A patent fight between a hedge fund and Allergan PLC, whose eye and cosmetic medicine hub is in Irvine, has ended after nearly a year.
U.S. District Judge John Kronstadt signed a joint stipulation order between Allergan, which is based in Dublin and operates from New Jersey, and New York-based Ferrum Ferro Capital to dismiss the case without prejudice.
Ferrum filed a challenge last March against a patent for Allergan’s Combigan glaucoma drug. The hedge fund argued that the patent was invalid because it was described in patents for a pair of existing eye drugs that make up Combigan.
Allergan sued Ferrum in June, claiming that the patent challenge petition was “extortion, pure and simple.”
Kronstadt, who works out of the U.S. District Courthouse in Santa Ana, ruled in December that the claim didn’t belong in federal court but also said Allergan could refile the case against Ferrum in a California state court since its claims fall under state law.
Allergan is in the process of being acquired by New York-based Pfizer Inc. for $160 billion. The deal is expected to close in the second half of this year; the combined company will be known as Pfizer PLC.
ICU Medical Touts Cost Savings
San Clemente-based ICU Medical Inc. is praising a recent study that showed its SwabCap disinfecting device for needle-free intravenous connectors reduced bloodstream infections and blood culture contamination in hematology-oncology patients.
ICU said in a news release that clinicians practicing at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York found that the reduction of infections and contamination through use of SwabCap “corresponded to an annual savings of $3.2 million in direct medical costs.”
A Memorial Sloan Kettering research team led by Dr. Mini Kamboj concluded that SwabCap was “a practical and low-cost intervention for catheter care.”
ICU also noted that Dr. Richard Ellison III, an editor for the New England Journal of Medicine, said that using devices such as SwabCap could “markedly outweigh the added cost” in most institutions.
The company got SwabCap through its October buy of Excelsior Medical Corp. in an effort to complement its core line of needle-free intravenous connectors and specialty infusion products.
Ensign Buys in S.C.
Mission Viejo-based nursing home operator Ensign Group Inc. acquired three facilities in South Carolina for an undisclosed price.
The facilities are Compass Post Acute Rehabilitation, a 95-bed nursing home in Conway; Las Calinas Post Acute Rehabilitation, a 99-bed nursing home in Rock Hill; and Opus Post Acute Rehabilitation, a 100-bed facility in West Columbia.
The deals bring Ensign’s portfolio to 185 healthcare facilities, 13 hospices, 15 home-health agencies, three home-care businesses, and 17 urgent-care clinics across California and 13 other states.
Device in Live Clinical Case
Irvine-based Lombard Medical Inc.’s Altura Endograft device for repairing abdominal aortic aneurysms was used during a live clinical case presentation at the Leipzig Interventional Course in Germany last week.
Dr. Andrej Schmidt of Leipzig University performed the procedure on the patient.
Lombard said in a news release that Altura and Aorfix, its other endovascular stent graft, were featured in scientific presentations during the course, as well as at a symposium.
Altura has European regulatory approval and is designed to simplify treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysm patients with standard anatomy. Aorfix is designed to treat patients with aortic neck angulations of up to 90 degrees.
Bits and Pieces
Masimo Corp., an Irvine-based maker of patient-monitoring devices, said Watauga Medical Center in Boone, N.C., is the first hospital in that state to install its Patient SafetyNet remote monitoring and clinical notification system and Radius-7, a patient-worn monitor intended to allow mobility along with continuous monitoring. … Santa Ana-based BioLargo Inc. said subsidiary Clyra Medical Technologies Inc. received a $5 million operating credit line and raised $750,000 in equity from Minnesota-based Sanatio Capital LLC. Clyra said it would use the money to support its work toward Food and Drug Administration approval and commercial launch of its advanced wound-care products. … Tustin-based Peregrine Pharmaceuticals Inc. presented at a pair of cancer immunotherapy conferences last week in San Diego and Washington, D.C. It focused on the role of combination immunotherapies for cancer treatment. … Aliso Viejo-based Ambry Genetics Corp. introduced Progeny Cloud, software that allows medical practices and other healthcare institutions to manage patients’ pedigrees and family history data. Ambry said Progeny Cloud is a version of its Progeny Clinical software, which is used for clinical data management and genetic pedigree work.
