A 200,000-square-foot cancer treatment complex is set to break ground this week on the campus of St. Joseph Hospital-Orange.
Hospital operator St. Joseph Health System of Orange is building the center to bring together various cancer services spread out on its campus, said Nancy Harris, the hospital’s cancer program administrator.
Plans for the complex call for:
A seven-story, 131,000-square-foot medical office building for cancer specialists and a parking structure for 1,083 vehicles.
An 87,000-square-foot cancer treatment center.
Pacific Medical Buildings of San Diego is leading the development. McCarthy Building Cos.’ Newport Beach office is the general contractor.
Taylor, a Newport Beach firm, is the executive architect.
Both buildings are going up on La Veta Avenue, which crosses the hospital’s campus near the Garden Grove (22) Freeway.
The project is slated to finish in spring 2008.
The cancer facility adds to construction going on at St. Joseph-Orange, one of three local hospitals run by Catholic operator St. Joseph Health System.
St. Joseph-Orange is putting up a 248,000-square-foot patient tower with 150 beds and 14 operating rooms that’s expected to open in late 2007.
The hospital is building the tower to meet earthquake standards and to serve the area’s growing population.
About 60% of St. Joseph-Orange’s current 450,00-square-foot campus doesn’t meet California earthquake requirements, Chief Executive Larry Ainsworth has said.
The cancer center “was a concept that was on the books for a while,” said Harris, who came to the hospital in 2004.
“When I was recruited in, we really brought the teams together (to develop the center),” she said.
The planning process involved getting input from cancer patients, according to Harris.
The center is set to include imaging and radiation services, electronic medical records, a center for chemotherapy and transfusions, breast cancer treatment, cancer registry services, a pharmacy and medical laboratory, clinical trials and genetics consultation services.
Doctors, Staff
Around 50 doctors, including surgeons, radiation oncologists and medical oncologists, are involved in cancer treatment at St. Joseph, according to Harris.
The center is set to open with about 25 staff members, including nurses and researchers, she said.
The hospital plans to raise money to help build the cancer center.
Officials declined to give specifics of any campaign.
St. Joseph’s local hospitals have several building plans under way.
Fullerton’s St. Jude Medical Center is in the middle of an expansion that includes a 115,844-square-foot patient tower that’s being put up by Swinerton Builders.
Swinerton also built the St. Jude Medical Plaza, a complex across the street from the hospital.
Other developers are putting up medical office projects around St. Jude, including Providence Center, which includes doctor offices and stores.
St. Joseph’s Mission Hospital Medical Center in Mission Viejo plans sometime next year to build a four-story, 94,176-square-foot patient tower.
Mission officials have said they are putting up the tower to keep up with South County population’s growth, rather than meeting the hospital seismic law.
Most of Mission’s existing facilities were built under current standards about a decade ago.
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Allergan Renews Pact With French Biotech
Irvine drug maker Allergan Inc. said last week it extended a pact with France’s ExonHit Therapeutics SA to work on treatments for diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Terms of the pact with the French biotechnology company weren’t disclosed. ExonHit said it received a payment upon signing the renewed deal. Milestone and royalty payments were increased to fuel research and development funding, the company said.
The deal is the second renewal of a development pact between the two companies since 2003, according to ExonHit. The new agreement runs through 2009.
Allergan and ExonHit have worked together on developing drugs that fight pain and eye diseases and amyothropic lateral sclerosis, which affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.
ExonHit, which is publicly traded in Europe, got its start in 1997. The company splices genes in a bid to develop drugs.
One of ExonHit’s compounds is in trials as a possible treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and dementia.
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Device Maker Raises $9M Second Round
Irvine medical device maker MiCardia Corp. said Thursday it raised $9 million in a second round of financing.
HBM Biocapital, a Switzerland-based fund, led the investment.
A couple of Orange County investors took part: MedFocus Family of Funds and the BioStar Private Equity Fund LLC.
MedFocus and BioStar are connected to Michael Henson, a longtime local device entrepreneur and investor. Henson is MiCardia’s chairman.
MiCardia plans to use the money to develop implantable devices to treat late-stage congestive heart failure and mitral heart valve disease.
,Vita Reed
