A medical office building is coming to Aliso Viejo.
Irvine-based ACS Development Group Inc. plans to start work this fall on 2 Journey, a $4.5 million, 20,000-square-foot, two-story medical office building with 106 parking spaces. ACS also is the building’s general contractor.
Construction is slated to start in October. ACS expects completion and tenants to move in during the second half of 2010.
Allen Basso and Kurt Bruggeman, senior vice presidents at Lee & Associates-Irvine Inc., are handling the building’s leasing.
The building is expected to draw tenants from South County, Brug-geman said.
“We’re targeting all the different communities that surround Aliso Viejo,” he said.
Potential tenants could include pediatricians, pediatric dentists, family physicians and internists.
The building’s asking leasing price is $2.95 a square foot. For doctors who sign leases prior to the start of construction, Bruggeman said, there will be tenant improvements and opportunities to buy a stake position in the project.
Irvine-based LPA Inc., the county’s largest architecture firm by local billings, is designing 2 Journey. The firm is known for creating green buildings.
Silver Lining in Botox Delay
There is a silver lining in the Food and Drug Administration’s recent decision to delay the approval of using Allergan Inc.’s blockbuster drug Botox to treat upper limb spasticity, or loss of muscle function and tone, a writer for the Motley Fool investing Web site said.
The Irvine-based drug maker had submitted the drug to treat muscle loss in stroke victims. But the FDA suggested a broader use for the drug, which is a purified form of a toxin related to botulism, a type of food poisoning.
The FDA asked Allergan to conduct a post-approval study for using Botox for muscle loss, regardless of the cause, in patients ages 2 to 17.
Motley Fool author Brian Orelli pointed out the FDA didn’t want any new clinical trials and that Allergan thinks it should be able to put together additional information from already completed trials in two to three months.
Allergan already has turned in a risk evaluation and mitigation strategy plan for Botox, according to Orelli.
“The best news is that the agency is actually being pretty easygoing,” Orelli said.
He contended that regulators actually gave a “ringing endorsement” on Botox’s safety by suggesting that Allergan test the drug on children who may have upper limb spasticity because of cerebral palsy.
Ensign Getting New CFO
Ensign Group Inc., a Mission Viejo operator of nursing homes, recently said it would promote Suzanne Snapper to chief financial officer.
Snapper will succeed Alan Norman, who is set to retire in August, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Snapper now is vice president of finance at Ensign Facility Services, an Ensign subsidiary that operates the company’s service center. She was with accounting firm KPMG LLC for 10 years prior to coming to Ensign.
Dentists Visit Anaheim
More than 25,000 dentists, dental professionals and dental products exhibitors came to Anaheim last month for the California Dental Association’s 2009 spring scientific session, which took place at the Anaheim Convention Center.
Orange County dental companies that participated as exhibitors included BioLase Technology Inc., an Irvine maker of lasers used in dental surgery, and DentalXChange, part of Irvine-based EDI Health Group Inc. DentalXChange is a provider of software that allows dental offices to do things such as process claims and check eligibility.
Bits and Pieces:
UnitedHealth Group Inc., parent of Cypress-based PacifiCare Health Systems Inc., said it was working with the California Regional Health Information Organization on a project to deliver secure patient information to hospital emergency departments for UnitedHealth/PacifiCare’s California commercial health maintenance organization customers Endocare Inc., an Irvine medical device maker, said it received a letter from Nasdaq officials saying that its stockholders’ equity didn’t comply with the minimum $2.5 million required for continued listing on Nasdaq’s Capital Market. Endocare said it was going to submit a compliance plan, which was due last week Several UC Irvine Healthcare doctors and nurses were honored by OC’s emergency medical services department for their work in trying to improve the delivery of emergency care to residents. They included Steven Cramer, an associate professor of neurology who spearheaded the creation of a new stroke-neurology receiving center.
