The healthcare real estate investment unit of Santa Ana-based Grubb & Ellis Co. has made a big buy.
Grubb & Ellis Healthcare REIT II Inc.—soon to be renamed Griffin-American Healthcare REIT II Inc.—signed separate deals to buy eight medical office buildings for $112 million.
The properties are in California, Florida, Arizona, Georgia, South Carolina, Texas and Washington. They combine for 451,000 square feet.
Grubb’s healthcare unit buys hospitals, medical office buildings that house doctors, assisted-living facilities and nursing homes, and buildings that have medical-related tenants. It launched in 2009 and now has more than $430 million in assets and is looking to raise upward of $3 billion to buy additional medical properties.
Grubb said last month it was turning over the management of the non-traded trust to a pair of local companies, including one led by a former Grubb chief investment officer.
Griffin Capital Corp., a Los Angeles-based real estate investment company, and a newly formed Newport Beach company, American Healthcare Investors LLC, have formed Griffin-American.
American’s managers include Jeff Hanson, who had been Grubb’s chief investment officer and head of the company’s investment management decision, and Danny Prosky, president of the healthcare REIT.
The REIT’s independent directors earlier decided to disassociate from Grubb after considering “among other things, the current circumstances and strategic direction of Grubb & Ellis.”
Grubb’s been eyeing potential financing deals and exploring a potential sale since March.
Inspiration Gets $25M
Laguna Niguel-based Inspiration Biopharmaceuticals Inc. said has received a $25 million milestone payment from Ipsen SA in France.
Inspiration is working on products to treat forms of hemophilia, which occurs when there is a low level or absence of proteins called coagulation factors, which clot the blood.
Inspiration said that it has issued Ipsen a convertible note that increases the French drug maker’s ownership position in Inspiration to almost 41%.
Ipsen said in 2010 that it would invest up to $259 million toward Inspiration’s bid to develop hemophilia treatments. The company also said that it started enrolling patients in the second of two pivotal trials for its OBI-1 compound, one of two in development.
Inspiration’s other compound is called IB1001 and is being looked at for treating congenital hemophilia B, the less common form of the disease. Hemophilia primarily affects males.
Uptake Progress Report
Uptake Medical Inc., a start-up device maker based in Tustin, said that a European patient with severe emphysema was successfully treated with its InterVapor device.
InterVapor uses heated water vapor to treat hyperinflated parts of a patient’s lung without leaving any foreign materials left in it. The procedure is intended to allow patients’ remaining healthy lung tissue to expand and function normally.
Uptake, which moved its corporate headquarters to Orange County from Seattle last year, received European regulatory clearance for InterVapor in September and plans to commercialize the device in Europe and Australia over the coming months. The company is in discussions with the Food and Drug Administration in regard to starting a domestic pivotal study for InterVapor.
The company has raised some $35 million in funding since it started in 2004.
Union Organizing
The Service Employees International Union, United Healthcare Workers-West, said last week that that 220 employees at Chapman Medical Center in Orange voted to have it represent them.
Chapman’s workers are the third group at a hospital owned by Santa Ana-based Integrated Healthcare Holdings Inc. to vote for SEIU-UHW representation. The union also represents workers at Coastal Communities Hospital in Santa Ana and Western Medical Center-Anaheim. It does not represent workers at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana.
SEIU-UHW said that Coastal Communities and Western Medical-Anaheim had 605 union members between them, and that workers at the three facilities will be negotiating for a new contract from Integrated in the coming weeks.
Bits and Pieces:
The Edwards Lifesciences Fund, a charitable arm of Irvine-based Edwards Lifesciences Corp., said that it would grant about $4 million to more than 200 nonprofit organizations around the world this year. The fund has given nearly $20 million since it started in 2004 … Biolase Technology Inc., an Irvine-based dental device maker, said that it received a patent covering the use of its lasers for treating various ophthalmic conditions such as presbyopia, cataracts and glaucoma. … UC Irvine Healthcare said that the National Multiple Sclerosis Society certified its multiple-sclerosis program as a “center for MS comprehensive care.” … Tustin-based Radient Pharmaceuticals Corp. received $435,000 in net proceeds from holders of its series B warrants.
