New Abbott Medical Optics boss Murthy Simhambhatla sees his role as “building on the foundation” laid by his high-profile predecessor.
Simhambhatla earlier this year took the reins from Jim Mazzo as president of the Santa Ana-based maker of devices and products used in cataract and vision surgeries, plus a line of contact lens care solutions. He’s also a senior vice president of Abbott Park, Ill.-based parent Abbott Laboratories.
Abbott Medical employs some 600 people in Orange County and more than 3,500 companywide. It has annual sales of about $1.1 billion. That was about 3% of Abbott Laboratories’ total for 2012, and the OC-based unit’s percentage will grow now that the parent has spun off its branded drug business, which brought in nearly half its revenue last year.
Simhambhatla also sees room for Abbott Medical to grow in its own right as it competes with Alcon Inc., a Fort Worth, Texas-based unit of Novartis AG in Switzerland, and Bausch & Lomb Inc., with headquarters in Rochester, N.Y. and an eye-surgical device business in Aliso Viejo.
“It’s fair to say that with aging populations worldwide and with cataract surgery so underpenetrated in many developing countries, vision care is a growing area of patients,” he said. “My goal at AMO is to build on this rich legacy in ophthalmology to deliver [products] to help doctors manage their patients more effectively. That’s a relentless focus.”
Simhambhatla has some big shoes to fill. Mazzo retired at the end of 2012 after a 32-year tenure that went back to the days when Abbott Medical was part of Irvine-based Allergan Inc. He became one of OC’s most visible business leaders, taking on national roles for Washington, D.C.-based industry advocate AdvaMed and leading Abbott Medical through its 2002 spinoff from Allergan into Advanced Medical Optics Inc. and its 2009 sale to Abbott Laboratories for $2.8 billion.
Simhambhatla was working for an Abbott biosciences unit in Carlsbad in 2010 when he first met Mazzo.
“He infected me with his enthusiasm for ophthalmology,” he said.
The two regularly spent time together, and Simhambhatla said he started getting “excited about the potential of ophthalmology” and Abbott Medical.
Mazzo announced in early 2012 that he would step down as Abbott Medical’s boss, a move that came some months before federal investigators said they were investigating him over allegations of insider trading related to the Advanced Medical Optics sale to Abbott Laboratories—charges he has vigorously denied and set out to fight.
Abbott Laboratories Chief Executive Miles White approached Simhambhatla about taking Abbott Medical’s reins shortly after Mazzo announced his plans to step down.
“I happily accepted,” Simhambhatla said. “My heart’s in medical devices—I love the interaction between the medical device companies and surgeons … it’s very much a relationship, I guess, between a tool maker and a tool user. Our customers are experts in the eye.”
Mazzo and Simhambhatla spent more time together during the transition, with the latter “getting up to speed.”
Customers’ needs and expectations, business nuances, getting to know Abbott Medical’s workforce, and ideas on growing Abbott Medical were among the lessons Simhambhatla said he learned from Mazzo.
R&D Machine
The company has touted itself in recent years as a “research and development” machine. Mazzo previously said it planned to launch some 20 products through 2014.
That will remain a priority under Simhambhatla.
“R&D and, more broadly, innovation, is absolutely central to our success and our sustainability in the ophthalmology field,” he said.
He noted that there’s room for developing devices to restore a full range of vision after cataract surgeries, along with other unmet needs.
Simhambhatla said he expects Abbott Medical to become more prominent within its parent company since the spinoff of Abbott Laboratories proprietary drug business into AbbVie Inc., which is based in North Chicago, Ill., at the beginning of the year.
“The remaining part of Abbott (Laboratories) has four remaining areas of focus—medical devices, branded generics, nutrition and diagnostics,” he said. “AMO is now twice as important to the new Abbott as it was previously.”
Medical devices overall represent “roughly a quarter” of Abbott Laboratories’ revenue, according to Simhambhatla.
The executive said his immediate focus is running the business but added that he and his family “are new to Orange County and we do look forward to forging new relationships with the business community and academia at large.”
He’s already done some of that—he joined the University of California, Irvine’s Chief Executive Roundtable when he took over Abbott Medical.
Similar Landing
Simhambhatla’s landing within the Abbott family is somewhat similar to Mazzo’s:
“I joined Abbott much like AMO, through an acquisition,” he said.
He referred to Abbott Laboratories’ $4.1 billion buy of Indianapolis-based medical device maker Guidant Corp.’s vascular business in 2006.
Simhambhatla worked in various roles while at Guidant, including research and development and commercial operations, and he got some international experience at Guidant locations in Australia and New Zealand. He also worked in research and development at Menlo Park-based Raychem Corp., now part of TE Connectivity Ltd., in Switzerland.
Simhambhatla was general manager of Ibis Biosciences, an Abbott Laboratories’ diagnostic unit, prior to his appointment as Abbott Medical’s head.
The married father of two boys holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Anna University in India. He received his master’s and doctorate degrees in
polymer engineering from the University of Akron.
