Tyco Health Shuttering Irvine Biomed Facility
By VITA REED
Tyco International Ltd. plans to close its Irvine medical device plant, lay off about 100 workers and shift work to other North American plants, a spokeswoman said.
The company’s Tyco Healthcare facility on Jamboree Road is set to close within 10 months, according to June Fowler, a spokeswoman for Nellcor Puritan Bennett, the Tyco unit that runs the facility.
Operations are set to move to other plants “that will provide greater production efficiencies,” Fowler said. She didn’t specify which Tyco facilities would pick up the work.
In December, Tyco scaled back production in Irvine, going from three product lines to one. The facility now produces just plastic moldings for tracheostomy tubes.
The plant used to make stopcocks,small valves used to control the flow of fluids,and contrast media syringes used to inject chemicals into the bloodstream to improve X-rays.
As a result of shift, the Irvine facility has gone from some 250 workers last year to about 100 today, Fowler said.
In the late-1990s, the plant employed nearly 340 people.
Workers were told of the pending production changes in 2001, Fowler said.
But most of the cuts didn’t play out until late last year, she said.
“The company recognizes the impact (the closure) will have on the Irvine employees and is committed to providing them with comprehensive severance packages, including access to onsite career counseling,” Fowler said.
The plant became part of Tyco Healthcare Group LP in 2000 when Tyco acquired St. Louis-based Mallinckrodt Medical Inc. for about $3 billion.
Back in 1995, Mallinckrodt combined four Southern California operations, including one in Santa Ana, into the Irvine plant.
The plant has made Shiley tracheostomy devices, used to provide patients with artificial airways in critical care and home care settings.
The Shiley line is named for Don Shiley, one of Orange County’s early biomedical pioneers who also invented the Bj & #246;rk-Shiley heart valve in the early 1960s.
The restructuring isn’t surprising for Tyco, which is based in Bermuda with its U.S. headquarters in New Hampshire.
Last year the company’s shares collapsed after former Chief Executive L. Dennis Kozlowski and other former senior executives were charged with looting the company out of some $600 million in unauthorized compensation and fraudulent stock sales.
A year ago, Tyco detailed plans to split into four companies focused on healthcare, security and electronics, fire protection and flow control.
Tyco Healthcare is one of the largest medical device makers.
Besides Mallinckrodt, its other businesses include Kendall Healthcare, which makes urology products, wound care products, syringes and needles and U.S. Surgical and ValleyLab, which make various surgical products.
Last year, Masimo Corp., an Irvine-based medical device maker, sued Tyco International in federal court for alleged antitrust violations regarding sales of pulse oximeters, which measure oxygen levels in critically ill patients.
Masimo alleged that Tyco, owner of Nellcor Puritan Bennett a large rival, used rebates and fees paid to hospitals and buying groups to outmuscle products from Masimo and others.
Masimo eventually won a three-year contract from San Diego-based Premier Inc., one of the larger hospital buying groups.
A pair of Tyco International units also filed suit against Masimo in late 2002.
