Allergan Effect: Healthcare Hotter Than Ever Here

Healthcare remains integral and then some to OC’s economy, even as Irvine-based drugmaker Allergan Inc. gets ready to exit the stage as the largest publicly traded company based here. Check page 1 for the latest on Allergan boss David Pyott, who headlines our Business People of the Year coverage. The same page brings updates from other precincts of the local healthcare sector, including insights on how its growth is affecting the real estate market, and a progress report on Masimo founder and CEO Joe Kiani’s patient-safety movement … Look to the right on this page for another indicator of continued vibrance in healthcare—Edwards Lifesciences’ lead role on a $50 million funding round in a startup medical device maker up north … Back to Pyott, who spent much of 2014 knee-deep in efforts to fend off hostile bidders Bill Ackman and Valeant Pharmaceuticals before securing a $68 billion sale to Actavis. The rough-and-tumble fight with the would-be raiders brought “ironic interweaves and overlays,” Pyott told our Vita Reed, including Valeant’s earlier attempt to acquire Actavis, previously known as Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc., a company founded by OCer Dr. Allen Chao. “You can see how it’s all interwoven, right? A little tapestry here” … Consider Pyott’s words a preview for the new year, which arrives with OC’s healthcare sector poised to weave new threads into its tapestry. Word on the street says that the number of startups that soon-to-be-ex-Allergan execs have in the works is approaching double digits and could go as high as 15 in coming months as a load of top talent gets around … Sam Ingardia also gets around—anyone who’s noticed all the trucks that Ingardia Brothers Produce in Santa Ana has on the roads knows that much. The Tunisian-born, Sicilian-by-heritage, U.S. Navy vet goes even farther to take care of his bucket list, which got a good scratching last year when he and his wife, Jannette, visited the other end of his home continent, with jaunts to South Africa and Kruger National Park and Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. The couple will start this year with a trip to Jannette’s home continent of South America, although much of the visit will be spent on the outlying Galapagos Islands, which are property of her native Ecuador … The King of the Quants and author of the seminal gambling tome “Beat the Dealer” won’t be going as far, but Newport Coaster Ed Thorp’s trip to the Blackjack Ball, set for Las Vegas this month, is bound to be as interesting as the Galapagos in its own way. The hedge funder is known as the “godfather” of the annual event, which brings together a Hall of Fame of card counters at an undisclosed Sin City location each year. Barona Resort & Casino sponsors the event in exchange for a promise by the Blackjack Ballers to never play there … Kudos to UC Irvine’s men’s basketball team, which played a preconference schedule that ran the gamut from a road loss to nationally ranked Arizona to a win at home in an exhibition against Division III Chapman U. The Anteaters came out about even, and here’s guessing the exercise will pay off in conference play, set to start this week with Long Beach State at the Bren Center … Chapman’s loss to UCI was the only blemish for the Panthers, who carried an official 9-0 record into their SCIAC Conference opener at Whittier College as the Insider went to press.