Tamara Gurney
President & CEO
Mission Valley Bank
Tamara Gurney is the founding President and Chief Executive Officer of Mission Valley Bank, a community-centric business bank based in the Santa Clarita and San Fernando valleys. She is an active member of a variety of industry organizations including the Valley Economic Alliance and SFV Community Foundation.
Chandra A. Beaton
Partner
LightGabler LLP
Chandra A. Beaton is a partner with the employment law firm LightGabler LLP where she manages the litigation practice. Ms. Beaton is one of the firm’s go-to people concerning legal strategies and firm policies and is a key member of LightGabler’s overall firm management team.
Although share prices for Semtech Corp. had grown healthily this year after a slump in 2023, an abrupt CEO transition this month has disrupted that for now.
Semtech board member Hong Q. Hou was named as the head of the Camarillo semiconductor and Internet-of-Things products manufacturer effective June 6. He replaced Paul Pickle as president and chief executive.
The day after the announcement was made, the price of Semtech shares fell by almost 18% to close at $31.18 on the second highest trading volume of the past 52-week period. More than 11.9 million shares traded that day.
The stock price has continued to fall since then. It closed at $29.50 on June 18.
Ye Jane Li, chair of the Semtech board’s nominating and governance committee, called Hou “an exceptional leader” and said the board is excited to have him execute the company’s strategy and take Semtech to its next phase of innovation and growth.
“Hong brings deep technical, operational and strategic leadership in the hyperscale and semiconductor industries and is already intimately familiar with Semtech’s business,” Li said in a statement.
Hou has served on the Semtech board since July.
He most recently served as president of the semiconductor group at Brooks Automation, a provider of automated wafer handling and contamination control products for the semiconductor manufacturing industry headquartered in Chelmsford, Massachusetts.
Prior to that, Hou was corporate vice president and general manager of the cloud and edge networking group of Intel Corp. in Santa Clara. He held executive leadership positions as chief technology officer at Fabrinet West Inc. in Santa Clara, chief operating officer at AXT Inc., in Fremont and as chief executive at Emcore Corp. in Alhambra before that.
Hou said that he joined Semtech not only because of his experience with the tech industry but because of the company’s “unique opportunity to leverage its strong team and formidable portfolio of highly innovative technologies and products in supporting the artificial intelligence and Internet-of-Things revolutions currently underway.”
“I am acutely focused on maintaining our financial discipline while we position Semtech to capitalize on the compelling technological trends ahead,” Hou said in a statement. “I am confident in our goals to generate strong and sustained value for our stockholders long into the future.”
Craig Ellis, an analyst in the San Francisco office of Westwood-based B. Riley Securities Inc., said in a report from June 7 that the appointment was surprising even as the stock was pressured down in early trading that day.
But after looking into Hou’s background he viewed “the pullback as an enhanced entry opportunity in shares which now offer (approximately) 2x upside” to the firm’s retained $58 price target.
“We believe this is ideal context to champion the business overall and is especially relevant in optimizing the highly differentiated, high gross margin, and analog-based Signal Integrity business, the leading driver to (trailing) three-month investor share enthusiasm,” Ellis wrote in the report.
An abrupt CEO change
Pickle’s departure is unrelated to Semtech’s operational or financial performance, did not involve a violation of the company’s code of conduct and does not have an impact on any previously reported financial statements, Semtech said in a release.
The board’s decision resulted from differences between it and Pickle on how the chief executive and the board should work together in the best interests of stockholders, the Semtech release said.
On June 5, Pickle, who only took over as chief executive last June, participated in his final conference call with analysts to discuss fiscal first quarter financials with analysts.
“I’m pleased with Semtech’s solid first-quarter financial performance with net sales above the high end of guidance, along with meaningful declines in channel inventories across each of our end markets,” Pickle said.
In its fiscal first quarter ending April 28, Semtech reported adjusted net income of $4.1 million (6 cents a share), compared to adjusted net income of $2.8 million (4 cents) in the same period of the previous year. Revenue decreased by 13% from the fiscal first quarter of the prior year to $206 million.
At least two analysts who follow Semtech have rated its stock as a buy.
Tore Svanberg, an analyst in the San Francisco office of Stifel Financial Corp. in St. Louis, said in a research report from June 6 that the company’s long-term prospects continue to brighten, with Semtech “making material design win progress across its portfolio of products, most notably within AI-based applications.”
“Although the (near term) remains somewhat mixed/subdued, we continue to believe in the (long term) outlook of the business, even as cost-cutting measures and other initiatives are already making a positive impact on the bottom line,” Svanberg said in his report.
Ellis, of B. Riley, also rated the stock as a buy.
He said in a research note from June 5 that the bright spot at Semtech was in company execution and that rising gross margins and well-managed operating expenses were aiding cash flow and auguring well for future leverage.
“Adding it all up, we believe a more visible (quarter over quarter) growth is gaining traction and can accelerate in FY26 while strategic carve-optionality remains a potential intermediate-to-long-term debt pay-down and value creation kicker,” Ellis said in the note.
Thus, his fiscal 2025 and 2026 year earnings per share estimates rose by 3% to 6%, and with increased execution confidence he increased his target price from $50 to $58, Ellis added.
U.S. looks to bolster its chip-making industry
The stock decline in Semtech comes at a time of positive outlook in the semiconductor industry.
A Deloitte study released earlier this year said that it is now predicted to see global sales of $588 billion.
“Not only would that be 13% better than 2023, but it’s 2.5% higher than 2022’s record industry revenues of $574 billion,” the study said.
The stock market is often a leading indicator of industry performance, the study added.
“As of mid-December 2023, the combined market capitalization of the top 10 global chip companies was $3.4 trillion, up 74% from $1.9 trillion in November 2022 and 17% higher than the $2.9 trillion we saw in November 2021,” the study said.
In a report put out in May by the Semiconductor Industry Association and Boston Consulting Group, it said that the U.S. would triple its domestic semiconductor manufacturing capacity from 2022 – when the CHIPS (Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors) and Science Act was enacted – to 2032.
“The projected 203% growth is the largest projected percent increase in the world over that time,” the report said.
The report also projects the U.S. will grow its share of advanced logic (below 10 nanometers) manufacturing to 28% of global capacity by 2032, up from 0% in 2022.
“Additionally, America is projected to capture over one-quarter (28%) of total global capital expenditures from 2024-2032, ranking second only to Taiwan (31%). In the absence of the CHIPS Act, the U.S. would have captured only 9% of global capex by 2032,” according to the report.
Like tens of thousands of other employers around Los Angeles County, Sunder Ramani is scrambling to meet a July 1 state deadline to craft a custom-tailored workplace violence prevention plan.
Ramani owns and is the managing partner of Westwind Studios, a post-production company in Burbank with about 100 employees. In the nearly 30 years since Ramani founded the studio, he has seen many state laws go into effect that impact his business operations.
But to Ramani, this deadline, which is part of a bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in September known as SB 553, is one of the vaguest – and most frightening – laws he’s ever seen.
In a nutshell, under SB 553, nearly every employer in the state is required to draw up a detailed plan to prevent workplace violence incidents and implement a system to respond to any such incidents that do occur.
The law exempts major health care establishments that have had to comply with a similar law on the books for several decades; it also exempts law enforcement and prison agencies. Employers who never have 10 or more employees on their premises are also exempt.
Besides the plans, the law also requires annual training sessions for all employees on the steps they need to take to reduce the risk of – or respond to – workplace violence incidents.
Failure to have a plan in place by July 1 subjects the employer to fines from state regulators when they go out to inspect workplaces for health and safety violations.
But the details about what is supposed to go into these plans are vague – in part because it depends on input from employees. The same goes for the training sessions.
“What do I put in the plan?” Ramani asked. “And in doing this, am I supposed to scare the bejesus out of my employees?”
But that’s just the start of Ramani’s concerns. He is worried that with this law in effect, employers like himself will be vulnerable to lawsuits from employees or others visiting the premises, especially after an incident occurs.
“Even with all these plans and training sessions in place, I can never prove that I did everything possible to prevent a violent event from occurring,” Ramani said. “This is especially true when it’s something involving the homeless or one of these smash-and-grab robberies, situations over which I have little or no control.”
In effect, he said, “It’s an open-ended litigation trap.”
Spurred by Northern California transit workplace massacre
This was not the stated intent of the law when it was first introduced as a bill early last year by state Sen. David Cortese (D-San Jose) in response to a mass shooting at a Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority facility in May 2021. The shooting spree left 10 dead, including the gunman, an agency employee; it was at the time the deadliest mass shooting in the history of the Bay Area.
In a statement issued after the bill was signed in September, Cortese said, “The journey of SB 553 began in the aftermath of the 2021 massacre at the Valley Transportation Authority railyard in my district in San Jose. On that horrible day, we quickly realized how safety protocols can and must be enhanced. In the following days and months, more solutions for preventing workplace violence emerged.”
Cortese added, “This groundbreaking law will help workers and employers establish a plan for the types of workplace violence that are on the rise.”
The bill was sponsored by the United Food and Commercial Workers union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union. Initially, it drew opposition from the California Retailers Association, the California Chamber of Commerce and other industry groups; however, after a series of compromises, those groups withdrew their opposition.
Drawing up the violence prevention plans
Under the law, the plan has to be tailored to each specific workplace facility, taking into account the physical layout and all points of entry. And management must solicit input from employees using the workplace.
“We recommend sending out a questionnaire to all employees, asking them if they feel safe at work, whether they observe things like security cameras not working, people loitering on or near the premises, doors left unlocked, etc…” said Kim Gusman, chief executive of the California Employers Association, a Sacramento-based trade association representing employers across the spectrum of industries.
Gusman noted that her association’s consultants have been swamped in recent weeks handling panicked calls from employers and human resources executives seeking guidance with their plans. She added that at a June 4 seminar on the topic hosted by her association, roughly 75% of the attendees had not even started drawing up a plan – with the deadline a mere four weeks away.
Once employee input is obtained, the plan itself should address threats from coworkers, customers, vendors, former employees, employee family members or significant others, and even from complete strangers, she added.
The plan must also designate employees or company executives as point people for implementing its provisions. And the employer must set up a system of incident logs, so that when an incident occurs, everything is recorded in a standardized manner.
Once the plan is drawn up, the employer must then train all employees on the crucial points of the plan and the key steps they should take before, during and after a workplace violence incident.
One area that will need further clarification is the extent to which the plans must cover employees when they spend a significant amount of time at third-party worksites, such as on a construction site.
“One of the issues I’ve seen employers struggle with: When you have employees that go out to other worksites, what are the obligations there? That’s a gray area,” said Hannah Sweiss, a partner with the Atlanta-based law firm Fisher & Phillips who splits her time between the firm’s Los Angeles and Woodland Hills offices.
Another area of concern is the extent to which employers have to reduce the threat of violence from sources that traditionally have been of larger societal concern or the province of law enforcement. The obvious example in the L.A. area is homeless individuals who station themselves at or near entrances to businesses.
“The concern about having to deal with the homeless is that this law is not clear about how far an employer can go to remove threats of violence against customers and employees trying to access the premises,” Sweiss said. “That’s a gray area of the law that will have to be litigated and is an especially big issue here in Los Angeles.”
Word not getting to many employers
Gusman said that even though the law was passed in September and the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration – better known as Cal-OSHA – published general guidelines in March, most employers have only found out about the law in recent weeks. Many more, she said, have still not heard about it.
One local business owner who only found out about the law just after the Memorial Day holiday is Nick Montaño, owner of Los Toros Restaurant, a Mexican eatery in Chatsworth that employs roughly 30 people.
“I haven’t had a lot of time to pull anything together,” Montaño said. “My first reaction was that this is totally unnecessary. We of course take steps to make sure our employees feel safe. They are like family.”
He added that if a violent incident occurs, his employees have until now been instructed to call for law enforcement to respond.
“If we have a homeless guy coming into the restaurant and behaving erratically or has a knife, my employees are instructed not to intervene and instead to call the police,” Montaño said. “I don’t see how drawing up a big, complicated plan is going to change that.”
Montaño called the law “another example of politicians crushing California businesses. They tell us we need to do this but don’t think about what it means for small business owners like me.”
The Walt Disney Co. is going quackers over Donald Duck.
The Burbank entertainment and media giant earlier this month kicked off its 90 years of Donald Duck celebration.
The company released a brand new short on June 9 highlighting the storytelling behind the beloved character to commemorate the anniversary of Donald’s first appearance in the 1934 Silly Symphony short cartoon, “The Wise Little Hen.”
The cartoon short, “D.I.Y. Donald” from Walt Disney Animation Studios, is the studios’ first Donald Duck-starring short since 1961.
Debuting on Disney+ as well as at the Walt Disney Animation Studios’ YouTube channel, Disney Channel and Freeform, this short finds Donald trying his hand at some home repairs which begin with the replacement of a light bulb and quickly turn into a series of comic catastrophes, according to a release from Disney.
The short also pays tribute to Disney legend Clarence “Ducky” Nash, who originated the voice of Donald for his first 50 years, and who delivers the character’s vocal gestures and assorted “wise quacks” by way of archival voice recordings, the release added.
Also on June 9, two restored Donald-centric shorts were uploaded to Disney+ for streaming.
In “Crazy Over Daisy” from 1950, Donald attempts to get back at chipmunks Chip and Dale for wrecking his bicycle while on his way to Daisy’s house. In “Out on a Limb” from the same year, Donald discovers the tree home of the chipmunks – disrupting it with a tree pruner which they believe to be a monster, according to the Disney release.
Donald Duck has been featured in more than 150 short films – more than any other Disney character.
On June 7, the ABC show “Good Morning America” showcased new Donald Duck-inspired products.
This campaign will look back at the journey of this iconic character and the role he has played in Disney’s storytelling legacy, the Disney release said.
“His popularity and accomplishments both on and off screen have earned him numerous accolades, including a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and having his webbed footprints immortalized in cement outside the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood,” the Disney release said.
At the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank, Donald Duck started his birthday celebrations early by making some “quack-tastic” changes across the historic space, including a Donald-centric reimagining of the Walt Disney Archives logo based on Donald Duck’s designs through the years; the classic Mickey Avenue sign originally seen in the 1941 short “The Reluctant Dragon” transforming into Donald Avenue; and other activities.
Calabasas-based Spotlight Ticket Management Inc. seems to be riding a strong wave in 2024 after a rocky handful of years put the whole operation at risk.
In 2019 the company became embroiled in a breach of contract lawsuit against a one-time client, StubHub Inc. And in 2020, Spotlight was hit with a one-two punch of losing yet another major client, American Express Co., just weeks before the Covid-19 pandemic dried up all live ticketed events.
Now, the company said it is expecting serious growth this summer. And a jury decision in late May awarded Spotlight a $16.3 million payout from StubHub. Spotlight – which does business through its ticket management platform, TicketManager – prevailed on claims that StubHub interfered with another of Spotlight’s business relationships and withheld commissions to be paid to the company.
“We are so thankful to the jurors who saw what StubHub did to us and stood up for justice,” said Tony Knopp, co-founder and chief executive of Spotlight. “After nearly five long, difficult, and emotional years, including StubHub suing our staff personally in retribution for TicketManager simply seeking to be paid for the value provided, the relief and joy we felt when we finally got to tell the truth is indescribable.”
The verdict serves to bolster a Spotlight that has successfully pivoted from the initial business setback and emerged from the pandemic’s stoppage of live events. The Calabasas company has a number of new deals in the pipeline to grow its clientele later this year.
Those deals were in the works regardless of how the jury voted last month. However, now the company can ride the wave of its David and Goliath story.
“For Spotlight to have gone the distance with a giant company like StubHub and exonerated itself, proven its position, I think it shows a lot of character, integrity and that the truth was always on Spotlight’s side,” said Chris Pardo, an attorney with Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP who has worked with Spotlight for years.
Origins and success
Knopp co-founded Spotlight in 2007 with two colleagues, after all three had clocked in time as sales representatives for StubHub.
With this new company, the team developed a software platform for event promotors and other ticketing venues to use to streamline the sales process. Its services include invitation or registration, credentialing, distribution, check-in and post-event surveys and reports. Clients include Verizon, FedEx, Adidas, Anheuser-Busch, Nissan, Mastercard and a wide variety of professional and collegiate sports teams.
The company successfully weathered the 2008 financial crisis shortly after forming and in 2014 landed its biggest client at the time: American Express. The credit card company and Spotlight developed a unique model in which Spotlight managed tickets available to American Express Concierge cardholders, who had premium access to a plethora of events.
The prospect was so lucrative to Spotlight that the company sold a 20% stake to an outside investor to generate the liquidity to float these tickets for American Express. Spotlight then brought American Express and StubHub together in 2016, bringing StubHub’s secondary ticket market into American Express’ cardholder perks. American Express reportedly bought between $80 million and $100 million in tickets from StubHub, from which Spotlight received a 7% commission.
“The engagement was wildly successful,” Knopp said.
Spotlight and American Express renewed their partnership in 2017.
‘Most important business relationship’ sabotaged
Things got messy, Spotlight testified, after StubHub experienced issues with tracking all of the purchases made via Spotlight’s platform – issues that the Los Angeles jury agreed were taken advantage of by StubHub’s people. The jury also agreed that StubHub officials deliberately misled American Express officials with false information about Spotlight’s business practices to disrupt their relationship.
“StubHub had challenges with tracking the purchases that were coming through TicketManager – which they admitted and informed us of often over the course of years,” Knopp explained. “As the volume of purchases from American Express continued to grow to the tune of tens of millions of dollars, leadership at StubHub made a decision to not pay TicketManager the money it had earned and to interfere with TicketManager’s relationship with American Express.”’
Spotlight first filed a lawsuit against StubHub in 2019. In March 2020, American Express declined to renew its agreement with Spotlight. And then the pandemic hit.
“American Express was nearly 10% of our business. Their renewal was in March of 2020, which was right when Covid-19 shut down live events. The results were catastrophic,” Knopp said. “Our team pulled together by taking enormous pay cuts, renegotiating with our banks, and cutting growth spending. Losing American Express was a significant blow to our family.”
Pardo, who is based in Hunton Andrews Kurth’s Boston office but worked with the team in its downtown office to represent Spotlight, said this client loss, combined with the shortchanging by StubHub, put Spotlight in dire straits at the time.
“Their most important business relationship – so important to them that they sold 20% of their company in make it happen – was sabotaged,” he said.
Success and moving forward
StubHub was ultimately found liable for breach of contract and tortious interference with contract and prospective economic advantage.
Bolstering Spotlight’s case was evidence and testimony from StoneTurn, a Boston consulting and services firm that handles forensic business investigations among other tasks. The firm served as the damages expert for Spotlight, providing the estimates and data that resulted in the $16.3 million award.
Partner Atanu Saha and managing director Narinder Walia, both based at StoneTurn’s office in the Carthay neighborhood, testified on behalf of Spotlight.
“The damages model developed and presented by the StoneTurn team was a key factor in our success in this litigation,” said Spotlight Chief Operating Officer Ken Hanscom in a statement.
For Knopp and others, the saga became personal on account of their prior time working StubHub and the various relationships they continued to have with people there. Pardo described the litigation as being of the “bet the company” variety because of how long it took and how much work it involved. The trial itself lasted a month and involved nearly 20 attorneys from Hunton Andrews Kurth, including Los Angeles managing partner Ann Marie Mortimer.
“This was friends feeling like they’d been stabbed in the back and almost having their business completely destroyed,” Pardo added. “For Spotlight to have gone the distance with a giant company like StubHub and exonerated itself, proven its position, I think it shows a lot of character, integrity and that the truth was always on Spotlight’s side.”
For its part, Knopp said Spotlight has soldiered on since the 2020 downturn, calling business “fantastic” at this point. He added that the company expects to announce new deals involving professional sports teams this summer and is also exploring the acquisition of related companies.
“Our team pulled together through the darkest days of 2020 and we’ve come out of it battle-tested and growing at a record pace,” Knopp added. “We believe in live events work and that we, as people, will always love them. So, we’ll keep building tech to make it easier for us all.”
StubHub did not respond to a request for comment.
Passenger traffic growth at the four airports serving Los Angeles County was a mixed bag in April, with Ontario International and Long Beach airports continuing to soar while Los Angeles International and Hollywood Burbank airports saw sluggish growth.
Long Beach Airport – the smallest of the four airports – led the way with 15% growth in passengers in April compared to the same month last year. The total of nearly 350,000 passengers was also about 18% above pre-pandemic April 2019’s tally.
“Following record-breaking passenger traffic in March, strong numbers from spring break travelers continued to keep April’s figures well above previous years, indicating that we’re heading toward a bustling summer season,” airport Director Cynthia Guidry said.
Most of this growth was due to dominant carrier, Dallas-based Southwest Airlines Co., continuing to add flights to fill out its allotments under the airport’s flight slot program.
Ontario International continued its robust recovery from the pandemic in April. Its total of 573,000 passengers was about 9% above the same month last year and 19% above pre-pandemic April 2019.
Atif Elkadi, chief executive of Ontario International’s governing authority, acknowledged the strong growth in April and said he expects the growth to continue for the rest of the year.
“As our airport continues to gain in popularity among air passengers, our airline partners are adding new routes and expanding existing services, all of which bodes well for air travel through the Inland Empire for the remainder of the year,” Elkadi said.
Sluggish growth at LAX, Burbank
Meanwhile, LAX – by far the largest airport in the region – is continuing to struggle as it tries to grow its overall passenger tally. Domestic passenger traffic, which makes up the lion’s share of the total, barely budged in April compared to the same month last year, recording a slight loss of 0.06%, representing a fall to 4.25 million. Compared to pre-pandemic April 2019, domestic passenger traffic at LAX in April was down 17%. In previous months, it had been running about 15% behind pre-pandemic levels.
Doug Webster, interim chief operations and maintenance officer with Los Angeles World Airports, the city agency that runs LAX, had previously said flight planning adjustments by the airlines were on net negatively impacting the number of domestic flights at LAX.
For most of the past 18 months, international passenger traffic has been the star performer at LAX with double-digit year-over-year growth. But that star may be beginning to fade: in April, the total of 1.91 million international passengers passing through the gates at LAX was only 9% above last year’s level and is still running about 10% short of pre-pandemic April 2019.
Some of this growth slowdown may have been inevitable: after Covid-related flight bans were lifted in late 2021 and into 2022, international air carriers rushed to restore flights to LAX. That rush may be ending and annual growth rates may return to the low-single-digit levels that prevailed before the pandemic struck.
Nonetheless, the 9% year-over-year growth in international passenger traffic was enough to propel overall growth at LAX in April past the 2% mark. That was significantly higher than the 0.3% growth rate at Hollywood Burbank Airport to 508,000.
Cargo volumes rise
The picture was a little brighter on the air cargo front as total air cargo tonnage in April at the four airports hit 258,000 metric tons, up more than 5% from the same month last year. That reverses a drop of nearly 5% in March compared to last year.
LAX and Ontario make up 98% of total air cargo tonnage at the four airports.
But in the big picture, air cargo tonnage at the airports remains about even with pre-pandemic levels as the pandemic-induced cargo surge at LAX and Ontario now recedes further into memory.
Three local companies late last month reached milestones with the Food and Drug Administration.
Amgen Inc., the Thousand Oaks biotech giant, received FDA approval to market a “biosimilar” drug to the blockbuster Soliris drug to treat certain rare diseases.
Just down the road in Thousand Oaks, another biotech company, Atara Biotherapeutics Inc., submitted an application to the FDA for a drug to treat certain patients with Epstein-Barr virus-infected cells.
Meanwhile, Valencia-based Avita Medical Inc. received FDA approval for an upgraded version of a cell-harvesting device that treats burn patients with their own skin cells.
Amgen biosimilar drug approval
News of the Amgen drug approval came from the FDA. The drug, called Bekemv, is a biosimilar, meaning it shares many of the active properties of a drug that has already been licensed. In this case, it’s Soliris, developed by Cambridge, United Kingdom-based AstraZeneca. Soliris, which is used to treat a rare genetic blood disorder, generated $3.1 billion in sales last year.
In its announcement, the FDA said Bekemv is approved to treat two specific and rare blood-related disorders: paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria and atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome. Soliris is also approved to treat those conditions.
Under the terms of a settlement reached in 2020, Amgen can begin marketing Bekemv in March 2025.
In the FDA’s announcement, the agency said it has put a priority on approving biosimilar drugs to expand patients’ options.
“The FDA is committed to help facilitate the development of safe and effective interchangeable biosimilar treatments that can expand access for individuals with rare diseases whose current treatment options are limited,” the agency said.
Atara’s submission of immunotherapy drug
Atara’s drug, known as tabelecleucel, or tab-cel for short, is a T-cell immunotherapy derived from the company’s Epstein-Barr virus platform. It targets patients with Epstein-Barr virus positive post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease, in which excessive amounts of white blood cells are produced. Under terms of a licensing agreement with Paris-based Pierre Fabre Laboratories, Atara is responsible for regulatory procedures until the drug is approved by the FDA, which the announcement from Pierre Fabre said could come in the first quarter of next year. Once the approval is granted, the drug will be transferred to Pierre Fabre, which will then market the drug. Atara will receive milestone payments from Pierre Fabre totaling $80 million.
“The BLA submission for tab-cel represents a significant moment for Atara, our partner Pierre Fabre, and the broader allogeneic T-cell therapy field, and is a critical step towards our goal of delivering this first-of-its-kind treatment to EBV+ PTLD patients in the U.S.,” said Pascal Touchon, Atara’s chief executive.
The drug was already approved for sale by the European Commission in late 2022 and in the United Kingdom last year.
Avita’s skin cell regeneration device approved
Unlike Amgen and Atara, Avita Medical’s approval from the FDA is for a medical device, which the company has called Recell-Go. It is the second generation of the company’s cell regeneration technology. The technology platform harvests skin cells from a patient’s body to treat burns or wounds in that patient.
The first-generation device has been approved in the United States and some international markets to treat thermal burn wounds and certain other skin defects. It generates skin cells that are then sprayed onto the affected areas.
This second-generation device streamlines the process of spraying on the skin cells to treat burns and other wounds.
“By streamlining processes and enhancing operational efficiency with the use of Recell Go, clinicians can now treat a greater number of patients and more broadly experience the proven benefits of Recell technology,” Jim Corbett, Avita Medical’s chief executive, said in the company’s announcement. “We believe that this transformative shift will empower more clinicians to achieve optimal outcomes for their patients, driving greater adoption, and fundamentally redefining wound care management.
Los Angeles’ beloved grocery darling Erewhon is expanding. The outlet purchased a 24,000-square-foot building in Glendale for $12.4 million earlier this year and recently announced plans to open its newest storefront.
Glendale marks the 11th location for Erewhon, which is widely recognized for its hefty price tags, including the likes of its latest $23 peaches and cream smoothie collaboration with supermodel Kendall Jenner.
The property, located at 520 N. Glendale Ave., was previously home to Virgil’s Hardware Home Center, which has been vacant since 2021. The Erewhon development team worked closely with Glendale’s economic development division throughout the site selection process. It was drawn to the particular site for its historic roots and strategic position in the San Fernando Valley, according to Erewhon leadership.
“Coming to Glendale is a key step in Erewhon’s mission to improve nutrition and make a lasting impact on the food system in Southern California,” Tony Antoci, chief executive of Erewhon, said in a statement. “We can’t wait to rejuvenate an iconic community landmark and contribute to the distinct fabric of Glendale.”
“Erewhon is proud to be occupying this historic site, which brings back so many memories for local residents,” his wife and president of the company, Josephine Antoci, added. “Each of our markets has a unique identity based on the history and community of the neighborhood, and it will be amazing to watch that take shape in Glendale.”
The vacant building will be redeveloped and open in about 18 months. It will be mostly occupied by Erewhon, which plans to utilize 18,000 square feet of space itself and lease the remaining square footage to complementary tenants.
This is not the first time Erewhon will be wearing the landlord hat. The Antoci pair opened the store’s Pasadena location last year, assuming the ground floor of a 45,000-square-foot converted department store and renting out the upstairs space to two tenants – app-enabled childcare center Brella and integrated women’s health care clinic Tia – in an attempt to create a mixed-use retail destination.
Other Erewhon locations include Venice, Santa Monica, Silver Lake, Studio City, Calabasas, Beverly Hills, Fairfax, Pacific Palisades and Century City.
Los Angeles, like any respectable metropolitan area, is home to many prestige museums, those collecting and celebrating history, fine arts and the sciences.
The lively and iconoclast character of the region and its history also make plenty of room for the oddball, quirky or niche museum – those seeking an audience of locals and tourists alike, in search of a true L.A. experience or perhaps in rejection of a hifalutin atmosphere. Of these there are many, a plethora of educational nonprofits or entertainment bazaars. And they’re all one-of-a-kind.
“We have one of the most diversified cultural landscapes and museum communities in the world. It’s part of what makes Los Angeles so special,” said Corrie Siegel, executive director of the Museum of Neon Art in Glendale. “There’s so much to explore, knowledge to be gleaned and experiences to be had here. L.A is full of really smart, curious people and people interested in going beyond the surface.”
In this way, the museum is often a window into a past time or place. While some of these locales cover a world of topics, many stay right here in L.A. Take, for example, the Valley Relics Museum in Van Nuys, which seeks to capture and preserve all things San Fernando Valley.
“No one was trying to preserve Valley history 22 years ago,” said founder Tommy Gelinas. “It didn’t exist. It was something that I feel was needed, to bring some pride. The Valley has so much rich history, much of it gone. It’s something that I think put a lot of pride back.”
Origin stories
Founded in 1981, the Museum of Neon Art was the brainchild of two founders – artist Lili Lackich and high school student Richard Jenkins – who developed their own interests in what was then considered a somewhat unsavory medium.
“Not many museums can claim they were started by a high school student,” Siegel said. “In some ways, that creates an interesting financial model because most museums are formed by wealthy patrons, municipalities or governments, but we are all just founded out of love, some crazy kids and artists who saw this really special medium was disappearing from the landscape.”
Recognizable by its unique vibrating light, charming buzz and cursive shapes, neon light was once, in the eyes of many, a necessary association of seedy venues, hotels and storefronts. Its colorful and kinetic illumination stood in contrast to the warm monotone of streetlamps. Cities started banning new installations and finding other ways to remove existing setups.
However, Siegel said, there was also a blossoming movement that saw much more in the medium.
“Right at the time it was being legislated against was also when it was picking up in the power it had to make statements about identity, community and all of these interesting things, so artists started taking it up,” she said.
L.A. makes a good home for this museum, Siegel noted, because it houses one of the largest stocks of existing public neon lighting in the nation. And for this reason, she added, the museum does not actively go out and acquire these artifacts; they are instead fueled by art exhibits and donations.
“We have a vested interest in keeping L.A., Southern California and the world full of neon, so we don’t want to pay a business to take down their neon,” Siegel added.
You’ll also find neon signage in the Valley Relics Museum, which has amassed a large collection of signature Valley iconography and products. This includes such icons as the sign for the former Palomino Club in North Hollywood and a plethora of BMX bikes, paying homage to the birthplace of the sport.
Gelinas began collecting and preserving the history of his home region 22 years, initially showcasing his finds on Myspace and then Facebook. That was as far as he initially planned to take it, he admitted.
“It was really an interesting deal, having that blog and website and starting early on with social media,” Gelinas said. “It was one of those things where I didn’t really plan for it to be a brick-and-mortar museum. It was more that my childhood was disappearing, and they were tearing down, say, that one building, so I wanted to get that door or that booth or something.”
Social media helped fuel a crowdsourcing effort to get artifacts into Gelinas’ hands, and pretty soon he had more than he knew what to do with. Thus, the original museum was opened in Chatsworth in 2013; it relocated in 2018, moving into two hangars at Van Nuys Airport.
Building an audience and dealing with the pandemic
Siegel took the reins at the Museum of Neon Art about a month before the Covid-19 pandemic took hold and forced virtually all such institutions to close their doors to visitors.
“That could very well have been the end of MONA,” she recalled, using the common acronym for the museum. “We had three months of rent in our bank account, we couldn’t pay our staff and we had no way of making money. We had to completely reinvent the way we run the museum.
“In many ways,” Siegel added, “it was an opportunity for us.”
Her team took to social media, creating educational videos and mapping out neighborhood tours – where those interested could explore L.A.’s public neon offerings. In building a new audience of neon enthusiasts, Siegel said the museum’s mission of promoting the conservation of the medium was advanced.
What followed was what Siegel called the “Bernie Sanders of museums,” referencing the onetime presidential candidate’s campaign coffers filled mostly by small donations.
“We have very few well-monied patrons, but we have a huge community who knows it’s up to the collective to make sure these special jewels in Los Angeles are saved,” Siegel said.
Similarly, the folks at the International Printing Museum in Carson saw the pandemic as an opportunity. As an organization that thrives on educational tours and theatrical interactive demonstrations, co-founder and curator Mark Barbour said the museum began to expand its footprint when it closed doors. It took over another building tenant’s space and converted it into a teaching lab.
The museum also ramped up its equipment leasing activities. Being in possession of such a comprehensive collection of authentic printing presses and equipment means they can provide when film and TV studios come calling for period-appropriate set pieces; they made $250,000 alone by lending equipment to HBO’s series “The Gilded Age.”
“If you see a printing press in the movies, it probably came from our collection,” Barbour noted.
With tours and school visits back in the rotation, Barbour said the museum is back in its main wheelhouse, with costumed actors portraying such figures as Benjamin Franklin as they guide students in printing out U.S. Constitutions on the appropriate machine – much more fun than simply looking at a static exhibit.
“We’ve got to figure out a way to make that happen and you do that by thinking of fun programming and a way to engage the audiences,” he said. “I’m passionate about making sure the people have that level of an experience every day, where they say ‘Wow’ when they leave the building.”