Edwards Lifesciences Corp. has trekked a path along the shore of Lake Geneva in Switzerland to move its Europe, Middle East and Africa regional headquarters from Saint-Prex to Nyon.
The Irvine-based heart valve maker said that the new office would be a more central location for the region.
Manufacturing will re-main in Horw, about 150 miles away from Nyon.
The headquarters has a training facility, room for more than 100 employees, a fitness center and a cafe.
The Nyon office will help Edwards “accommodate our significant regional growth in heart valves and critical care,” said Patrick Verguet, the company’s corporate vice president who oversees the region, in a statement.
Sales in Europe accounted for $380.3 million, or about 31%, of Edwards’ total revenue of $1.2 billion in 2008.
Separately, Edwards said a new study showed its Port Access system for implanting replacement mitral heart valves decreased the length of stay in hospitals and intensive care units. The system is less invasive than conventional surgery as it uses small incisions in the spaces between the ribs as entry to replace the valve. It also improved other outcomes when compared to using a sternotomy, an incision along the center of the chest, to replace the valve.
Anaheim Memorial Sale Done
The fourth time turned out to be the charm for Fountain Valley-based Memorial Health Services in its attempt to sell the former Anaheim Memorial Medical Center.
AHMC Healthcare Inc. of Alhambra finalized its $60 million purchase of the 223-bed hospital at the beginning of July and changed its name to AHMC Anaheim Regional Medical Center.
AHMC closed the deal after Attorney General Jerry Brown’s office signed off on it. Approval from Brown’s office is required when a hospital changes hands from a not-forprofit, such as Memorial, to a for-profit operator.
AHMC was required to satisfy certain conditions as part of the sale, including maintaining the hospital’s current service levels and the emergency room, while continuing to invest additional capital to improve its infrastructure and technology. The company also was required to offer jobs to all of Anaheim Regional’s 900 workers, retain its current doctor staff, maintain the provision of charity and indigent care and appoint a community board.
Memorial, which had owned the hospital since 1995, put it up for sale almost three years ago. Brown’s office blocked attempted sales to Prime Healthcare Services Inc., a Victorville-based owner of four OC hospitals, and Tustin-based Pacific Health Corp. A third potential sale, to Santa Ana’s Integrated Healthcare Holdings Inc., unraveled in early 2008 when financing fell apart.
Botox’s Safety
Allergan Inc., an Irvine-based drug maker, was highlighted in a recent Motley Fool article on how the Food and Drug Administration is working on increasing drug safety.
A year ago, the FDA set up Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies, a program that requires drug makers to provide certain types of information to doctors and patients. Regulators have issued about 50 directives through the program since its inception.
In the case of Allergan, the FDA asked the drug maker to apply a warning for its flagship Botox wrinkle smoother after the FDA slapped one on Dysport, a competing botulinum toxin from Scottsdale-based Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp., author Brian Orelli wrote.
“Rather than fighting it, Allergan seems to be embracing the REMS,” Orelli said.
Regulators want to make sure that doctors know that Botox and Dysport can’t be used interchangeably because their strength is measured through different unit sizes, Orelli said.
“Allergan is more than willing to push that idea, since it’s been on the market a lot longer and doctors have experience with it,” Orelli wrote. “I can see the company changing the safety message, ‘the drugs aren’t interchangeable,’ into a marketing message, ‘the drugs aren’t interchangeable, so use the one you have experience with.'”
Allergan officials have said that Botox’s 20-year history and safety record will carry the drug in a competitive marketplace.
Bits and Pieces:
Irvine-based medical device maker Endologix Inc. said late last month that it was in violation of one of the Nasdaq’s rules as it no longer has a majority of independent directors. Nasdaq has given Endologix a “cure period” that ends June 2010. Endologix said it was searching for an independent director Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc., an Irvine drug maker, said that Russell Investments added its stock to its Russell Global, Russell 3000 and Russell 2000 indices. The Russell indices are used by institutional investors to help guide their portfolios Vertos Medical Inc. of Aliso Viejo said that a study showed that its “mild” procedure for treating lumbar spinal stenosis, a degenerative disease, may be an appropriate treatment alternative to surgery early in the disease’s progression.
