A number of medical offices in the San Fernando Valley have traded recently.

In January, CBRE Group Inc. facilitated the sale of the West Valley Medical Portfolio, a series of three medical outpatient buildings totaling 163,000 square feet in West Hills, for an undisclosed sum.

The buildings – which feature tenants such as UCLA Health, Optum, Providence Health and Services, City of Hope, Select Medical, and LabCorp – are each located next to one another and sit on approximately seven acres of contiguous land.

CBRE’s Chris Bodnar, Brannan Knott, Zack Holderman, Cole Reethof, Trent Jemmett and Jesse Greshin – all from the company’s U.S. Healthcare Capital Markets practice – partnered with Angie Weber and Dana Nialis of CBRE’s Southern California Healthcare Advisory and Transaction team to advise the unnamed seller.

“This portfolio represents approximately half of the total medical outpatient building supply on the campus,” Bodnar said in a statement. “These assets are incredibly well positioned and are strategic to the overall delivery of care provided to patients in the region.”

The three buildings are located adjacent to the 260-bed UCLA West Valley Medical Center, which UCLA acquired last year. The portfolio boasted a 94.1% occupancy rate at the time of sale.

Another Valley outpatient medical building to trade within the last few months was a 47,700-square-foot asset in Burbank, which sold for $16.1 million in December.

The eight-story office, which was scooped up by a private investor, boasted a 90% occupancy rate at the time of the sale. It included 33 tenants, each occupying an average of 1,500 square feet of space.

CBRE once again brokered the deal with the following brokers involved: Mark Shaffer, Gerard Poutier, Dyland Rutigliano, Anthony DeLorenzo and Bodnar.

“The opportunity to purchase an outpatient medical building in a fundamentally strong market like downtown Burbank is rare,” Shaffer said. “Burbank is one of the top medical office markets in metro Los Angeles, and this property stands out for its tenant stability.”

According to Shaffer, dentist offices comprise 45% of the building’s occupancy, with most tenants occupying their respective space for over 20 years and some even since the building opened in 1971.

The property has immediate access to the I-5 Freeway and is situated near multiple medical centers, including Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center, Adventist Health Glendale Hospital and Providence Holy Cross Medical Center.

— Brynn Shaffer

Optimal Acquires Recovery Dynamics

Optimal Investment Group, a Sherman Oaks-based private equity firm, recently acquired Recovery Dynamics, a drug and alcohol addiction treatment services provider with headquarters in Hollywood. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

As a part of this deal, OIG is exploring add-on acquisitions in the San Fernando Valley and Greater Los Angeles area.

Currently, Recovery Dynamics has an inpatient location in Mid-Wilshire and an outpatient center in Hollywood.

Joey Separzadeh, managing partner at OIG, said the firm was attracted to Recovery Dynamics because it “goes beyond conventional treatment methods by integrating cutting-edge genetic testing and pharmacogenomics into every aspect of care.”

“Our investment reflects our confidence in the company’s vision and operational expertise, and we are committed to providing the resources necessary to help them scale and innovate,” Separzadeh said.

Under OIG’s ownership, Recovery Dynamics will expand its services not only geographically but also in terms of offerings including specialized mental health programs with long-term and holistic elements to treatment.

Harris Roth, partner at OIG, said the firm’s investment in Recovery Dynamics is a part of a larger focus for the firm to “expand access to high-quality behavioral health services.”

In May, OIG acquired Spectrum Behavioral Therapies, a behavioral health company which serves children with autism.

“This new acquisition strengthens our mission to address critical gaps in behavioral health care,” Roth said. “By adding Recovery Dynamics to our portfolio, we are reinforcing our dedication to comprehensive, patient-centered care across the behavioral health spectrum.”

— Kennedy Zak

Teledyne and Micropac Merge

A Teledyne Technologies Inc. subsidiary recently completed its merger with Micropac Industries Inc.

The Thousand Oaks aerospace, marine and digital imaging products manufacturer originally announced the acquisition in early November and closed on the all-cash deal in late December.

The transaction valued Micropac in Garland, Texas, at $57.3 million, including debt.

“We are delighted to welcome Micropac and its employees to the Teledyne family,” Robert Mehrabian, executive chair of Teledyne, said in a statement.

Then, in February, Teledyne  completed the acquisition of select aerospace and defense businesses from Excelitas Technologies Corp. for $710 million.

The deal includes the optical systems business known under the Qioptiq brand and based in Northern Wales, in the United Kingdom, as well as the U.S. based advanced electronic business.

The acquired business will now be included in Teledyne’s aerospace and defense electronics segment and operate under the name Teledyne Qioptiq.

Mehrabian said that he was pleased to quickly close on this deal, which represents the company’s 10th corporate carve out transaction.

“Teledyne Qioptiq adds new technology and highly complementary products and customers, and we are delighted to welcome this business and its employees to Teledyne,” Mehrabian said in a statement.

— Mark R. Madler

Amgen Drug Price to be Negotiated

Thousand Oaks-based Amgen Inc.’s Otezla drug to treat forms of psoriasis has been included in the federal government’s second round of price negotiations for popular and expensive drugs under the Medicare Part D program.

The Jan. 17 announcement from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, better known as CMS, is part of the drug price negotiations mandate under the 2021 Inflation Reduction Act passed by Congress and signed into law by then-President Joe Biden.

Otezla is one of 15 drugs CMS named for this second round of price negotiations. Among the other drugs are Novo Nordisk’s popular Ozempic and Wegovy medicines indicated for diabetes treatment but also used for weight loss.

In the first round of price negotiations announced in 2023, the drug Enbrel, made by Amgen subsidiary Immunex to treat rheumatoid arthritis, was one of 10 prescription drugs selected.

Last August, CMS reached agreements with the manufacturers of all 10 drugs on lower prices. For Enbrel, the list price of $7,106 was negotiated down to $2,355. (Rarely does any patient pay the full list price thanks to insurance coverage and a myriad of discount programs from drug makers.)

The newly negotiated prices for the 10 drugs in the first round take effect next January.

The financial impact of the lower negotiated prices on the drug manufacturers may not be proportional to the price reductions.

That’s because the new lower prices may result in more prescriptions for the drugs and more frequent use of the drugs once prescribed.

For the second round, the manufacturers have until the end of February to decide whether to participate in negotiations.

— Howard Fine

Talogy launches new product

Talogy, a Glendale-based recruitment and talent management firm, announced a new product offering geared to searching for workers still early in their careers.

Spotlight is an assessment platform meant to help enterprise organizations determine what early-career professionals – who often don’t have much work experience – are capable of doing once they are hired. The assessment is customizable, and Talogy’s consultants work with companies to design questions and situations that are tailored to the company’s goals while introducing interviewees to the company’s brand and ethos.

Spotlight uses assessment techniques like Situational Judgement Testing, a common hiring tool that has come under fire in recent years for its accuracy (or lack thereof) in predicting how new hires will perform on the job.

“With an aging workforce and an increasing trend towards early retirement, attracting, identifying and engaging the right talent is crucial for the ongoing success of an organization,” Ted Kinney, the vice president of research and development at Talogy, said in a statement. “Hiring managers need to think more strategically, looking at both the immediate role that needs to be fulfilled, as well as the impact their recruitment decisions make on the long-term success of the company.”

— Keerthi Vedantam