Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (NYSE: EW), Orange County’s biggest publicly traded company with a nearly $40 billion market cap, will double its investment in Ireland to $181 million, an upgrade on what it planned to spend on a new 170,000-square-foot facility in Limerick, to open in 2021.
The company’s call for that plant came in March last year; the expanded investment has Edwards building a bigger plant which it broke ground this month. It expects to employ about 600 people.
Edwards established its Irish operations last year. Chief Executive Mike Mussallem lauded an “excellent business environment to help develop our operations,” to the Irish Times.
Edwards European sales rose more than 6% last year to nearly $900 million.
It’s begun “to engage in local community activities and initiate educational and professional opportunities for our employees,” Mussallem added.
Earlier this month and closer to home, the Irvine-based company did the same thing at its fifth annual Patient Day.
About 100, patients and their care partners, attended. The patients representing Edwards’ three business units—surgical heart valve therapy, transcatheter heart valve therapy and critical care monitoring—were present at the event.
Christine McCauley, corporate vice president of human resources, told the Business Journal the company is hiring globally and that Patient Day plays a major role in recruiting and retaining skilled talent because it showed the work Edwards does for patients is important, she said.
More than 90% of Edwards’ employees answered affirmatively, for example, on a company survey question asking “At Edwards Lifesciences, we consider what is important to patients when making decisions.”
Edwards takes “a patient-first approach [and] we want our employees to be engaged with that culture,” she said. “A day like today really brings it together for our employees.”
Separately, Edwards closed its $100 million acquisition of CAS Medical Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CASM), about two months after it was announced. The Branford, Conn.-based device maker has focused on non-invasive monitoring of tissue oxygenation in the brain.
Axonics Adds Board Reps
Irvine-based Axonics Modulation Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: AXNX) added Nancy Snyderman and Jane Kiernan to its board of directors.
Snyderman is a board member at biopharmaceutical Alkermes PLC (Nasdaq: ALKS) and General Electric Co.’s Healthymagination, as well as for nonprofits including the Fair Food Network and Albright Institute at Wellesley College. The doctor was previously a vice president of corporate communications at Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) and is a well-known television personality.
Kiernan has 30 years of executive and management leadership and co-founded K2 Biotechnology Ventures, which helps commercialize university and medical center innovations via partnerships with venture capital, healthcare firms and foundations. She was previously chief executive of specialty medical device manufacturer Salter Labs, which has about 1,000 employees and $85 million in annual revenue, according to an Axonics press release.
“We are honored to have two highly accomplished directors who share a passion for women’s health join the Axonics board,” said Raphael Wisniewski, chairman. They “bring unique clinical and operational perspectives as well as public company governance experience.”
The company has a $530 million market cap and develops devices to treat urinary and bowel dysfunction; it filed for FDA approval of its device in December.
Hospitals Make Mega Lists
Two OC hospitals made Newsweek’s inaugural World’s Best Hospitals list ranking 1,000 facilities in 11 countries:
• Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, run by Irvine-based Providence St. Joseph Health Southern California, ranked No. 92.
• Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, which has an alliance with Providence, was No. 93.
Renton, Wash.-based Providence St. Joseph has 51 hospitals and 829 clinics in seven western states.
