A product developed by Allergan PLC’s medical aesthetics hub in Irvine has a new use in the fast-growing Japanese market.
The drugmaker, which is based in Dublin for tax purposes and primarily operates out of New Jersey, said last month that the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare approved an additional use for Allergan’s Botox Vista for lateral canthal, or crow’s feet, lines in adults under the age of 65.
Allergan said in a news release that both surgical and nonsurgical medical aesthetic procedures in Japan grew 56% from 2010 to 2014.
“Our market research has shown that women in Japan have a strong desire to look fresh and revitalized as they age and they want to do it in a natural way,” said Rajkumar Narayanan, an Allergan senior vice president and president of the drugmaker’s Asia Pacific unit.
Crow’s feet lines “form part of our natural eye expression [but] over time they can become fixed or elongated, even when our faces are relaxed, which can make us look tired or unhappy,” said Dr. Nobutaka Furuyama, founder of the Jiyugaoka Clinic in Tokyo and an Allergan consultant.
Doctors using Botox Vista for “subtly softening” the appearance of crow’s feet and glabellar lines, or brow furrowing, “can deliver a refreshed and natural look, helping patients to look like themselves again and improve their self-confidence,” Furuyama said.
Allergan said the approval for crow’s feet was based on a third-phase clinical trial involving 300 patients. The study showed that patients who received single doses of Botox Vista achieved improvement in their crow’s feet lines after 30 days compared to those who received placebos.
Nvision Buys Eye Center
Aliso Viejo-based Nvision Eye Centers Inc. is crossing the border with a new partnership.
Its centers provide cataract and vision correction surgeries, including Lasik. It also implants the Kamra inlay lens for correcting presbyopia—nearsightedness from aging—which is a product of Irvine-based AcuFocus Inc.
Nvision said late last month that it acquired Toronto-based Crystal Clear Vision. A purchase price wasn’t disclosed.
Crystal Clear’s “international reputation as a highly successful treatment, research and teaching mecca displays the kind of … initiatives Nvision strives to embody,” said Nvision President James Pereyra in a news release.
Dr. Jeffrey Machat, Crystal Clear’s founder, was named Nvision’s chief medical officer, a new position. Machat will continue to serve as Crystal Clear’s medical director and also operate at Nvision locations in OC, San Francisco and Murrieta.
Machat has a 25-year history of performing laser vision correction procedures. His native Canada was once a major center of Lasik in the procedure’s go-go days in the 1990s, the decade in which the surgery was instituted.
A 1999 article by the Canadian Medical Association Journal outlined how the boom played itself out, including what it called “aggressive marketing” for the procedure through advertising, videos, educational seminars and cost information.
Hospital Workers Unionize
The Oakland-based National Union of Healthcare Workers said almost 600 workers at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center voted 77% to 23% to join it. The election was conducted by the National Labor Relations Board late last month.
Workers who voted to unionize included respiratory therapists, pharmacy technicians, phlebotomists, monitor technicians, nursing assistants, surgical technicians, anesthesiology technicians, unit secretaries and maintenance workers.
The union said in a statement that workers voted to organize because of concerns over wages, pay inequities and how per-diem workers are treated.
Fountain Valley ranks No. 8 on the Business Journal’s most recent list of largest OC hospitals. The 400-bed facility posted a pretax profit of $24.5 million on net patient revenue of $413.7 million for the 12 months ended in September 2014.
