Advanced Medical Optics Inc. Chief Executive James Mazzo, an athlete in his younger days, uses a sports analogy to describe a pair of pending deals aimed at boosting his company’s refractive eye surgical business.
“As one customer said, ‘game, set, match,'” Mazzo said. “Now, we completely surround them with all their refractive needs. We surround them like no one else.”
Santa Ana-based Advanced Medical is spending more than $820 million for a pair of companies,$808 million for IntraLase Corp., an Irvine maker of lasers for vision correction surgery, and $20 million for WaveFront Sciences Inc. of Albuquerque, N.M., which makes diagnostic systems.
Advanced Medical first made a big vision correction surgery splash in 2005, when it spent $1.3 billion for Visx Inc., a company that made lasers that reshape the cornea to correct vision. IntraLase’s lasers are used to cut a flap in the cornea, the first stage in Lasik surgery.
The deal moves Advanced Medical into what’s known as “all-laser Lasik,” Mazzo said. Traditionally, a blade,including one from Advanced Medical,was used as the first step before lasering.
“Lasik still tends to be underpenetrated,” Mazzo said.
Fear, a lack of awareness and economic conditions tend to be the main reasons why patients don’t pursue surgery, he said.
“So what’s occurred is that there’s really been no one, including both the practitioners and ourselves, clearly educating the consumer on why Lasik is right for you or why it might not be right for you,” Mazzo said.
Advanced Medical plans to include an educational aspect to its marketing of Lasik.
“So that’s what you’re going to see,” he said. “This all-laser Lasik is the new standard of care, and as the leader, we obviously were not supporting that because we had a blade,” Mazzo said. “But now, with us having (IntraLase) under our umbrella, we’re obviously going to be pushing this to a grander degree.”
Advanced Medical will support surgeons who still use the microkeratomes, or metal blades, but won’t promote the device, Mazzo said.
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Edwards plant: company reviewing quality systems |
Edwards Gets Warning Letter
Edwards Lifesciences Corp., an Irvine-based medical device maker, said late last month it received a warning from the Food and Drug Administration over conditions at its Irvine plant.
The FDA’s letter said Edwards wouldn’t receive regulatory approval for devices “reasonably related” to the issues in the letter until they are resolved.
The letter comes from an inspection that ended in August and deals with the company’s quality systems, training, documentation and complaint handling in Irvine.
Edwards, in a release, said it’s involved in the broad review of quality systems.
“We are fully committed to continual improvement of our quality systems and to resolving these issues promptly,” Chief Executive Michael Mussallem said.
Edwards makes heart valves and other products, including catheters and stents.
Drug Maker Taps Valeant Execs
San Diego drug maker Ardea Biosciences Inc. has reached out to five former executives of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International to fill management positions.
Ardea leases 60,000 square feet of space at Valeant’s former Hyland Avenue corporate office in Costa Mesa and acquired three drug development programs from the company in December.
Valeant moved to Aliso Viejo late last year.
The former Valeant executives now with Ardea: Robert Hamatake, vice president, discovery biology; Li-Tain Yeh, vice president, preclinical development; Jean-Michel Vernier, senior director, discovery chemistry; Jean-Luc Girardet, senior director, discovery logistics; and Jingfan Huang, senior director, pharmaceutical development.
Ardea recently moved to San Diego from the Bay area, where it used to be known as IntraBiotics Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Bits and Pieces:
Children’s Hospital of Orange County opened an orthopedic institute specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of complex orthopedic injuries, illnesses and disorders in children and adolescents. Afshin Aminian, a CHOC orthopedic surgeon, is the institute’s medical director Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc., an Irvine drug developer, presented study data showing that its satraplatin drug candidate significantly reduced the risk of disease progression in advanced hormone-refractory prostate cancer patients who’ve failed prior treatments. Spectrum has submitted the final portion of a new drug application to the FDA.
