O.C. Firm Joins With Soviets in Marketing Venture
A group of Soviet companies and a small Orange County firm have announced a joint marketing venture that will distribute Soviet biotechnology products outside the United States and U.S. medical products in the Soviet Union.
The Soviet officials said the new company will market the Soviet medical products in the United States once they get approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said Dr. Ernst R. Muldashev, an ophthalmologist and general director of Allotransplant, a private Soviet medical firm.
Adapt International, which is a Villa Park trading and consulting firm, said it and Allotransplant have formed the venture, Allovita Inc. in Orange, in which the Soviet company has majority ownership.
The companies did not disclose financial terms of the deal.
Pending approval from the FDA, the venture plans to market Soviet biotechnology products such as “allotransplantats,” which are artificial tissues used for reconstructive surgery. With these products, Muldashev said that patients need not use immune suppressive drugs, which are often needed for such procedures to prevent the patient’s body from rejecting the artificial tissues.
Muldashev said that the allotransplantats have been used by Soviet doctors in the past decade, particularly in eye surgery.
It would also market American medical products, such as oxygenators and surgical equipment, in the Soviet Union.
Adapt International is a small company founded by Jane Settle that assists U.S. medical manufacturers to sell their products in the Soviet Union and also helps Soviet medical companies sell their products in the United States. Allotransplant is a medical research and manufacturing concern that operates surgical clinics in Moscow and other Soviet cities. It sells some of its products in Latin America, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
Under the venture, Allovita would establish educational clinics in Orange County and in other U.S. cities to teach the latest developments in Soviet surgical procedures, Muldashev said.
