Health Care Tech Company Quits Washington for Irvine

Atairgin Technologies Inc., a three-year-old health care technology company, has moved its corporate headquarters to Irvine from Pullman, Wash.

The company, which moved in early June, has 12 employees and expects to double its payroll by year’s end. Only two of Atairgin’s eight Pullman employees relocated to Irvine.

The company is developing a blood test to detect reproductive cancers, especially early-stage ovarian and breast cancers

Atairgin moved to Irvine for several reasons. The company wanted to be in a major metropolitan area where it could more easily find quality personnel and a strategic partner to help commercialize its products. Irvine was relatively inexpensive compared to the other cities Atairgin had considered. Commercial rents here, for instance, are about half those of San Francisco, Atairgin Chief Executive Patrick D. Walsh said. And Walsh, who became Atairgin’s CEO last August, has lived in Irvine since 1994 and preferred not to relocate.

“You have a growing number of pharmaceutical, biotech and diagnostic talent here, and you can draw talent from as far south as San Diego to as far north as San Francisco,” he said.

The company’s blood tests to detect reproductive cancers are entering the clinical stages, a process that could take up to two years to complete. The privately held company has no revenues.