Orange County’s 2014 healthcare news is likely to continue to have a hospital flavor as healthcare reform begins its first full year of operation.
It also will be the first full year for a number of relationships created to navigate the demands of reform, which is expected to bring a wave of newly insured patients into the system, as well as an emphasis on coordination and integration of care.
Irvine-based Covenant Health Network and its partners—St. Joseph Health; Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, along with MemorialCare Health System in Fountain Valley; and UC Irvine Healthcare—are among those players.
Meanwhile, healthcare costs in Orange County for people whose employers provide them with insurance coverage are expected to rise 7% in 2014, according to a survey by Chicago-based consulting firm Aon Hewitt, which has a Newport Beach office.
Allergan Inc., the Irvine-based maker of Botox and other drugs, could pick up a new entry in its growing migraine-headache franchise if the Food and Drug Administration approves its Levadex for acute migraines.
And Irvine-based cardiovascular device maker Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (see story, page 3) will face competitive landscape changes in 2014 that are expected to hit its popular Edwards Sapien family of less-invasive heart valves.
• PERSON TO WATCH: DAVID PYOTT
Pyott is a fixture in Orange County’s life science and corporate scenes—he’ll mark his 16th year as chief executive of Allergan next year, a tenure that stands out against the three-to-five-year average for top executives at Fortune 500 companies.
The 60-year-old urbane Scotsman is set to enter 2014 with a clear No. 2 right behind him in Douglas Ingram, who will start his first full year as Allergan’s president. Pyott held the president’s post before Ingram’s promotion in June.
“I’m not going anywhere soon, but gradually, you know, you’ve got to keep bringing people up,” he said.
Pyott’s year will be marked by new products for Allergan, as well as new uses for standbys, such as the flagship Botox neurotoxin. Allergan is expected to begin marketing Levadex for migraines this year, among other products.
• COMPANY TO WATCH: STRATHSPEY CROWN HOLDINGS LLC
The Newport Beach-based private equity investor is likely to be on the lookout for more deals in the “lifestyle medicine” arena.
Strathspey Crown invests in medical device makers and other healthcare technology companies that provide services like cosmetic surgery and implants on a cash-pay basis, eschewing insurance and government programs.
2014 will be the first full year of operation of both Strathspey Crown and Alphaeon Corp., a subsidiary that operates as a middleman of sorts between device makers and doctors in the plastic surgery, ophthalmology and dermatology fields through licensing technologies and services.
Strathspey Chairman Robert Grant serves as Alphaeon’s chief executive, and veteran device investor William Link is its chairman.
Look for Alphaeon to add to a portfolio that already includes Laboratoires Teoxane, a Switzerland-based maker of neurotoxins and dermal fillers; Santa Barbara-based startup Evolus Inc.; and the Amaris line of lasers by Schwind-eye-tech-solutions GMBH in Germany.
PREDICTION:
Johnson & Johnson will pursue Edwards Lifesciences, drawn primarily to its less-invasive heart-valves business.
