Valeant Pharmaceuticals to buy PreCision Dermatology for $475 mn

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc, Canada's biggest drug maker and one of the most aggressive acquirers, yesterday said that it would buy privately-held PreCision Dermatology Inc, for $475 million in cash, in order to strengthen its skin products business.   

Montreal-based Valeant said that it will also pay an additional $25 million on achieving sales milestone. 

PreCision develops and markets high quality dermatology products with leading products such as Locoid, Hylatopic, Clindagel, and BenzEFoam. 

The Rhode Island-based company operates in two key segments, Onset Dermatologics, which focuses on prescription therapies, and PrecisionMD, which focuses on physician dispensed products.

The company has approximately 175 employees and expects to have approximately $130 million in revenue in 2014. 

The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2014 and Valeant expects the transaction, once completed, to be immediately accretive to its cash earnings per share.

"PreCision Dermatology has a wide range of medical dermatology products, treating a number of topical disease states such as acne and atopic dermatitis, and should bring tremendous value to Valeant's medical dermatology portfolio," said, Michael Pearson, chairman and CEO of Valeant. 

"Furthermore, PreCision's diversified portfolio of products enjoys high physician loyalty, premium product quality and lifecycle management opportunities that will enhance our future growth strategies. We believe this acquisition will strengthen Valeant's product portfolio and solidify our position as a leader in dermatology," he added.

"We are very excited for the opportunity to be part of the fast growing Valeant organization. The combined resources of both companies will create a strengthened competitor, poised to contend with the leading companies in the dermatology market," said Bob Moccia, CEO of PreCision Dermatology.

Valeant is a multinational specialty pharmaceutical company that develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of pharmaceutical products, primarily in the areas of dermatology, eye health, neurology, and branded generics.

Valeant has been on an acquisition spree in recent years. In June 2013, it acquired leading global eye health company Bausch + Lomb for $8.7 billion (See: Valeant to acquire Bausch & Lomb for $8.7 bn).

Other acquisitions last year include Californian skin-care product maker Obagi Medical Products for $344-million and Russian specialty pharma company Natur Produkt International for approximately $163 million, Arizona-based medical cosmetics company Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp for about $2.6-billion and US medical device systems maker Solta Medical Inc, for approximately $250 million.

Valeant last year backed out from bidding for Serbia's Galenika Pharmaceuticals and also gave up plans for acquiring US generic drug giant Actavis for $13 billion.