Eyeworld

EW NEWS & OPINION 42 April 2017 by Liz Hillman EyeWorld Staff Writer $4.325 billion acquisition of AMO adds surgical platform, expanding Johnson & Johnson's Vision company consumer and supply chain that will further the reach and impact of the surgical vision business. Together we have the opportunity to leverage each other's strong relationships with optometrists and ophthalmol- ogists to grow the global eye health market, and now that the acquisi- tion is complete, we are ready to get started on this journey." Johnson & Johnson acquired Frontier Contact Lenses in 1981 and later became VISTAKON, which would introduce ACUVUE brand contact lenses. VISTAKON was renamed Johnson & Johnson Vision Care in 1999. Also in the 1980s, Mr. Frinzi said, Johnson & Johnson acquired a company that brought it into the surgical space but it exited that space 22 years ago. In fact, it was in 1980 that Mr. Frinzi began his career in the medical device community with Johnson & John- son and in 1984 began his ophthal- mic surgical career. "For me, it's an interesting full circle in terms of career to come back home to Johnson & Johnson … it feels a little bit like the prodigal son coming home," he said. From the medical community's perspective, Mr. Frinzi said since the acquisition's announcement, there seems to be "a lot of enthusiasm for having the quality of a corporation like Johnson & Johnson come back into the surgical space." Throughout the years, AMO (originally American Medical Optics, later purchased by Allergan [Dublin, Ireland] in 1986), has acquired other companies to add to its ophthalmic, surgical portfolio, including Pfizer's (New York) ophthalmology business that included IOL and ophthalmic viscosurgical device product lines, VISX, IntraLase, and WaveFront Sci- ences. Abbott purchased Advanced Medical Optics to become Abbott Medical Optics in 2009. With its acquisition of AMO— intent for which was originally an- nounced in September 2016—John- son & Johnson Vision now has this "dual track," Mr. Frinzi said, giving it a unique opportunity to serve eye health more completely. "One of the opportunities that's interesting about bringing this together is in one case you have optometry; in the other case you have ophthalmology. The opportu- Johnson & Johnson completes acquisition of Abbott Medical Optics Tom Frinzi, worldwide president of the surgical platform of Johnson & Johnson Vision, spoke at a recent town hall meeting. Source: Johnson & Johnson J ohnson & Johnson (New Brunswick, New Jersey) announced its $4.325 billion all-cash acquisition of Abbott Medical Op- tics (AMO, Abbott Park, Illinois), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Abbott Laboratories (Chicago), on Feb. 27, 2017. This acquisition expands Johnson & Johnson Vision with a surgical platform that will be based in Santa Ana, California. "If you think of it at a very high level, Johnson & Johnson has made it very clear that they want to be the worldwide leader in eye health," said Tom Frinzi, worldwide president of the surgical platform of Johnson & Johnson Vision and former presi- dent of AMO. "Global eye health is one of the largest, fastest growing and most underserved segments in health- care today," said Ashley McEvoy, company group chairman, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Medical De- vices. "Having been in the eyecare space for more than 3 decades, we recognize the need for innovation to improve vision and restore sight for more patients. We've been looking for some time for the right company to strengthen and grow our presence in eye health and help meet that patient need." "AMO was the right fit for us because of their history of innova- tion and strong positions in surgical ophthalmology, especially their mo- mentum in the cataract space," Ms. McEvoy continued. "J&J brings not only our commitment to eye health but also broad-based capabilities in surgical devices, R&D, commercial, " AMO was the right fit for us because of their history of innovation and strong positions in surgical ophthalmology, especially their momentum in the cataract space. " —Ashley McEvoy

• Blank Page
• Blank Page (1)