The namesake backer of an eye research facility at the University of California, Irvine, has made another contribution to the school’s proposed Gavin Herbert Eye Institute.
The former chief executive of Irvine-based Allergan Inc. joined his mother, Josephine Herbert Gleis, in making the additional donation to the institute.
The latest gift was the largest ever to UCI’s ophthalmology department, according to the school, which did not disclose the total.
In late 2007, Herbert gave a naming gift for the eye center, which is expected to open in 2013.
“This is something I’ve talked about for more than 30 years, and there’s certainly a need in Orange County for such a center,” Herbert said.
The Herbert institute is projected to cost $31 million to build. Plans call for patient examination rooms, waiting areas, an outpatient surgery center and faculty office and conference space.
Professors at the institute are set to treat patients, teach students and do research with device and drug companies.
UCI plans to raise more money to pay for endowed chairs, research and advanced technologies and equipment.
The university has reached out to businesses here that develop medical devices or drugs to treat eyes to help put the institute together.
The Alcon Foundation, the charitable arm of Switzerland’s Alcon Inc., provided a multiyear grant for the institute. Alcon has some 800 workers at a research facility in Irvine.
Rochester, N.Y.-based Bausch & Lomb Inc., which has 175 people at its eye surgical hub in Aliso Viejo, also supports the Herbert institute.
Other backers include Abbott Medical Optics, a Santa Ana eye surgical and contact lens care unit of Chicago’s Abbott Laboratories, the Allergan Foundation, the Arnold & Mabel Beckman Foundation and longtime medical venture capitalist Bill Link and wife Marsha.
The institute is looking to create a link with eye drug and device developers, according to George Baerveldt, a UCI professor who’s on the institute’s steering committee and faculty.
The university has grown in eye research. In the past 10 years, it has gone from three full-time professors to about 30 full- and part-time faculty members.
Alliance Q3 Misses
Newport Beach medical imaging company Alliance HealthCare Services Inc. posted third-quarter results that missed Wall Street expectations late last month.
Alliance, which operates mobile imaging trucks and centers and offers radiation treatments for cancer, swung to a $1 million loss from a $3 million profit a year earlier.
Wall Street expected Alliance to post a $520,140 profit in the quarter.
Revenue fell 2% to $121 million and missed the $122.5 million expected on average by analysts.
The company faces an “environment of challenging macroeconomic trends, including the high national unemployment rate, a decline in physician office visits in the third quarter and the decline in managed care enrollment,” Chief Executive Paul Viviano said.
Alliance reaffirmed its full-year revenue forecast of $470 million to $500 million. Analysts on average expect $484 million in revenue for Alliance in 2010.
The company didn’t give a profit outlook. Wall Street projects Alliance to have a full-year loss of $3.6 million.
Anaheim General Recertified
Anaheim General Hospital, one of the county’s midsize hospitals, regained eligibility to treat patients in the federal Medicare and Medicaid insurance programs.
Anaheim General, which has 142 beds, lost a contract and certification from the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services in 2009 for what government officials said were serious and repeated deficiencies.
Since then, the hospital said it’s installed new executives who have made changes required for regaining certification.
The hospital bought laboratory equipment, implemented clinical and patient safety systems and put compliance and performance improvement measures in place, among other changes.
Pacific Health Corp. of Tustin owns Anaheim General. The hospital ranked No. 26 on the Business Journal’s most recent hospital list, with yearly net patient revenue of about $30 million.
Bits and Pieces:
Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center in Fountain Valley recently introduced CyberKnife, a robotic surgical device. CyberKnife is made by Accuray Inc., a Sunnyvale device maker, and is used to treat cancer and other tumors … The Neuropsychiatric Research Center of Orange County, which is located in Santa Ana, recently was added to a clinical trial for a potential autism treatment being developed by Curemark LLC of Rye, N.Y. Curemark’s drug, CM-AT, targets enzyme deficiencies in autistic children.
