HEALTHCARE
A new federal database shows Irvine-based Allergan Inc. paid doctors and hospitals $24.2 million in the last five months of last year for consulting and speaking fees, meals and travel costs, and grants, the Orange County Register reported (see related item, Insider column, page 3). The payments were second in the state by medical device and drugmakers after the $134.4 million paid by South San Francisco-based Genentech Inc. Questcor Pharmaceuticals in Anaheim paid $3.6 million; Avanir Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Aliso Viejo paid $2.4 million; Biolase Inc. in Irvine paid $963,807; and Masimo Corp. in Irvine paid $963,290. The companies must disclose the payments under a provision in the Affordable Care Act.
University of California-Irvine will get $8 million from the National Institutes of Health to study human cellular response and to develop disease treatments. UCI Professor Leslie M. Thompson will head the effort locally and work with five other U.S. centers funded with $64 million from the NIH to study brain cell activity in motor neuron disorders, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease.
INSURANCE
Huntington Beach-based Confie Seguros Insurance Services made two acquisitions as part of a recent string of buys. The insurance broker acquired the assets of Carallo Insurance Group Inc. in Garland, Texas, and a retail division of PayneWest Insurance in Marysville, Wash., on undisclosed terms. Confie focuses primarily on serving the Latino-American population and has $350 million in annual revenue.
MANUFACTURING
Santa Ana-based custom labels maker The Label Co. was acquired by Resource Label Group in Franklin, Tenn., on undisclosed terms. It prints custom labels for businesses in various industries, including cosmetics, food, entertainment and other consumer products. The privately held company doesn’t disclose financial details. It was founded in 1986 by K. Ivan and Laura Narragon, who sold the business to Margie Martinez and Eric Jones in 2003. Resource Label provides label design and production services and is part of the investment portfolio of New York-based private equity firm First Atlantic Capital Ltd.
Arbonne International opened its first continental Europe location in Poland. The Irvine-based cosmetics company also has a presence in Australia, Canada and the U.K.
MEDIA
The Irvine office of New York-based advertising agency Wunderman will stop handling the Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards account after the end of the year, according to Regional Managing Director Dan Olson.
Santa Monica-based TBWAChiatDay handles advertising for Southwest overall. Olson said Wunderman continues to grow with the agency’s two latest hires: Vanessa Jamieson Shanahan as vice president and director of analytics and insights and Mindy Chase, its new vice president and director of strategy. The local agency had an estimated $27 million in revenue in 2013.
RESTAURANTS
Darden Restaurants Inc., the parent company of Irvine-based Yard House USA Inc., said it named a new board of directors, based on reports of a shareholder vote. Two activist investors in New York—Starboard Value LP and Barington Capital Group LP—advanced a slate of 12 board members as they seek to split some Darden restaurant chains from the others and its real estate holdings. Orlando-based Darden bought Yard House in 2012 for $585 million. This summer, Darden tabbed Yard House as key to its growth, and trade publication Nation’s Restaurant News named it the second-fastest growing restaurant chain in the country. Yard House has more than 50 restaurants, including seven in Orange County.
Aliso Viejo-based Johnny Rockets said it licensed its name for private-label grocery distribution under an effort called Johnny Rockets At Home. It said Orlando-based Blackwood Industries Inc. plans to sell the chain’s hamburger patties and other products at “big box” retailers. Hard-goods licensing might include jukeboxes, tabletop grills and shake machines and will come in late 2015. Food products should hit shelves in the first quarter of 2015, the company said. Johnny Rockets has about 320 restaurants, a third overseas. It had about $326 million in sales last year.
