An initial public offering for one company and a private equity investment in another highlight the depth of Orange County’s medical technology industry.
IRhythm Technologies Inc. in San Francisco, which has a manufacturing facility in Cypress, went public on Oct. 20.
It makes a wearable cardiac sensor and a monitor to enable remote electrocardiograms to show if patients experience heart arrhythmias. Information is sent to the Zio computer platform for continuous analysis.
The Zio Patch sensor and the Zio Event Card monitor are assembled at a 9,900-square-foot facility in Cypress that the company occupied this year with a five-year lease. It maintains clinical facilities in Illinois and Texas.
The company has about 373 employees, an unknown number of them in Cypress.
It lost $22.8 million on revenue of $36.1 million last year and lost $15.8 million on revenue of $21.7 million in 2014. It lost $10.6 million on revenue of $28.6 million in the six months ended June 30.
It priced its IPO at $13 to $15 and planned to sell 5.35 million shares; that was hiked to 6.3 million shares at $17 and an over-allotment of about 945,000 shares for the deal’s underwriters. Shares closed at $26 on its first day of trading.
Investors prior to the IPO included the venture capital arm of Kaiser Permanente in Oakland.
IRhythm traded recently at about $27 for a $228 million market cap.
Meanwhile, Telegraph Hill Partners in San Francisco and La Jolla invested in TrakCel, which is based in Cardiff, Wales, and has a Newport Beach office.
TrakCel provides technology, services and analysis related to cellular, genetic and immunotherapy clinical studies.
It said its work—typically in oncology, leukemia and rare diseases—improves communication and interactivity at various stages of the studies to improve “traceability, validation and compliance results.”
A news report in Wales said the investment was for a majority stake in the company, which is led by Ravi Nalliah and has about 35 employees.
Telegraph Hill manages $600 million in investments in late-stage technology companies in life sciences, medical technology, and healthcare.
Gold Discovery Links to Masimo
We reported this month that Masimo Corp. in Irvine has begun early-stage work on what Chief Executive Joe Kiani called a “a prototype that can be manufactured and sold” to detect and help destroy cancer cells.
Masimo funded similar research in the area earlier this year at Rice University in Houston and then hired the research team and brought them in-house at Masimo.
The study involved using gold nanoparticles—submicroscopic bits of matter that act as single units—to mark cellular-level locations of cancerous material for later destruction.
Other research has suggested that in addition to marking the locations, nanoparticles can limit tumor growth or enhance the impact of radiation treatment.
A study released on Oct. 19 shows promise in another new area—that of disrupting communication between cancer cells. Researchers found that the disruption reduces the ability of the cells to multiply and move through the body.
The research took place at the University of Oklahoma Health Science Center in Oklahoma City, Mount Sinai Health System in New York, the University of Missouri-Columbia, and the College of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
The National Institutes of Health provided some funding of the study, which focused on pancreatic cancer. Its data show that 42,000 people a year die of that cancer.
Studies on gold nanoparticles for treating cancer have thus far been conducted on mice, and commercialization of products is said to be several years away.
Bits & Pieces
Endologix Inc. in Irvine named Dr. Matthew Thompson chief medical officer, effective in December, to replace Dr. David Deaton, who will consult to the maker of a stent that treats aortic aneurysms. … Opus Bank in Irvine advised Overland Park, Kan.-based ProPharma Group Holdings LLC in its sale to Linden Capital Partners, a private-equity firm in Chicago. ProPharma provides medical information and compliance services from a dozen U.S. locations, including in Carlsbad. … Focal Therapeutics Inc. in Aliso Viejo said two studies showed its BioZorb marker helps surgeons and oncologists collaborate on breast cancer treatment. The company makes a device that’s placed in the breast during lumpectomy surgery to mark locations where cancerous tissue was removed, helping target the area for post-operative examination and future treatment. … Four OC hospitals owned by Prime Healthcare Services in Ontario were in a group of the company’s California facilities that got five-star ratings and specialty excellence awards from Healthgrades Operating Co. in Denver. They are La Palma Intercommunity Hospital, West Anaheim Medical Center, Garden Grove Hospital Medical Center, and Huntington Beach Hospital. Healthgrades reviews 45 million patient outcomes at 4,500 hospitals.
