Gavin Herbert, founder of Irvine-based drug maker Allergan Inc., is keeping mum on his creation’s effort to fight off a hostile takeover bid by Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc.
Herbert did, however, share a few stories about Allergan’s early years at a recent forum in Costa Mesa at the Center Club.
He was a featured speaker at an ophthalmology summit put on by Aliso Viejo-based Octane.
Herbert said that Allergan “almost got started accidentally” and recounted how he’d worked on developing an oral antibiotic with a partner in a lab created in his father’s drugstore balcony on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles.
Allergan eventually boosted its eye drop lineup and moved to Orange County in 1961.
“Another ophthalmologist helped us with an idea of a product called Blephamide, which became our No. 1 product when we moved to Orange County. In ’61, we had our first real lab production facility, 30,000 square feet in Santa Ana.
“That year, we achieved a million dollars [in revenue],” Herbert said.
He called Allergan’s first 10 years of existence “so instructive because you kind of had to do everything yourself. You wore a lot of hats—you got out and spent time with your customers, [for example].”
Herbert also emphasized the importance of hiring the right executives. He said that Allergan hired roughly eight veterans from companies, such as Merck & Co. and SmithKline (now part of GlaxoSmithKline PLC), when it moved from Los Angeles to Orange County.
“I was willing to hire people smarter than myself,” he said, adding that Allergan began its first “real strategic planning effort” upon its OC move.
Herbert was interviewed for the presentation by former Allergan executive James Mazzo, operating partner at Versant Ventures’ Newport Beach office.
“I’ve known Gavin now for 35 years. Gavin brought me into this world,” Mazzo said. “I’m always worried he’s going to take me out of this world, too, if I don’t continue to execute what he’s taught me on the principles [of the ophthalmic industry].”
Mazzo spent 22 years at Allergan before being tapped to lead the spinoff of its medical device and contact lens care businesses into Advanced Medical Optics Inc. in 2002. Advanced Medical Optics is now
Abbott Medical Optics Inc., a business unit of Chicago-based Abbott Laboratories.
Mazzo noted that because of Herbert, “[more than] 32 CEOs of public and private companies have been established.”
Herbert is “truly the founder and chairman of Orange County’s position as the leader in ophthalmic innovation,” according to Matthew Jenusaitis, Octane’s chief executive, who introduced Herbert and Mazzo’s interview.
Botulism-Causing Toxin Action Found
Researchers at the University of California-Irvine School of Medicine said they’ve found out how bacterial toxins that cause food-borne botulism are absorbed through the intestinal lining and into the bloodstream.
UC Irvine associate professor of physiology and biophysics Rongsheng Jin and colleagues found that a series of botulinum neurotoxin compounds bind with patients’ epithelial cell proteins. That initiates a process that disrupts intercellular seals
so that the toxin can slip through the intestines.
“By identifying this … process by which the toxin compound manages to open the door from inside, we can better understand how to seek new methods to prevent these deadly toxins from entering the bloodstream,” Jin said in a news release.
Researchers from Harvard University, Hannover Medical School’s Institute for Toxicology in Germany, the Center for Biological Threats and Special Pathogens in Berlin, and the Argonne National Laboratory joined Jin and other UCI faculty in working on the project.
Results from the study appeared in the June 20 edition of Science. Grants from the National Institutes of Health helped support the study.
Bits & Pieces
PersonalCare, a concierge medical practice that also manages Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian’s executive health program, said it moved its corporate headquarters to a new office in Irvine. The practice has also doubled its number of affiliated doctors from five to 10 over the past 18 months. … Aliso Viejo-based UST Global said it would enter the patient-centered health information technology market. It’s working with Silver Spring, Md.-based Amida Technology Solutions to develop healthcare software and other products.
