The latter half of last year was busy for Aerie Pharmaceuticals Inc. The Irvine-based ophthalmic company ramped up operations, adding staff in research and development, commercialization and business development in preparation for Food and Drug Administration approval of glaucoma drug Rhopressa.
The once-daily eye drop was approved in December—two months ahead of anticipated approval time, according to the company.
Aerie now taps Julia Williams as director of medical affairs to help launch the drug. She will also participate in strategic and operational activities of its medical affairs organization.
Williams previously served as senior director of medical at Allergan PLC.
Aerie plans to launch Rhopressa by the middle of the second quarter and submit Roclatan, its other glaucoma drug, for FDA approval around that time. Roclatan is a combination drug comprised of Rhopressa and Pfizer’s Xalatan.
The company believes Roclatan, if approved, could be more effective than Rhopressa alone, lowering intraocular pressure through all four, not two, known mechanisms.
Intraocular pressure is the fluid pressure inside the eye. High eye pressure can result in optic nerve damage and vision loss.
Aerie signed a lease last month for a 30,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Ireland to supply the two eye drugs by 2020.
The company has a $2 billion market cap.
Allergan has been in a tight spot since it announced a controversial transfer of patents of its blockbuster dry-eye drug Restasis to a Native American tribe in an attempt to fight a patent battle in two courts. The news elicited criticism, and shares of the company fell more than 20%.
Williams’ departure followed news of Allergan Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Rob Stewart’s leaving to assume the president and chief executive posts at Amneal Pharmaceuticals, and Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Tessa Hildo announcing her retirement.
Avid Now
The Peregrine Pharmaceuticals Inc. proxy battle ended fairly quickly. In about six months, a contending investor group got the company to implement all of the changes it asked for.
The Tustin-based company previously operated as a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on research and development of its immunotherapy cancer drug, funding the activities through cash-generating biologics manufacturing subsidiary Avid Bioservices Inc.
In line with what the Business Journal reported last month, the company formally announced it changed its name from Peregrine to Avid last week to reflect its business as a dedicated contract development and manufacturing organization. It trades on the Nasdaq under the new ticker CDMO.
Roger Lias now leads the company as president and chief executive. He joined the company in September as president of Avid. Lias previously held senior managing positions at several CDMOs, including Cytovance Biologics in Oklahoma City and KBI BioPharma Inc. in Boulder, Colo. Steve King, who previously headed both Avid and Peregrine, resigned last month.
The company declined to comment. It’s unclear if King’s departure signals a similar fate for Chief Financial Officer Paul Lyte. The investor group singled out King and Lyte, calling into question their capability as managers.
Peregrine’s current board has seven members, including six appointees by Peregrine and the investor group and one independent member. Former directors King, Carlton Johnson, Eric Swartz and David Pohl resigned in November.
Entrepreneurship
New York-based accelerator StartUp Health is attracting big-name investors, including OC’s own Masimo Corp.
The Irvine-based patient-monitoring device maker, along with Ping An Global Voyager Fund, an early-stage financial and healthcare startups-focused fund in Shanghai, GuideWell Mutual Holding Corp., a nonprofit holding company to a family of healthcare startups, and other partners, raised $19.3 million through StartUp Health Transformer Fund II.
The fund will support and invest in more than 200 companies focused on achieving Health Care Moonshots—including better access to care, getting healthcare costs to zero, and curing disease, including cancer—over the next two years. The fund has over 100 companies in its portfolio.
Founded in 2011, StartUp Health “has amassed the world’s largest portfolio of over 200 digital health companies from five continents and 19 countries,” according to a company press release.
Bits & Pieces
Sharon Thornton was named president of the Memorial Care Medical Center Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Long Beach Medical Center and Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital Long Beach. The foundation is led by a 26-member board of directors and raises $7 million to $15 million annually. Thornton was previously executive vice president and chief philanthropy officer of the Sun Health Medical Foundation in Surprise, Arizona. The Long Beach-based hospitals are part of Fountain Valley-based MemorialCare Health System.
