Shifting Focus to O.C.

A tiny Ohio biotech company has reorganized itself and shifted its focus to Orange County under new management.

Synthetic Blood International Inc., a publicly traded developer of synthetic blood and other items, recently hired Robert Nicora, a Santa Ana resident, as its new president and chief operating officer.

Nicora, 58, most recently worked for Quintiles, a North Carolina research firm, as a consultant to start-up biomedical companies. Synthetic Blood was among his clients at Quintiles.

He has set up an office in Irvine and hired Laguna Hills resident Richard Kiral as a consultant in product development.

The company hasn’t decided whether it will relocate its headquarters here from Kettering, Ohio, he said.

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Barbara Marsh covers health care for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-7762 and at barbara.marsh@latimes.com.