A couple of high-profile veterans of Orange County’s medical device sector have put their names behind Ophthalmology Technology Summit planned by networking organization Octane for next month in Newport Beach.
It’s the Aliso Viejo-based nonprofit group’s first such event to focus on ophthalmology technology. Its goal is to bring together local executives, technologists, clinicians and educators for a local forum, according to Octane Chief Executive Matthew Jenusaitis.
Octane regularly aims to connect individuals and businesses with capital and other resources to help spur growth in technology and innovation in OC. It has roughly 1,500 local business leaders as members and has accounted for $346 million in investments in 110 companies since 2005.
There is a concentration of the ophthalmology industry in OC, which is host to businesses that focus on eye-devices and related research. They range from big companies, such as Irvine-based Allergan Inc. and Bausch & Lomb Inc., which has an eye-surgery unit in Aliso Viejo, to startups, such as Laguna Hills-based Glaukos Corp., among others.
Eye Institute
University of California, Irvine’s Gavin Herbert Eye Institute also adds to the eye-care landscape here. It’s a key center for ophthalmology research and ranks among the top U.S. institutions receiving grants from the National Institutes of Health. A new, 70,000-square-foot clinical and education building is set to open in September.
“That’s a wonderful blend of skills and capabilities,” said William Link, co-chair of Octane’s upcoming ophthalmology technology summit. “There’s an understanding that OC is a leader in the ophthalmology field. Up in the Bay Area, there are now probably half a dozen ophthalmology startups, but … we probably have twice that. And then there are other, bigger companies located in the U.S., but in terms of a cluster of activity, it really is unmatched.”
Link is a veteran in the healthcare industry and currently serves as a Newport Beach-based managing director of Versant Ventures Inc., an investment firm that has its headquarters in Menlo Park and specializes in early-stage funding for medical device and healthcare companies. He serves as chairperson of Glaukos.
Link also is featured in the Business Journal’s OC 50 Special Report this week, a compilation of the most influential individuals here (starts on page 29).
Link has been co-chair of the nationwide Ophthalmology Innovation Summit for the past five years, an event that’s held twice a year, with the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery.
Jenusaitis approached Link with the idea of having an OC version of the conference. Link liked the suggestion, and the two then asked Jim Mazzo to participate.
Mazzo is serving as co-chair of the local summit alongside Link.
He currently serves as executive chairman of AcuFocus Inc. in Irvine, an early-stage company that makes products to help treat near-vision loss.
He was a fixture on the OC 50 list before his recent retirement as president of Santa Ana-based Abbott Medical Optics Inc., a unit of Abbott Park, Ill.-based Abbott Laboratories. He previously spent more than two decades at Allergan, where he oversaw the 2002 spinoff of Advanced Medical Optics and the company’s eventual sale to Abbott in 2009.
Speakers
The roster of speakers at the Octane event includes attorney Ellen Darling, partner at the Irvine office of Pittsburgh-based K&L Gates; Roger Steinert, professor and chair of UC Irvine’s Ophthalmology School of Medicine; and Clay Wilemon, chief executive of DevicePharm, an Irvine-based medical marketing agency.
A range of topics will be discussed, including technology used to regenerate retinal cells to cure blindness by Henry Klassen, associate professor and director at UCI’s ophthalmology school.
“By pulling together all the different constituencies—legal, advertising, academics, researchers, entrepreneurs, investors—you get all these people together and create an environment,” Jenusaitis said. “They start bouncing off ideas. … If you get the right people together and stimulate the process … it creates jobs in OC. It stimulates the economy in OC.”
The general cost for such a meeting varies from about $50,000 and $100,000, according to Octane, which looks to about half a dozen key sponsors to underwrite the event, including DevicePharm and K&L Gates.
Interest in this summit has been “very, very high,” said Jenusaitis, who’s already looking forward to booking a bigger place for the second annual summit.
“[This year’s event] is going to be capped at 125 people,” he said. “At the Pacific Club, that’s all we can hold. We expect not only for it to be an annual meeting, but next year, it will be in a much bigger venue.”
