Health Care Players Honored; Long Beach Nurses Seek Union Vote
Call it better performance through cream application.
Irvine’s Allergan Inc., the specialty drug maker, is eyeing the market for prescription acne medications with its Tazorac cream.
Tazorac, whose active ingredient is a topical retinoid called tazarotene, was approved earlier this month by the Food and Drug Administration for topical treatment of facial acne, the bane of many teens and a smattering of adults.
Last year, regulators OK’d Tazorac cream for the treatment of stable plaque psoriasis.
The cream’s approval for acne “is an integral part of our strategy to further expand Allergan’s skin care pharmaceutical business,” said F. Michael Ball, Allergan’s corporate vice president and president of the company’s North America region. Tazorac posted worldwide sales of $29.7 million for the nine months ended Sept. 28, up 35.4% from the year-ago period.
Tazorac cream is primarily used for patients with mild to moderate acne, according to Brett Fair, the medication’s product manager.
“It can be used up to severe (acne), as long as there’s not nodules, cysts or scarring,” Fair said.
In particular, Fair and Bill Humphries, Allergan’s vice president of sales and marketing for skin care, said they believe Tazorac cream could have particular appeal to women and to patients with sensitive skin.
“With a cream form, you have improved tolerability,” Fair said, noting that Tazorac’s also shown speed and efficacy in terms of treating the condition.
“There is a gender split. Males tend to prefer gels,” Humphries said, giving shaving products as an example.
On the other hand, according to Humphries, females are more used to applying creams such as makeup and moisturizers.
The total U.S. market for acne and psoriasis is approximately $900 million, according to Allergan.
According to Humphries, there are three major players in topical retinoid acne medication: Tazorac, Differin, a product of Fort Worth, Texas-based Galderma Laboratories Inc., a joint venture between L’Oreal SA and Nestle SA, and Johnson & Johnson’s Retin-A.
Galderma is considered the largest player with an estimated 35% market share.
Tazorac’s gel form received FDA approval for facial acne and plaque psoriasis in 1997. Although it carried both approvals, “We chose to promote psoriasis out of the gate,” Humphries said.
And Allergan isn’t finished with products related to Tazorac. It has filed an application with the FDA for its tazarotene compound to be used as a treatment for photodamage, or sun-related skin damage. If regulators sign off on tazarotene for photodamage, Allergan hopes to have a separate trade name in order to ensure clarity among patients and insurers, Humphries said.
March of Dimes Honorees
The Orange County March of Dimes, a non-profit volunteer agency that works to fight birth defects, recently honored four local health figures at the group’s annual gala.
A medical achievement award was presented to Dr. M. Douglas Cunningham, vice president for special projects, Pediatrix Medical Group. Cunningham, a former member of the University of California, Irvine, College of Medicine faculty, was tapped for his work in neonatal and perinatal medicine.
March of Dimes also presented three leadership awards: Tim Smith, chief executive of Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center, was tapped for achievements in the medical field. Biomedical technology awards were presented to Joe Kiani, chief executive of Masimo Corp., a privately held biomedical company in Irvine that specializes in medical signal processing, and Alex Stenzler, vice president, advanced technologies of SensorMedics Corp., a Yorba Linda-based subsidiary of Viasys Healthcare Inc. Viasys, based in Philadelphia, is scheduled to be spun off by its Boston-based parent, Thermo Electron Corp., next month.
Bits and Pieces:
Nurses at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center recently petitioned the National Labor Relations Board to conduct an election for representation by the California Nurses Association. Long Beach Memorial is part of Memorial Health Services, which owns three OC hospitals … NeoTherapeutics Inc., Irvine, said it was issued a U.S. patent for serotonin-like compounds. The compounds may have applications for anxiety, depression, obesity and neuropathic pain Cathy Cather, vice president of Health Allies, is set to discuss “Consumer Driven Healthcare” at the Orange County Employee Benefit Council’s Nov. 8 monthly meeting at the Irvine Marriott. Information: (714) 573-8605 Dr. Paul Yost, chief of staff at Children’s Hospital of Orange County, Orange, was appointed to the CalOPTIMA board by the Orange County Board of Supervisors. CalOPTIMA is the county’s managed healthcare system for MediCal patients.
In other CHOC news, the hospital reported earlier this month that it reached its 500th umbilical cord blood donation in its cord blood center’s two-year history.
