Orange County is known as a cradle of the eye device and drug industries, and some of its more prominent figures are gathering here this week to talk “trends, unmet clinical needs, and new business opportunities.”
They will be gathering at the annual Orange County Ophthalmology Technology Summit presented by Aliso Viejo-based Octane. The summit takes place June 16 at the Center Club in Costa Mesa.
One of the program’s special guests figured in what was OC’s biggest acquisition story over the past year: Brent Saunders, chief executive of Actavis PLC. Saunders, whose company bought longtime OC drugmaker Allergan Inc. for $72.5 million, will be interviewed by local device veteran James Mazzo, chief executive and executive chairman of Irvine-based eye device maker AcuFocus Inc.
Mazzo is co-chairing the program with William Link, a managing director who works in the Newport Beach office of Menlo Park-based Versant Ventures.
Dr. Roger Steinert, director of the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute at the University of California-Irvine, will deliver the keynote address.
There will also be a trio of panel discussions centering on the life stages of companies.
The first panel will discuss early-stage companies and will be moderated by Monty Montoya, president and chief executive of Seattle-based SightLife, a nonprofit eye bank that has an office in Irvine.
That will be followed by a growth-stage panel that includes Nick Tarantino, AcuFocus’ chief global clinical research and regulatory affairs officer, and Ron Bache, chief executive of Aliso Viejo-based glaucoma device maker AqueSys Inc.
The final session preceding the Saunders-Mazzo talk will be the “Near Death Panel” and will discuss how companies can fail at any stage. Murthy Simhambhatla, president of Santa Ana-based Abbott Medical Optics Inc., is the moderator. Panelists are Tom Frinzi, chief executive of WaveTec Vision Systems, an Aliso Viejo unit of Fort Worth, Texas-based Alcon Inc.; Andy Corley, a Versant partner and president of Irvine-based Yelroc Consulting Inc., and Vince Anido, a former chief executive of Irvine-based Ista Pharmaceuticals Inc., which was acquired by Bausch + Lomb Inc. (now part of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc.) in 2012. Anido is now chief executive of Aerie Pharmaceuticals Inc., which has offices in Irvine and Bedminster, N.J.
Ensign, CareTrust Buys
Mission Viejo-based Ensign Group Inc.’s Cornerstone Healthcare subsidiary recently acquired Managed Care at Home in Milpitas. A purchase price wasn’t disclosed.
Cornerstone is Ensign’s home healthcare and hospice unit.
Managed Care at Home is a Medicare- and Medi-Cal-certified home health agency that serves the San Jose metropolitan area.
“Home health services continue to be an essential part of our effort to build the post-acute continuum of care,” Ensign Chief Executive Christopher Christensen said in a news release.
Separately, Ensign’s former real estate holdings, now known as San Clemente-based CareTrust REIT Inc., bought a nursing home in Washington state for $6.7 million.
Shoreline Health and Rehabilitation has 105 beds and is in Shoreline, Wash. CareTrust is leasing it to College Place, Wash.-based Five Oaks Healthcare LLC.
Five Oaks also leases and operates CareTrust’s recently acquired Mira Vista Care Center in Mount Vernon, Wash.
CareTrust said in a statement that the Shoreline Health and Rehabilitation buy is its seventh announced deal and its third nursing home acquisition since November. The real estate investor has 105 properties in 12 states.
CareTrust was created in 2014 when Ensign spun off its real estate holdings.
Global Infusion, Injection Predictions
A new report by Huntington Beach-based research firm Life Science Intelligence forecasts that the global drug delivery infusion and injection device market will exceed $17.6 billion by 2020.
The report shows that “a dynamic market for infusion and injection technologies” will arise, thanks to greater access to healthcare services and the increasing prevalence of diabetes, plus product innovations.
“Efforts to improve the safety and effectiveness of infusion pumps have coincided with innovations in vascular access and injection, and the result has been a climate of innovation which fosters greater efficiencies in care delivery,” such as placing central pump lines in a patient without X-ray confirmation, according to Life Science Intelligence.
Bits & Pieces
Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center in Fountain Valley was recently recognized by San Francisco-based quality measurement organization Leapfrog Group for having never received a grade lower than an “A” in the prevention of patient injuries, errors, accidents and infections in Leapfrog’s Hospital Safety Score survey. … Irvine-based Kareo Inc. said it released integrated marketing and patient communication software that it got from its previously announced acquisition of San Francisco-based DoctorBase Inc. in March. Kareo makes cloud-based software used by small medical practices. … Anaheim-based medical device maker ClearFlow Inc. said the Food and Drug Administration granted expanded indications for use of its PleuraFlow product. PleuraFlow, used in cardiothoracic surgeries, is designed to prevent chest drains from blood clots. … Newport Beach-based BioStructures LLC introduced its Prohesion collagen wound filler.
