2018 was the Year of the IPO for OC’s healthcare scene, with a quartet of drugmakers, device makers and medical aesthetics firms joining the ranks of the publicly traded.
2019, not so much—no healthcare firms here went public. OC did gain a notable name: Staar Surgical Co. (Nasdaq: STAA) relocated from Monrovia to Lake Forest, adding a $1.7 billion valued firm led by Caren Mason to the area’s thriving ophthalmology scene.
What’s in store for 2020? It could be the Year of the Lawsuit in OC’s healthcare community.
Axonics Modulation Technologies Inc., one of 2018’s IPO debutants, faces patent infringement charges from Medtronic PLC, and two of the area’s top glaucoma-treating device companies, Glaukos Corp. and Ivantis Inc., are embroiled in litigation over their eye stents.
Among area hospitals and upstart companies, cancer treatment remains a focus heading into next year.
Mission Viejo-based Mission Hospital, which is part of Providence St. Joseph Health system, cut the bow for the Leonard Cancer Center in October with its new chief executive Seth Teigen.
The Laboratory for Advanced Medicine (LAM) is utilizing artificial intelligence to identify the early stages of cancer using cf-DNA. It has raised $120 million in funding since its founding five years ago, much of it this year, and appointed Kenneth Chahine as its chief executive in November.
City of Hope, the cancer treatment specialists, plans to open the doors of its first OC location in Newport Center at the beginning of next year. Its aim is to provide greater accessibility to patients currently trekking to Duarte for outpatient treatment—which is two hours north of L.A.
It’s also getting approvals for a much larger campus at Irvine’s Great Park Neighborhoods.
