The University of California, Irvine, has ambitious plans for its fledgling eye institute.
UC Irvine is under way with a $50 million fund-raising campaign to build the UCI Eye Institute and initially equip two of its four floors.
Faculty at the institute would treat patients, teach students and do research in collaboration with device and drug companies.
The institute is sure to have a big internal backer in Michael Drake, who took over as UCI’s chancellor in July. Drake is an ophthalmologist who headed the University of California’s medical schools and hospitals before joining UCI.
The university plans to draw on Orange County’s thriving crop of businesses that develop devices or drugs to treat eyes, such as Santa Ana’s Advanced Medical Optics Inc., Lake Forest-based Cooper Cos. and Allergan Inc., IntraLase Corp., Ista Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Refractec Inc., all of Irvine.
Local venture-backed eye device startups that could get involved in the institute include Irvine’s AcuFocus Inc., Aliso Viejo’s Eyeonics Inc. and Lake Forest’s IntraLens Vision Inc.
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Baerveldt: chairman of UCI’s ophthalmology department |
“We want to work with corporations, the medical profession, industry and the community,” said George Baerveldt, chairman of UCI’s ophthalmology department.
Baerveldt is a doctor who spent 14 years at the University of Southern California’s Doheny Eye Institute, a top-ranked research and treatment facility and potential model for UCI’s project. The University of California, Los Angeles, also has one of the nation’s top eye facilities.
The UCI Eye Institute has attracted some of the county’s eye device heavy hitters.
“I’m helping (to lead) an effort to create the UCI Eye Institute, similar to UCLA’s Jules Stein Eye Institute and the Doheny Eye Institute,” said James Mazzo, chief executive of Advanced Medical. “It’s been under progress for a year.”
The institute is set to be built on empty land next to Hewitt Hall, within UCI’s College of Medicine complex.
“We’ve put a board of directors together. We have a marketing campaign,” Mazzo said. “Our goal is to have a shovel into the ground by the end of 2007.”
Mazzo said that companies that do research at the institute wouldn’t lose patent rights for any discovery made there,often a fear for businesses.
UCI would likely charge just a fee to use its research facilities, Mazzo said.
He’s become one of the county’s high-profile executives since leading the spinoff Advanced Medical from Allergan in 2002.
Mazzo is a trustee of the UCI Foundation, a member of its Chief Executive Roundtable and sits on the business school dean’s board of directors executive committee. He’s also a member of Chapman University’s Board of Counselors.
Others on UCI Eye Institute’s three-member board are Ronald Kurtz, a UCI professor and cofounder of laser correction device maker IntraLase, and David Chonette, an adviser with Versant Ventures, a healthcare-focused venture investment firm with offices in Newport Beach and Menlo Park.
Getting Allergan actively involved with the institute would be a big boost.
Allergan, OC’s second biggest company by market value has a big portfolio of eye drugs that treat glaucoma and other ailments.
So far Allergan hasn’t said much about its plans for the eye institute.
“We’re continuing to work with them to evaluate their needs and key priorities, but at this time it’s really not appropriate for us to comment on potential or future collaborations,” said Heather Katt, an Allergan spokeswoman.
Longtime UCI Supporter
Allergan, through its foundation, has been a longtime supporter of UCI, Katt said.
Alcon Laboratories Inc., an Advanced Medical competitor that employs nearly 600 people in Irvine, “cannot confirm that it is involved in any way” with the project, said Carol Massey, a spokeswoman for the unit of Switzerland’s Nestl & #233; SA.
Allergan and Alcon provide fellowship support at UCLA’s Jules Stein Eye Institute, according to Nancy Graydon, development director at the UCLA institute.
But Graydon said the group tends to get more of its funds from patients and foundations, rather than companies.
Baerveldt is looking to establish early on a strong link between the UCI Eye Institute and eye drug and device developers.
“When I was up at USC’s Doheny Eye Institute, I developed a glaucoma implant,” he said. “At that time, Doheny was not interested, nor was USC.”
Baerveldt said he came down to Irvine to develop the device, which now is sold through Advanced Medical.
UCI plans to boost its ophthalmology faculty by roughly 25% by the time the eye institute opens. The department has 24 members now.
The eye institute isn’t the first time UCI has reached out to the county’s medical device and drug makers.
The university created a biomedical engineering department in 2002.
Its advisory board includes people from Advanced Medical, Irvine heart valve maker Edwards Lifesciences Corp., eye surgery device maker Refratec and Versant.
And UCI’s Beckman Laser Institute has trained students for about two decades. They’ve gone on to work at Fullerton medical test gear maker Beckman Coulter Inc., Allergan, Advanced Medical, Edwards and Medtronic, said Bruce Tromberg, a professor who directs the institute.
