Who says scientists are no fun?
Larry Wheeler, senior vice president of biological sciences at Irvine-based Allergan Inc., livened up a recent presentation at a meeting of the Orange County Technology Action Network, or Octane for short.
Wheeler, who is tall and has a gravelly voice, showed a slide that depicted “Bowtox”,a tongue-in-cheek version of Allergan’s Botox for dogs,and before and after shots of a pooch that received “the treatment.”
The crowd ate it up.
Kidding aside, Wheeler gave an update on some of the drug maker’s development work during the presentation. He and several others spoke at Octane’s “Insight into Innovation: Bio-Pharmaceuticals,” held earlier this month at the University of California, Irvine.
Wheeler touched on Allergan’s work to discover drugs and find new uses for existing ones, including the company’s Posurdex biodegradable implant to deliver medications to treat back-of-the-eye disease.
“We’re an opportunistic type of company,” Wheeler said.
And, of course, Wheeler talked about Botox, which is used to treat neck spasms and cosmetically to reduce wrinkles. The company is seeking to have Botox approved to treat migraines.
One reason for exploring Botox as a treatment for migraines came from dermatologists who’ve injected it for wrinkles and had their patients say, “gee, Doc, I have no headaches,” according to Wheeler.
Wheeler also drew on Allergan’s past to illustrate how the company’s changed through the years, showing a slide that included Allergan’s first product, an eye drop for allergies.
“Over the last 20 years, we have been a fully integrated pharmaceutical company,” he said. “There’s been a migration beyond eye care.”
Wheeler’s been with Allergan since 1982.
Other speakers included Steven Potkin, director of the Brain Imaging Center at UCI, and Kerry Dance, managing director of San Diego’s Hamilton BioVentures.
Separately, Octane is holding its annual forum covering biomedical topics on Wednesday at the Hyatt Regency Irvine. Speakers include Michael Mussallem, chief executive of Edwards Lifesciences Inc., Irvine; Don Milder, a managing director at Versant Ventures’ Newport Beach office and Oswald Steward, director of UCI’s Reeve-Irvine Research Center.
The forum is set to include a “state of the industry” snapshot, including large companies, startups, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and the university.
UnitedHealth’s Consumer Plan
Minnesota’s UnitedHealth Group Inc., future parent of PacifiCare Health Systems Inc., Cypress, is rolling out its own entry in the “consumer-driven healthcare” market in metropolitan Philadelphia.
UnitedHealth, according to the Philadelphia Business Journal, is looking to boost its presence in the area, where it has some 275,000 members, a number dwarfed by homegrown market leader Independence Blue Cross, which has 2.7 million members.
UnitedHealth’s plan is centered on what are called “core hospitals,” where members of the plan are going to receive 100% reimbursement for healthcare services once their deductible is met. By contrast, the reimbursement for care provided at other UnitedHealth network hospitals in the area is 90%, while the out-of-network rate is 60%.
“What we’ve done is unique,” Vince Sobocinski, a UnitedHealth vice president, told the newspaper. “In a traditional managed care environment you have in-network or out-of-network options. We created a third tier for core hospitals.”
UnitedHealth’s $8 billion buy of PacifiCare, which also is in the consumer-driven market through a plan for smaller and medium-size businesses, should be done sometime in early 2006.
Rubber Maker Gets Funding
Yulex Corp., a privately held company just over the county line in Carlsbad, closed on an $8 million third round of funding led by Argonaut Private Equity of Boston.
The latest funding brings Yulex’s total money raised to $12.5 million, including $4.5 million raised in two initial rounds.
Yulex makes natural rubber latex for medical devices, using the guayule shrub as its source material. Guayule, whose scientific name is Parthenium argentatum, is a new industrial crop.
Bits and Pieces:
MHA Group, a physician staffing company with operations in Newport Beach, was sold to AMN Healthcare, San Diego, for $160 million. MHA was founded in Newport Beach, but eventually moved to Irving, Texas Refractec Inc., Irvine, reported preliminary clinical results concerning safety and efficacy of NearVision CK, a treatment for patients who have presbyopia, a condition that causes difficulty in reading, in post-laser eye surgery patients. Refractec said the procedure, which already has Food and Drug Administration approval for treating presbyopia and farsightedness, had shown no flap complications or adverse events, and that the range of vision was improved. Refractec said the full clinical trial already is under way DataLabs Inc., Irvine, said that the latest version of its DataLabsXC electronic clinical data management software is being used by the clinical services division of Charles River Laboratories International Inc., Wilmington, Mass.
