This year has seen big names dominate the headlines for Orange County healthcare deals.
At the top are Santa Ana-based Advanced Medical Optics Inc.’s $808 million buy of Irvine’s IntraLase Corp. and Fullerton’s Beckman Coulter Inc.’s $1.55 billion offer for Biosite Inc.
But a few smaller deals have managed to break through, including a pair earlier this month.
EGene Inc., an Irvine maker of machines for DNA and RNA analysis that trades on the low-profile Bulletin Board exchange, said this month it’s being bought for $34 million in cash and stock by Qiagen NV, a Netherlands-based diagnostic products maker.
The deal’s been approved by both companies’ boards and is expected to close in the third quarter.
EGene makes a low-cost bird flu screening test, among other things. It’s led by Ming S. Liu, a former principal scientist at Beckman.
Bespak PLC, a British company that makes breathing products, said it is spending up to $38 million for Irvine-based Emergent Respiratory Products Inc. Emergent develops, makes and sells specialty breathing equipment and related single-use circuits and masks to hospital emergency departments.
It will first invest $3 million for a 51% equity stake in Emergent, and would follow that up with buying the remaining 49% of Emergent from its current shareholders between 2009 and 2011 at what the company said was a predetermined profit multiple, Bespak said in a release.
The estimated cost would range from $15 million to $18 million, “but in any event subject to a maximum deferred consideration of $35 million,” according to the company.
Bespak also has U.S. operations in Indianapolis and Kent, Ohio. It is publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange.
Valeant Effort
Aliso Viejo drug maker Valeant Pharmaceuticals International said second-phase clinical trial results for its epilepsy drug, retigabine, showed it significantly reduced monthly seizure rates among participants.
The study, which included 396 patients in 19 countries, showed that retigabine was effective in improving the management of epileptic patients who have partial seizures that are difficult to treat with current medications.
“This new molecule clearly acts by way of a different neuronal mechanism, and if approved, would meet a market need,” said Dr. Roger Porter, the study’s lead author, in a release.
Neurology, a scientific journal, published the results.
Valeant got retigabine in February 2005 from its $280 million buy of San Diego-based Xcel Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Eyeing Eyeonics
Eyeonics Inc., a privately held Aliso Viejo medical device maker that could look to go public, said it swung to a first-quarter operating profit of $500,000, versus the $2.3 million net loss it reported a year earlier.
Revenue for the first quarter was up 36% to $5.5 million. The company also said that its lead product, the Crystalens intraocular replacement lens, has been implanted in more than 70,000 patients worldwide.
Eyeonics was founded in 1998. It got Food and Drug Administration approval for Crystalens in 2003. Crystalens is designed to allow the lens to move the eye in a manner similar to the eye’s natural lens.
Patent Protection
Allergan Inc., the Irvine maker of Botox, eye and skin drugs, said a federal appeals court upheld an earlier ruling protecting its Acular eye drug patent from generics.
Allergan said that the U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a ruling that Canadian drug maker Apotex Inc. and its Novex Pharma unit infringed a patent for Acular, which treats inflammation following cataract surgery. Allergan licenses the rights to Acular from Roche Palo Alto LLC.
The earlier decision from June 2006 prevents the FDA from issuing an approval for a generic version of Acular.
In other Allergan news, Allergan Canada Inc., a Toronto-based unit, said dermal fillers Juv & #233;derm and Juv & #233;derm Ultra Plus now are available in that country. Allergan also launched Vivit & #233;, which it bills as an “advanced skin care line that revitalizes and shields skin to reduce the signs of aging.” Vivit & #233; products will be available without a prescription through dermatologists nationwide.
