Masimo Corp., an Irvine-based maker of patient monitoring devices, learned this month that Pelham, N.Y.-based Essential Medical Devices Inc. has withdrawn a patent complaint it filed last August against Masimo and Cercacor Laboratories, a Masimo spinoff in Irvine.
Essential had alleged that Masimo’s Rainbow technology infringed on a patent it owned.
The company said in court papers that it was issued a patent in 2002 for a non-invasive carboxyhemoglobin analyzer and offered to sell the patent to Masimo in 2009.
Masimo withdrew its counter-complaint against Essential, once Essential had pulled its complaint. Essential, in legal terms, dismissed its complaint “with prejudice,” meaning it can’t be refiled.
Separately, Masimo said its Pronto-7 noninvasive monitor has secured regulatory clearances from the China State Food and Drug Administration and the South Korea Food and Drug Administration. Masimo had received U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearance earlier this year and did a full-market release of the device.
Chief Operating Officer
Jeremy Zoch is the new executive vice president and chief operating officer at St. Joseph Hospital-Orange.
Zoch began his new role on April 23.
He replaced Alan Garrett, who is now chief executive of St. Mary Regional Medical Center, another property of Orange-based parent company St. Joseph Health System.
Zoch comes to St. Joseph from Mercy Hospitals of Bakersfield, where he was chief operating officer and responsible for two campuses. Zoch also was charged with growing Mercy’s orthopedic surgical volume and expanding its emergency room.
Steve Moreau, St. Joseph-Orange’s chief executive, said Zoch has a “deep understanding of our values and our mission.”
FDA Application
Inspiration Biopharmaceuticals Inc., which moved from Laguna Hills to Cambridge, Mass., at the end of 2011, has filed a biologics license application to the Food and Drug Administration for approval of its IB1001 lead product.
Inspiration is a startup company developing hemophilia treatments. It has financial backing from French drug maker Ipsen SA and two drugs in development–IB1001, for patients with congenital hemophilia B and OBI-1 for patients resistant to traditional treatments.
The filing covers a comprehensive set of pharmacokinetics, safety and efficiency data from a third-phase clinical trial in hemophilia B patients, and a surgery sub-study was also included.
Inspiration is also receiving a $35 million milestone payment from Ipsen associated with the regulatory filing and will issue a convertible note in return that will bring Ipsen’s equity ownership of Inspiration to 43.5%. The companies entered into a partnership in 2010.
Inspiration was founded just over five years ago by two men whose sons have hemophilia.
Settlement
Tenet Healthcare Corp., a Dallas-based hospital operator with three Orange County facilities, said earlier this month reportedly will receive $84 million as part of a settlement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Tenet owns Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center, Los Alamitos Medical Center and Placentia-Linda Community Hospital. It was once Orange County’s largest hospital operator until it sold most of its area facilities after a federal probe in the mid-2000s.
The Houston Business Journal said the payment is part of an industry settlement with the government following underpayments from Medicare’s inpatient prospective payment system.
Meantime, the Dallas Business Journal reported Tenet agreed to pay the federal government $42.7 million to resolve allegations it overbilled Medicare for treating patients at inpatient rehabilitation centers who didn’t qualify for such treatments.
Bits and Pieces
PathCentral Inc., an Irvine software and services company for community pathologists, said its Web-based anatomic pathology laboratory information system was selected by the Keck School of Medicine’s department of pathology and laboratory medicine. Keck is the medical school of the University of Southern California. … Garden Grove Hospital Medical Center and West Anaheim Medical Center were named to Thomson Reuters’ 100 Top Hospitals panel. Both hospitals are owned by Ontario-based Prime Healthcare Services.
