Bausch & Lomb Alums Form Startup
By VITA REED
Two former Bausch & Lomb Inc. executives have started a contract medical production business in Irvine with the Rochester, N.Y.-based eye care products company as one of their initial customers.
Alliance Medical Products Inc. came about after a move late last year by Bausch & Lomb to consolidate some operations, according to Juan Valdes, Alliance’s co-founder and chief executive. Valdes and partner Tom Lucas, Alliance’s executive vice president, are former Bausch & Lomb executives.
“B & L; used to manufacture four products here,four of the products we make today,” Valdes said.
Alliance took over a former Bausch & Lomb Surgical facility at 9342 Jeronimo in the Irvine Spectrum.
Bausch & Lomb officials “were going to abandon the facility,” Valdes said. “I worked for Bausch & Lomb during that period. I stepped away, looked at this as a great opportunity and we formed the team here.”
About half of Alli-ance’s 42 workers hail from Bausch & Lomb, Valdes said. The company’s headcount eventually could grow to between 150 and 180 people, he said.
The operations that evolved into Alliance include production of a device that delivers retinal drugs to people with end-stage AIDS and a system to house corneas taken from cadavers for transplantation, Valdes said.
Alliance, which is privately held, expects to have some $10 million in revenue this year, according to Valdes.
“We’re looking to be around $30 million (in revenue) in five years, a 35% to 40% growth rate,” he said.
Lucas and Valdes dug into their own pockets to start Alliance.
“We’re trying to expand our business,” Valdes said. “It’s possible that we’d go out and borrow money from banks. I don’t see us going to the venture capital route. There’s really no reason to, since we have very little debt.”
Alliance can do process engineering, development, aseptic and liquid filling and packaging and assembly, Valdes said. The company also has a chemical and biological-testing laboratory at its 53,000-square-foot building and can produce drug tablets as well as devices.
The company is hoping to take on work for companies with new or mature product lines, Valdes said.
“We don’t really see ourselves in the middle of the band with the high-volume products,” he said. “We think that most clients will take (those) products in-house and save themselves the margin of having a third-party player in it.”
Bausch & Lomb is one of nine Alliance clients so far. To drum up more business, the company has attended trade shows such as Medical Design and Manufacturing in Anaheim and is active in trade groups, Valdes said.
“Also, we have a significant number of relationships because Tom and I have been in this game for many years,” he said.
Valdes said he’s been in the medical device or drug industries since 1982. Lucas has worked in medical technology since 1983, he said.
The company’s strongpoint is ophthalmic products. But Alliance also is looking to other areas for growth, according to Valdes. The company’s cold aseptic filling process could lead to outsourcing work for biotechnology drug makers, he said.
“For us, Orange County’s the perfect location being between San Diego and the Bay area,” he said. “If you’re in the medical device business, especially the aseptic fill and solid forms business, you can’t be in a better spot. This is the happening area.”
OC’s contract medical manufacturing industry underwent consolidation earlier this month when Avail Medical Products Inc. of Fort Worth, Texas, bought Santa Ana-based Horizon Medical Inc., creating a combined company that could have about $135 million in sales this year.
Avail-Horizon is a rival to Alliance “on the fringes,” Valdes said, though his company works in a niche within the device outsourcing arena.
“Both of those companies focus on the high volume,” he said. “They’re fishing for the really big jobs.”
