BIOMED: It Began With Beckman
By VITA REED
When you talk Orange County technology, you’re talking more than aeronautics, PCs and chips. There are medical devices, too.
The growth of OC’s medical device industry was sparked in the mid-1950s. That’s when Arnold Beckman, a scientist who invented the pH meter, moved his medical instrument company that he founded in 1935 from Los Angeles County to Fullerton.
Beckman Instruments Inc. eventually evolved into Beckman Coulter Inc. Beckman Coulter sold $2 billion worth of centrifuges, medical diagnostic testing instruments and supplies last year.
The 1960s brought the advent of the original Edwards Laboratories, which developed heart valves, to Orange County. Edwards Laboratories was the brainchild of Miles “Lowell” Edwards, an electrical engineer by trade who worked out of a small Santa Ana laboratory. Edwards Laboratories eventually evolved into Irvine-based Edwards Lifesciences Corp.
Several professionals from the original Edwards Laboratories were involved in OC-based biomed start-ups. Those included Don Shiley, whose Shiley Laboratories made disc-driven heart valves and Jim Bentley, whose Bentley Laboratories produced membrane oxygenators.
Warren Hancock, with Hancock Labs; Bruce Vorhauer, with VLI; Ted Gourley, with CDI; and George Smyth, who became president and chief executive of Interpore, also came out of Edwards.
Other device makers either based here or with a large OC presence include Santa Ana-based Advanced Medical Optics Inc. and Alcon Laboratories Inc., which makes ophthalmic devices; Medtronic, which makes heart valves; and SensorMedics, which makes advanced diagnostic products for the respiratory care market.
Besides actual device companies, Orange County also has a number of venture capital firms that are known for their work in nurturing device makers. Those include Ventana Capital Management LLC in Irvine and Versant Ventures’ Newport Beach office.
