Orange County’s medical device companies saw another year of modest growth, according to this week’s Business Journal list.
The 25 largest medical device makers based here or with significant operations in the county added 356 workers to their ranks in the past year for a 2.8% gain.
The growth easily outpaces the county as a whole, which saw a 2% decline in employment in July versus a year earlier.
The gain primarily was stoked by four companies that each added 50 or more employees during the past year.
In all, the companies, which make products ranging from heart valves to eye devices, employ 12,984 people locally.
A year earlier, OC’s largest medical device companies grew their employment by 3%.
One company is new to the list: BioLase Technology Inc., coming in at No. 20 with 157 local workers.
Figures for seven companies are estimates.
Beckman Coulter Inc., the perennial No. 1 device maker, added 53 workers for a total of 2,127. Beckman, a maker of medical testing equipment and supplies, is planning to move from its longtime Fullerton base to neighboring Brea in early 2009.
No. 2 Edwards Lifesciences Corp., an Irvine heart valve and device maker, added 67 OC workers, a 4% gain from a year earlier and the biggest employment gain by worker count on the list. In all, Edwards has 1,900 workers here.
Edwards is working on a large trial for its Sapien heart valve, which is inserted without major surgery. Some analysts regard the device as potentially transformative for the company, opening the heart valve market to high-risk patients.
Sapien is generally cheered by Wall Street, but a JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst took a snipe at the product last month, suggesting that its trial may be problematic.
Rounding Out Top 10
Edwards was followed by B. Braun Medical Inc. in Irvine, which kept its No. 3 spot and whose jobs were essentially flat at 1,314 workers. B. Braun is a unit of Germany’s B. Braun Melsungen AG that makes devices such as needle-free intravenous equipment connectors and drug delivery systems locally. The company recently opened a Westminster warehouse to store finished products.
Late last month, B. Braun signed a deal with Premier Inc., a large purchasing group out of Charlotte, N.C., to distribute its products in the group’s 2,000 member hospitals and 53,000 other healthcare facilities.
Applied Medical Resources Corp., a Rancho Santa Margarita maker of devices used in heart, vascular and less-invasive surgeries, ranked No.4 on the list with 848 workers.
The list’s top five is rounded out by Alcon Laboratories in Irvine. Alcon added 31 jobs for a 4% gain, bringing its local workforce to 751 employees.
Alcon, which makes eye surgical instruments in OC, is in the midst of a handover from one Swiss company to another. Novartis SA bought 25% of Alcon earlier this summer from Nestl & #233; SA. Novartis, which has relatively little overlap with Alcon, is likely to exercise rights to acquire Nestl & #233;’s remaining 52% share of Alcon by 2010.
The largest job decline on the list came from No. 6 Advanced Medical Optics Inc. of Santa Ana. Advanced Medical’s Orange County workforce fell 7% to 659 employees.
In February, Advanced Medical said it was planning to cut about 150 jobs, or 4% of its work-force, to save $10 million to $12 million a year.
Advanced Medical derives some 40% of its sales from laser eye surgery, which is almost never covered by vision insurance.
The company recently revised its profit guidance because the slow U.S. economy has affected demand for laser eye surgery. Advanced Medical is working on international expansion and cost cutting to offset weak U.S. sales.
Toshiba America Medical Systems Inc. in Tustin, the list’s No. 7 entry, posted a 2% gain to 600 local jobs. Toshiba America, which makes medical scanning equipment, is part of Japan’s Toshiba Corp.
No. 8 Medtronic Heart Valves in Santa Ana said its workforce was flat at 550 local jobs. Minneapolis-based Medtronic Inc., which competes with Edwards, has outlined plans to eventually join the less-invasive heart valve market.
Masimo Corp. of Irvine moved up one spot to No. 10 this year and saw its jobs grow 13% to 418. Masimo makes devices that measure various substances in patients, including levels of oxygen and hemoglobin,a substance that carries oxygen.
The company added jobs because of demand for its products and technology in hospitals and clinical settings, said Tom McCall, the company’s vice president of corporate communications.
Movement on List
Ev3 Inc., last year’s No. 10 device maker, fell to No. 13, although its actual job numbers only slipped 4% to 328 workers. Ev3 makes devices for treating brain and blood vessel diseases.
The company, which is based in Plymouth, Minn., brought in OC device veteran Robert Palmisano as its chief executive in April, replacing James Corbett. Palmisano is perhaps best-known for taking IntraLase Corp., a maker of lasers used in eye surgeries, public in 2004 and selling it to Advanced Medical in 2007.
Palmisano has said he doesn’t plan to move Ev3’s corporate office to Irvine.
“The headquarters of the company will remain in Minneapolis,the board really made that clear to me,” he said.
The biggest percentage gain on the list was No. 19 Bausch & Lomb Inc., which posted a 52% hike to 160 local workers.
Bausch, which is based in Rochester, N.Y. and competes with Alcon and Advanced Medical, is focusing on Orange County as the hub of its surgical eye business. The company bought Eyeonics Inc., an Aliso Viejo company that makes replacement lenses used in cataract surgeries, earlier this year.
Bausch leased space and consolidated its surgical unit to prepare for the likely relocation of its eye surgical research and development
operations here.
Moving to OC “puts our surgical business right in the center of the heartbeat of where the ophthalmic innovation world resides,southern OC. This is where the action is,” said J. Andy Corley, Bausch’s OC-based global president of surgical products who was Eyeonics’ cofounder and former chief executive.
Another large percentage gain came from No. 21 SenoRx Inc., a maker of breast biopsy devices that just moved to Irvine from Aliso Viejo. SenoRx added 33 workers for a 27% jump to 155 local workers.
SenoRx’s revenue grew 38% to $11.2 million in the second quarter, compared to a year earlier.
Yet another double-digit percentage gain came from blood vessel disease device maker Endologix Inc., which rounded out the list at No. 25. Irvine-based Endologix, which is gearing up to launch two new products within the next nine months or so, added 21 workers for a 20% hike. Endologix counts 126 local workers.
