When Allergan Inc. completes its $3.2 billion buy of Santa Barbara-based Inamed Corp. in coming weeks, the Irvine drug maker could benefit from one of the medical world’s evolving comeback stories,silicone gel breast implants.
Silicone implants, which made up $176 million, or about half of Inamed’s $325 million in sales through September, once were the gold standard.
Then unflattering media reports and lawsuits against implant makers combined to chill the business in the 1990s, at least in the U.S.
That’s changed.
Inamed and rival Mentor Corp., also based in Santa Barbara, are seeking Food and Drug Administration approval for silicone implants. The agency has informed both companies it would approve the sale of the implants if certain undisclosed conditions are met.
Inamed received an approvable letter from the FDA for silicone implants in September.
Implants caused some pause for Allergan Chief Executive David E.I. Pyott.
“I literally sat in my office thinking, ‘No, no, no, no, you really can’t be thinking this,'” Pyott said. “And then we did all the analyses and checks and discovered that really, there was no issue with silicone. There’s never been any health connection between the damage that was alleged in the 1990s and silicone. So really, you can say the plaintiffs’ bar got ahead of the science and put some very big companies out of business.”
Dow Corning Corp., Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Bioplasty Inc. were among the companies that left the breast implant business back in the 1990s.
Wall Street doesn’t seem worried.
“We believe that the move into obesity (another Inamed business) and breast implantation is a shrewd one because both are more like pharma markets than device markets and both have a No. 1 or No. 2 position,” wrote David Maris, an analyst with Banc of America Securities LLC, in a report.
Gary Nachman, an analyst with Leerink Swann & Co., a Boston-based investment bank, wrote that he believed silicone implants are an important part of Inamed’s valuation, justifying what he called the “premium multiple” Allergan offered.
There are caveats, according to Nachman. He wrote the potential could be limited, “given the controversial and politicized nature of silicone implants” and that the FDA potentially could take a conservative stance with approvals.
Sybron Promotes Veteran Executive
Sybron Dental Specialties Inc. of Newport Beach appointed Daniel Even to the newly created position of executive vice president of global operations.
Even is going to be responsible for the dental products maker’s daily operations, including strategic initiatives and overseeing its worldwide marketing, sales and manufacturing operations.
“The continuing growth and diversification of Sybron warrants the addition of the new position to our organizational structure,” said Floyd Pickrell Jr., Sybron’s chief executive, in a statement.
Pickrell said the company was fortunate that its management team allowed the job to be filled internally.
Even has been with Sybron for more than 25 years and has led the company’s specialty products group since 1993. During his time as head of Sybron’s specialty products unit, the company said that Even directed its expansion into the orthodontic laboratory, endodontic and dental implant businesses, along with making it among the leaders in orthodontics.
Sybron’s specialty products group has more than $300 million in annual sales and some 2,000 workers.
Medical Offices Coming to Brea
Boureston Development Inc., an Irvine-based real estate developer, paid $3.7 million to Christian Credit Union for a two-story, 18,468-square-foot building at 1770 E. Lambert Road in Brea.
Boureston, which specializes in developing medical office buildings, is going to convert the building, a former bank branch, to medical use.
Projects that Boureston’s been involved in include Walnut Grove Medical Center, a 40,000-square-foot medical complex in Anaheim, Sand Canyon Medical Center in Irvine and a medical office building on Barranca Parkway in Irvine’s Woodbridge community.
Bits and Pieces:
Edwards Lifesciences Corp., Irvine, showcased several of its heart surgery products and procedures last week at the Society of Thoracic Surgeons’ annual scientific meeting in Chicago. Highlighted were Edwards’ Perimount Magna aortic replacement heart valve and its ThermaFix process; GeoForm, a mitral valve repair ring; and the Ascendra aortic heart valve replacement system that uses Cribier-Edwards less-invasive replacement heart valves Advanced Medical Optics Inc., Santa Ana, said its Tecnis foldable intraocular replacement lens was designated as a “new technology intraocular lens” by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The designation allows for an additional $50 per lens Medicare reimbursement for ambulatory surgical centers. According to Advanced Medical, ambulatory surgical centers perform more than half the cataract surgeries in the U.S. Masimo Inc., Irvine, received $330 million from Tyco International Ltd.’s Nellcor unit to settle lawsuits over machines that measure blood oxygen levels, ending a long-running patent dispute Ista Pharmaceuticals Inc., Irvine, said the FDA approved its Xibrom drug for treating pain following cataract surgery. Regulators had approved Xibrom for treating eye inflammation following cataract surgery in early 2005. Ista launched the drug a year ago. Ista bought domestic marketing rights for Xibrom from Japan’s Senju Pharmaceutical Co. in 2002.
