Bausch & Lomb Inc., an eye device and drug maker with 300 workers in Orange County, reportedly will wait until after it fully integrates Ista Pharmaceuticals Inc. before again considering an initial public offering.
The Rochester, N.Y.-based company’s $500 million deal for Ista, a maker of eye-care products that was based in Irvine, closed last month. The Wall Street Journal cited unnamed sources as saying Bausch had been considering a public offering until deciding first to beef up on acquisitions.
Bausch makes contact lenses, contact lens solutions, prescription drugs and surgical equipment. Its operation in Aliso Viejo is the company’s surgical hub.
Chief Executive Brent Saunders told the Journal in June that Bausch’s focus was on building a strong company, with no timetable for an IPO. But sources said its timing would depend on market conditions and progress with integrating Ista.
Bausch had $2.8 billion in sales in 2011, up 10% from the previous year. The company, once publicly traded, was taken private in 2007 in a $3.67 billion buyout by New York private equity firm Warburg Pincus LLP.
Bausch had several challenges in the late 2000s, including accounting problems that forced it to restate some of its financial results. It also was forced to recall its ReNu with MoistureLoc contact lens solution after a link was found to a potentially blinding eye infection. Bausch took Warburg’s buyout offer after a hot pursuit by what was then Santa Ana-based Advanced Medical Optics Inc., now Abbott Medical Optics. Advanced Medical had a $4.23 billion offer for Bausch rejected in 2007.
Identification System
The Food and Drug Administration is considering a plan to put unique identification numbers on medical devices such as catheters, defibrillators and heart stents.
The FDA said its proposed identification program would apply to most medical devices and cost as much as $68.4 million a year. It would be implemented over a seven-year period in order to allow companies, doctors, hospitals, and regulators to prepare and spread out the cost, according to the agency.
Medical devices would have bar codes or other technologies that will identify models and details. The FDA said that such information would help it trace product flaws, failures and incompatibility before risks to users become widespread.
Making it “possible to rapidly and definitively identify a device and key attributes that affect its safe and effective use, the rule would reduce medical errors,” the FDA said.
Companies and the public will have 120 days to offer input on the FDA’s proposal. The agency could revise its plan based on such comments.
Dendreon Sued
Dendreon Corp., which has a Seal Beach plant, is now facing a lawsuit from an investor who claims it withheld information about sales of its prostate cancer treatment that led to a sharp price drop in its stock.
The suit alleges that Seattle-based Dendreon officers and directors misused proprietary information about its Provenge drug by not revealing that doctors were reluctant to prescribe it because they had to pay up front and may have had trouble getting reimbursement from Medicaid and insurance companies. Provenge costs $93,000 per treatment cycle.
Dendreon saw its shares fall 79% in 2011. That included a 67% drop between Aug. 3 and 4, after Dendreon officials acknowledged the acceptance of Provenge would be a more gradual process than first thought.
“While it is our practice not to comment on litigation, we believe this suit is baseless and without merit,” Dendreon spokesperson Lindsay Rocco told Bloomberg.
Tenet Certifications
Tenet Healthcare Corp.’s three Orange County hospitals are among 33 in the chain that received premium specialty center designations for certain types of care.
Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center received several designations, including heart rhythm disorders and cardiac care, among others. Los Alamitos Medical Center received a cardiac care designation, and Placentia-Linda Hospital received a total joint replacement designation.
Dallas-based Tenet does its designations in conjunction with UnitedHealth Group Inc., the Minnesota-based managed-care company.
Tenet also announced the appointment of Judith Chabot, formerly senior nursing director at Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia, as chief nursing officer at Placentia-Linda. Chabot replaces Anne Marie Watkins and reports to Placentia-Linda Chief Executive Kent Clayton.
Bits and Pieces
Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo received magnet recognition from the American Nurses Credentialing Center for meeting certain standards for nursing excellence. … Mission is the second St. Joseph Health hospital that received the designation, after St. Joseph Hospital-Orange. … Dental implant maker Nobel Biocare’s Yorba Linda plant was featured on a recent broadcast of the Science Channel’s How It’s Made program. … The segment looked at how a titanium rod goes through the manufacturing process to become a dental implant.
