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C-LAB
Fosters Collaboration
"California Style"
CSU Program
Addresses Biotech Workforce Education & Training Needs in
L.A.
By James
Rosser, Ph.D.
President
California State University, Los Angeles
Collaboration is a key ingredient
in just about
every major scientific endeavor. Nowhere is
this truer than in the field of biotechnology,
where scores of companies are developing wonders such as new
gene therapies to fight diseases and new microbial cleansers to
remediate hazardous wastes. Converting the results of this
promising research into commercial reality, and doing so quickly
and effectively, requires a strong intellectual and human
capital.
There
is no denying the fact that California, the birthplace of
commercial biotechnology, has maintained its leadership in this
field because it contains the intellectual and human assets
required to support biocommerce. However, this leadership
position shouldn’t lull us into a false sense of complacency.
As each advance in biotechnology generates a new wave of
commercial opportunities, it should also .....
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SoCalBio Profile:
Advanced Medical Optics
Global Leader in Eye Care
Technology Tops Greater L.A. Region’s Burgeoning Ophthalmic
Industry Cluster
Interview by Ahmed
Enany, Editor-in-Chief & Erik Deutsch,
Managing Editor
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| The
Greater Los Angeles region has developed a well earned
reputation as a hotbed for eye care product development
and manufacturing. Locally spawned innovations include
many advances in cataract and refractive surgery that
now dominate a significant share of the worldwide eye
care market. This rich tradition began in the ‘70s and
‘80s, when companies such as Cavitron of Irvine, Iolab
of Claremont, Ioptex of Irwindale, STAAR Surgical of
Monrovia, Optical Radiation Corp. of Asuza, and
Pharmacia Ophthalmic of Monrovia helped develop the
tools that transformed cataracts from a disabling
disease into a manageable condition.
While industry
restructuring and technological change hastened the
demise of many first-generation firms, the managerial
class they left behind helped sprout a new crop of
companies that are helping reinvent the eye care
business. The list includes implantable lens makers such
as Eyeonics of Aliso Viejo, ReVision Optics of Lake
Forest, Calhoun Vision of Pasadena, as well as LASIK
device firms such as IntraLase of Irvine, and
Second
AMO’s
Verisyse™ phakic IOL (left) and multifocal ReZoom™
lens for cataract patients |
Sight
of Sylmar, which specializes in back-of-the-eye implants
to restore vision to the blind.
Topping the region’s
impressive list of ophthalmic firms is Santa Ana-based
Advanced Medical Optics (AMO). Spun-off in 2002 from
Irvine-based Allergan, Inc., publicly-traded AMO (NYSE:
EYE) employs nearly 4,000 in operations located in 24
countries. The company is unique in that it provides a
wide range of products to address what it describes as
the "vision care life cycle." Notwithstanding
recent stock performance hiccups and a voluntary product
recall, the company is expecting healthy growth in 2007
and beyond.
Jim Mazzo, AMO’s
chairman, president and CEO, recently spoke with SoCalBio
Synergies about his company’s product
development efforts.
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Why did
Allergan form AMO as a spin-off venture?
I had been with Allergan
for 22 years and was part of its executive team when we
came to the realization that management had been
operating two distinct businesses under the Allergan
umbrella. One was engaged in specialty pharma, while the
other was focused on medical devices. Since Allergan was
a publicly traded company, the question for management
involved what strategy would be best for shareholders.
It was |
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James
Mazzo
Chairman,
President & CEO
Advanced Medical Optics |
clear that the answer was
a tax-free spin off. This strategy would allow both
companies to run independently, build their own
management, and have their own board of directors.
The
spin-off occurred just as many industry observers were
touting the benefits of device-drug convergence. Do you
think potential synergies may have been lost as a result
of parting with Allergan?
Specialty pharma and
medical devices are distinctly different businesses, and
one does not necessarily leverage the other. In effect
we had two companies operating under one roof. It was
very difficult to develop a cohesive strategy when we
were under the Allergan .....
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Keith Leonard of Kythera
Biopharma shares his company’s successful fundraising
experience during the August ‘06 SoCalBio Networking Forum
held at UCLA
Who
Raised the Most Capital in 2006?
By Ahmed Enany, Editor-in-Chief
It’s been a bumper
year for fundraising by Greater L.A. device and biotech firms.
The top firms, including several alumni of the SoCalBio Investor
Conference, have collectively secured more than $300 million in
various forms of private financing during 2006. And the year isn’t
over yet. Here are the top five companies that raised the
most capital from institutional investors and other
sources ...Click
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| Implant
Dentistry Pioneer Dr. Jerry Niznick Takes Aim at
Industry Heavyweights |
| By Ahmed Enany,
Editor-in-Chief
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osseointegration,(2)
a process discovered accidentally in 1952 by Swedish
orthopedic surgeon Dr. Per-Ingvar Brånemark, who was
the first to implant titanium roots in a human in 1965.
His work led to the 1981 formation of NobelPharma, one
of the first commercial providers of dental implants.
The company was renamed Nobel Biocare in 1996, and is
now the dominant player in implant dentistry.
Dr. Brånemark introduced
the results of his research on osseointegration to a
skeptical North American scientific community during the
Toronto Conference in 1982. His data on the success of
implants at the Brånemark Clinic helped galvanize
support for the use of dental implants in the U.S.
If Dr. Brånemark’s
research demonstrated the validity of osseointegration,
and therefore the clinical potential of implant
dentistry, Dr. Niznick’s inventions helped make this
potential a commercial reality in the U.S. ......Click
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Dr.
Jerry Niznick
President
& CEO
Implant Direct LLC
An icon of dentistry who, along with Dr. Brånemark
of Sweden, helped jumpstart the dental implant industry
more than 25 years ago.
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| On
September 26, Implant Direct LLC -- a medical device startup based in the
L.A. suburb of Calabasas -- received 510(k) clearance from the FDA (#
K061319) to market its Spectra-System dental implants. To a casual
observer, the system may look like just another substantially-equivalent
dental product. But once you know the identity of the man behind Implant
Direct, this 510(k) decision takes on a whole new meaning, as it signals
the return to the marketplace of Jerry Niznick, D.M.D., M.S.D., a
prosthodontist and longtime Los Angeles entrepreneur described in a recent
Barron’s article as "the godfather of American implant
dentistry."(1)
Icon of Modern Dentistry:
Dental implants represent a watershed
innovation in modern dentistry. They are titanium replacements for dental
roots implanted directly into a patient’s jawbone. They fuse with the
jawbone through |
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| Thanks to New SoCalBio
Members |
SoCalBio
Roundup
The Latest
from SoCalBio Device and Biotech Companies
By Ahmed Enany,
Editor-in-Chief
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- Allvivo Vascular (Lake Forest)
- Baxter Bioscience (Westlake
Village)
- Cal Poly Foundation (Pomona)
- Chan Law (LA)
- Childrens Hospital Los Angeles
(LA)
- Department of Bioengineering,
UCR (Riverside)
- Hathaway Dinwiddie (LA)
- Kythera Biopharma (Woodland
Hills)
- Nixon Peabody (LA)
- ProteomTech (Costa Mesa)
- Western University (Pomona)
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New NIH SBIR Grants:
ArmaGen Technologies, Auritec
Pharmaceuticals, Bandemar Networks, Calhoun Vision,
Chemat Technology, Chimeric Technologies, Cytrx
Corp., D-Xray, Gamma Medica - Ideas, Geospace
Research, Materia, Maxwell Sensors, Microsurgeon,
Molecular Express, N-Abl Therapeutics, Neumedicines,
Neurion Pharmaceuticals, Novadigm Therapeutics,
Physical Optics Corp., Strata Various Applied
Quantum Medical, Genofi, Modular Imaging, Neurocomp
Systems, Healthcare Education Associates, 21st
Century Medicine, Akeso Health Sciences, Biomatics,
Shape Change Technologies
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Real Estate: 3C
Scientific
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Clinical Studies: Spectrum
Pharmaceuticals, MannnKind Corp.
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Collaborations: BioCatalytics,
IRIS, I-Flow, Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Amgen,
Calando Pharmaceuticals
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M&As: Beckman
Coulter, Amgen, Precision Dynamics Corp., HemaCare
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IPOs: Obagi
Medical Products
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Medical Device
Clearance
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Drug Approvals: Abraxis
Bioscience, Amgen .....
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SoCalBio Synergies is
a publication of the Southern California Biomedical Council (SoCalBio)
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444 South Flower
Street, 34th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90071
213-236-4890
scbc@socalbio.org
www.socalbio.org
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Copyright
© 1996/2007 SoCalBio
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