NEW YORK — Alfred E. Mann, who started medical device companies that pioneered in the development of pacemakers for erratic hearts, insulin pumps for those with diabetes, cochlear implants for the hearing-impaired, and retinal implants for those who are blind, died on Thursday in Las Vegas. He was 90.
His death was announced by one of his companies, MannKind Corp., which did not state the cause. Mr. Mann had been active in that company until Feb. 17, when he abruptly stepped down as chairman.
Mr. Mann, who spent most of his career in the Los Angeles area, became a billionaire from his entrepreneurial activities. His biggest success was Mini-Med, which became the leader in insulin pumps, wearable devices that deliver insulin throughout the day, allowing people with diabetes to more precisely control their blood sugar levels.
Mr. Mann, who was chief executive of MiniMed for many years, sold the company to Medtronic for more than $3 billion in 2001.
“Al was a true pioneer and strong patient advocate,’’ said David Kliff, publisher of Diabetic Investor, which follows companies that make products for that disease. “Al touched the lives of millions of patients, mentored several notable executives and most of all never stopped trying to make life better for patients with diabetes.’’
Mr. Mann was also behind Advanced Bionics, a manufacturer of cochlear implants. Another company, Second Sight Medical Products, won approval in 2013 for the first “artificial retina,’’ which uses electrodes implanted into the eye to provide rudimentary vision to people who are blind from certain diseases.
He also started the Alfred Mann Foundation, which does research to develop medical devices, and he established institutes for biomedical innovation that bear his name at the University of Southern California and at the Technion in Israel.
In all, Mr. Mann started and largely financed 14 companies, nine of which were acquired for a total of almost $8 billion, according to MannKind.
Mr. Mann received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics from the University of California Los Angeles. He started two aerospace companies, Spectrolab and Heliotek, to fill contracts for the military.
Some of that work was to provide solar cells to power satellites. Because of that, he was asked in 1969 by researchers at Johns Hopkins University to work on longer-lasting batteries for pacemakers. Mr. Mann founded Pacesetter Systems, which introduced pacemakers with rechargeable batteries. It was acquired by Siemens in 1985 for $150 million.
In 1979, while running Pacesetter, Mr. Mann was visiting a cardiac ward and was challenged by a doctor there to work on diabetes, which caused many of the heart problems in patients. That led to the creation of MiniMed and later to MannKind, which developed a form of insulin that is inhaled instead of injected.
Mr. Mann, who worked seven days a week even when he was in his 80s, was divorced three times. He leaves his fourth wife, Claude; seven children ; his brother and sister; and 10 grandchildren.
