A recent decision on federal coverage for cataract surgery is encouraging for Orange County’s eye device makers.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said earlier this month that Medicare patients can choose replacement eye lenses for farsightedness during cataract surgery for an extra fee.
Farsightedness, or presbyopia, comes with aging and results in a loss of focus close up.
The federal move “can put us in a position where we receive higher revenues and therefore are able to invest higher amounts in research to continue the whole development process,” said Russ Trenary, vice president and chief marketing officer for Santa Ana’s Advanced Medical Optics Inc.
Advanced Medical makes ReZoom, an interocular lens that received Food and Drug Administration clearance in March. The company also makes Array, an older lens.
Back in the days when Advanced Medical was part of Irvine-based Allergan Inc., it was one of the first companies to receive FDA approval for a multifocal intraocular lens, Trenary said.
“It will be a significant boost for ReZoom,” he said. “It encourages companies to continue to develop those kinds of technologies.”
Advanced Medical has started to sell ReZoom outside the U.S., Trenary said. The lens should be on sale here within the next couple of months, he said.
The company went ahead with ReZoom’s research and development regardless of what could have happened with Medicare, Trenary said.
“I don’t care what the reimbursement is going to be, this is a good enough product that if we launch it, we might at least be able to gain enough market share to justify the research expense,” he said.
Intraocular cataract replacement lenses, according to Trenary, have been impacted by what he called a “capitated environment” created by cataract surgery intraocular lens reimbursement caps in 1990 and 1995. That took several companies out of the market, he said.
Meanwhile, eyeonics Inc., a much smaller company based in Aliso Viejo, issued a press release touting its role in working with U.S. Rep. Christopher Cox, a Newport Beach Republican, in getting the ruling on replacement lenses.
Eyeonics’ main product, Crystalens, is designed to provide “natural vision” after cataract surgery.
“This ruling greatly expands the market opportunity for Crystalens now that doctors can offer a presbyopic treatment to their Medicare patients with cataracts,” said J. Andy Corley, eyeonics’ cofounder and chief executive, in a release.
SkinMedica IPO
SkinMedica Inc., a maker of dermatology products based in Carlsbad, plans to raise up to $86.3 million in an initial public offering. SkinMedica is looking to trade on Nasdaq under the proposed ticker “SKMD.”
Rex Bright, a former official with Irvine-based Allergan, is SkinMedica’s chief executive and an investor, along with David Hale and Cam Gardner, a pair of San Diego biotech veterans. Bright served as president of Allergan’s skin care unit when it was part of SmithKline Beecham.
SkinMedica has other OC ties. Dennie Dyer, vice president of operations, previously worked at PacifiCare Health Systems Inc. of Cypress.
And SkinMedica’s financial backers include Domain Associates LLC, a venture capital firm with offices in Laguna Niguel and Princeton, N.J.
The company’s products include Vaniqa, which impedes the growth of facial hair on women, and EpiQuin Micro, used to treat skin hyperpigmentation.
SkinMedica, which has 110 workers, posted a net loss of $14.8 million on sales of $22.1 million last year. Like other companies, SkinMedica is marketing to dermatologists, a group of doctors that are a fairly new target market.
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Gillette Co. came up with Vaniqa and marketed the drug to general care physicians. Women First Health Care Inc., a now-defunct San Diego company that acquired the rights to Vaniqa in 2002, targeted obstetricians and gynecologists.
SkinMedica bought the rights to Vaniqa out of Women First’s bankruptcy estate for $36.6 million in 2004. Bristol Myers-Squibb makes the drug.
Bits and Pieces:
Raymond Fenwick, a scientific director and molecular endocrinologist at Quest Diagnostics Nichols Institute, San Juan Capistrano, helped in the discovery of a new and rare genetic disease. Nephrogenic syndrome of inappropriate antidiuresis caused two infant boys to severely retain fluid. Fenwick and physicians from the University of California, San Francisco, applied a newly developed clinical test used to sequence AVPR2, a gene on which a rare mutation appeared The Muscular Dystrophy Association honored Milan Panic, chief executive of MP Biomedicals, Irvine, and founder of what now is Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Costa Mesa, earlier this month at its Gift of Hope gala in Newport Beach Michael Berumen, a former group health and employee benefits executive with Pacific Life Insurance Co., Newport Beach, will discuss “Confronting Evil in Business: Common Sense Ethics and Courage” at the June 2 meeting of the Orange County Employee Benefit Council at the Beckman Center, across the street from the University of California, Irvine, campus. Information: (714) 573-8605.
