ICN’s R & D; Boost a Boon for Local Biomed; Morpace Moves In
Allergan Inc., Irvine, and Boehringer Ingelheim, a pharmaceutical company headquartered in Ingelheim, Germany, have signed a licensing deal for Allergan to develop and market epinastine, a treatment for ocular allergies. Boehringer currently makes an oral form of epinastine for South America and Japan.
Under the agreement, Boehringer will grant Allergan rights to the ophthalmic formulation of the drug to treat allergies, as well as provide expertise in product development and information for clinical trials. In exchange, Boehringer Ingelheim will receive milestone payments when the product is approved in the U.S. and the European Union and royalties on product sales. Allergan will market the product worldwide except for Japan.
Other newsworthy events at Allergan: A Berkeley biopharmaceuticals company, under a licensing agreement with Allergan, has completed a laboratory test that combined anti-infective agents and naturally occurring human host-defense proteins. XOMA’s findings may be used by Allergan to develop a product for treating antibiotic-resistant eye infections. In June, both companies signed an agreement, which gives Allergan exclusive rights to XOMA’s research. Allergan pays for all development costs and XOMA will receive additional payments when milestones, such as this one, are met.
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Morpace International, a market research and consulting firm with offices in Farmington Hills, Mich., Boston and London, recently opened a new office in the Irvine Spectrum headed by healthcare industry veteran Jack McDonald.
McDonald, 47, was previously senior vice president of marketing and sales at For Health in Costa Mesa and senior vice president of marketing for Woodland Hills-based HealthNet. He was also assistant vice president of marketing for Aetna Health Plan in Middleton, Conn.
Morpace’s clients include Ford Motor Co., Aetna U.S. Healthcare, Motorola and UPS. Though the company’s largest clients are in the automotive industry, healthcare firms are also dominant on the company’s client roster.
Morpace settled on Orange County for its new Western States and Pacific Rim office because Ford’s Lincoln Mercury division is here and the carmaker is expected to move other operations from Michigan to Irvine. McDonald said.
The local office has five employees, but McDonald says the company is in the process of hiring more.
The stated plan of ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. chairman Milan Panic to increase R & D; expenditures from $20 million to $100 million annually at its Costa Mesa headquarters is seen as great news for Orange County’s biomedical industry.
“While most people may not be thrilled with Mr. Panic being the leader of ICN, so what?” said Dave Anast, publisher of the Costa Mesa-based Biomedical Market Newsletter.
“They don’t have to invite him over to dinner on Saturday night. I’m looking at him to be the economic engine of growth for small medical manufacturers. Even a tiny amount could be substantial.”
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Bits and pieces:
Bonus! Besides being blessed with a bouncing baby, the parents of the first baby born at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center after the stroke of midnight on Jan. 1 were earmarked for a load of gifts, including a $2,000 U.S. savings bond, a proclamation from the city of Laguna Hills, a special gift basket and membership to Saddleback Memorial Foundation’s Baby Alumni Club. But that’s not all. They also received a car seat, a home baby-proofing kit, a scrapbook and a supply of baby formula VitalCom Inc.’s CFO, Shelley B.Thunen is resigning this month to work for an unnamed, privately held Internet commerce and applications software company Richard Haier, professor of pediatrics at UCI’s College of Medicine recently received $1.9 million from the National Institutes of Health to use PET brain scans to compare metabolic changes in the brains of Down’s syndrome patients with changes in those with Alzheimer’s disease. Scientists want to know why Down’s syndrome patients who develop Alzheimer’s do not experience severe stages of the disease In other news from UCI: Wanda Pratt, an assistant professor in the university’s Department of Information and Computer Science who focuses on medical informatics, has developed a software prototype called DynaCat to retrieve and organize documents from a search. Since the Medline database of medical journal articles contains some 8.6 million entries, the software helps to simplify the search process for physicians.
