2021 OC 50: Building Life-changing Medical Products

OC serves as a hub for world-renowned medical device makers, drugmakers, and ophthalmic companies. Firms here can go from relatively unknown to a valuation of multiple billions in the blink of a medically improved eye, or the beat of a healthy heart. These five execs keep the county relevant in those increasingly critical sectors.

JIM MAZZO
CEO
Avellino Lab USA Inc.
Executive Chairman
Neurotech Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Chair
Octane

BIO: Most prominent executive in Orange County’s ophthalmic industry. Over 42 years of experience, led Allergan’s North American and European eyecare organizations, served as CEO of Advanced Medical Optics, among other notable roles. Active on many corporate fronts. Chairman of local tech and medtech accelerator Octane, which he helped found.

NOTABLE: Avellino, where he was named CEO late last year, is focused on gene therapy and molecular diagnostics (see story, page 1). Firm recently launched AvaGen, the world’s first DNA test to confirm the presence of genetic indicators that are positively associated with corneal dystrophies and keratoconus genetic risk-factors. Other OC execs involved with Avellino include Masimo’s Richard Gannotta and former Edwards Lifesciences’ Aimee Weisner.

QUOTABLE: “I promised myself I’d only get involved in efforts that are transformational in healthcare, and [Avellino] is an opportunity to challenge my own mindset and learn every day.”

CAREN MASON
CEO, President
Staar Surgical Co.
Lake Forest

Nasdaq: STAA

BIO: Runs most valuable OC-based publicly traded company in the area’s thriving ophthalmology industry. $5B+ market value; its shares have more than doubled over past year. Staar’s implantable contact lenses are used to treat a wide range of vision impairments through a surgical procedure that takes about 30 minutes on average. Product serves as an alternative to laser-based procedures like LASIK.

NOTABLE: Moved HQ from Monrovia to Lake Forest in 2019.

QUOTABLE: After Q1 earnings report in early May, said Staar is maintaining its “track record as the fastest-growing U.S. publicly traded ophthalmology company.” Company expects 2021 sales of $215 million to $217 million.

MIKE MUSSALLEM
CEO
Edwards Lifesciences Corp.
Irvine

NYSE: EW

BIO: Runs Orange County’s largest med-tech employer—about 4,500 workers here, and more than 15,000 worldwide. Maker of heart valves and related products, as well as critical care monitoring equipment. By far OC’s most valuable public company; it’s the first healthcare company based here to ever sport a market cap over $50B.

NOTABLE: A $5M gift to the University of California, Irvine from Linda and Mike Mussallem will support integrative cardiology training and research in the Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute and initiate a UC system-wide health coaching program.

QUOTABLE: On Edwards’ levels of R&D, and focus on innovation, says that “when you go first, you have the opportunity to learn faster than others. Simply put, you are a key contributor to shaping the way value gets created.”

BILL HOFFMAN
CEO
Inari Medical Inc.
Irvine

Nasdaq: NARI

BIO: Runs medical device maker of products for patients suffering from blood clots and venous diseases; OC’s IPO darling of 2020. Went public at $19 a share; a year later Inari’s stock tops $80, with valuation near $4B. Company’s first two products are catheter-based devices that allow physicians to take out large amounts of clots in their veins.

NOTABLE: Major expansion plans in Irvine, at new facility running 121,000 square feet in the Irvine Spectrum area.

QUOTABLE: “We’re expanding our R&D efforts pretty dramatically, adding a number of engineers, and we’re working on a whole slew of new products, not just in these disease states, but other venous disease states,” Hoffman told the Business Journal late last year. “We’re going to continue to develop world-class products, and lots of them.”

RAY COHEN
CEO
Axonics Inc.
Irvine

Nasdaq: AXNX

BIO: Runs medical device maker that went public in 2018, surpassed $1B market valuation in 2020, now valued at over $2B. Aims to lead the market with its sacral neuromodulation device, which treats patients with overactive bladder conditions. 

RECENT: Generated $111.5M in sales last year, in one of the fastest rollouts of a new medical device in recent history. In early 2021 announced plans to buy London-based Contura and its hydrogel bulking agent for $200M in cash and stock. 

QUOTABLE: Not his first rodeo. Won Business Journal Excellence in Entrepreneurship Award in 2002, as CEO of cardiac defibrillator maker Cardiac Science Corp. “When you’re in this business, you learn how to ask the right questions and gather the experts together so that you can become educated for yourself and your team,” he said late last year. “The fallacy is that to somehow create a company you have to be an expert in the topic. I think there are so many other things you need to be expert in—hiring people, raising capital, having a vision for the future.”