800,000 shares voted on behalf of people who didn’t return signed proxies were included in the final vote tally, according to Hussein. Including those “uninstructed shares” in a contested election was improper, he charged.
Hussein, an Egyptian businessman who owns about 17% of Quality, led a spirited proxy fight last fall. He claimed Quality’s management was earning too much money and that insiders dominated the board.
Quality shareholders elected two members of Hussein’s dissident slate,himself and Ibrahim Fawzi. Six of the company’s nominees won seats.
Management candidates who won were Chairman Sheldon Razin, Chief Executive Louis Silverman, Patrick Cline, Maurice DeWald, Vincent Love and Steven Plochocki.
William Botts and Jonathan Javitt, a pair of management candidates, lost. Dissident candidate Ian Gordon also didn’t make it.
Quality makes software that doctors and dentists use to manage their practices. The company’s business is booming amid a transition from paper to electronic medical records.
The Motley Fool investor Web site cited Quality in a column last month titled “The Secret to Great Growth.”
The article noted Quality’s yearly sales growth from $40 million to $89 million during the past five years, along with a return on investment capital that went from 19% to 108% during the period.
“Clearly, the market loves a business that can generate huge amounts of value with very little incremental capital requirements,” wrote David Meier, the column’s author.
Beckman Signs R & D; Pact
Beckman Coulter Inc. of Fullerton said it signed a two-year research and development deal with Canada’s Research in Immune Tolerance in Transplantation program.
The Canadian Foundation for Innovation, the Ontario Research Foundation and Toronto General Hospital are funding the $10 million initiative. The research is being done at Toronto General Hospital.
Beckman stands to get the rights to discoveries resulting from the project.
In return, the maker of laboratory and research gear plans to back a post-doctoral research scientist for the two-year period and fund work to design and formulate “new and unique reagent combinations.”
Beckman also plans to sponsor a yearly symposium on transplantation, provide workshops on using centrifuges and help the program raise money beyond the two-year pact.
The immune tolerance program agreed to buy more than $1 million worth of separation and analysis gear from Beckman, including ProteomeLab PF2D, ProteomeLab PA800 and other instruments and centrifuges.
“By collaborating with the (immune tolerance) program, we can broaden our already extensive product line for the study of immune monitoring and patient care and help position ourselves for leadership in providing genomic, proteomic and cellular solutions for the transplantation market,” said Elias Caro, Beckman’s executive vice president of international diagnostics and global life science commercial operations.
Paragon Building HQ
Paragon Biomedical, a contract researcher that manages clinical trials, is building a 30,000-square-foot headquarters in the Irvine Spectrum at Bake Parkway and the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway.
The company expects work on the building to be done in October. The building is 25% bigger than Paragon’s current site in Irvine’s University Research Park.
Paragon has some 200 workers and offices in Britain and India. The Spectrum building is set to house the company’s clinical services unit, American clinical trials management, executive and administrative functions, information technology and central servers.
Paragon’s British office operates biometrics and European clinical trials. The India site delivers data management services and other support.
UCI Professors Get Honors, Cash
A couple of University of California, Irvine, professors were recognized for their teaching and research efforts.
Diane O’Dowd, a neurobiologist, was named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute professor, making her one of 20 researchers nationwide who received a $1 million grant from the nonprofit medical research group.
Frank Meyskens, who directs the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCI Medical Center in Orange, was named the Daniel G. Aldrich Jr. endowed chair in support of cancer treatment and prevention research.
The chair is named for UCI’s founding chancellor. Ralph Cicerone, who left as UCI’s chancellor last year, previously held the position.
Hoag Nursing Program
Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, Newport Beach, and Vanguard University received a $500,000 grant from UniHealth Foundation to support their work on developing a nursing education program at Vanguard’s Costa Mesa campus.
