Bausch & Lomb Inc., the Rochester, N.Y.-based diversified eye drug and device company with an eye-surgery unit in Aliso Viejo, is citing growth as one of the reasons it’s planning an initial public offering.
Warburg Pincus LLC, the New York private equity firm that owns Bausch, filed in late March to take it public.
The IPO could raise up to $1.5 billion and pegs Bausch’s value at $9 billion to $10 billion, according to analysts.
Bausch was founded in 1853.
Its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission cited an unnamed consulting firm’s growth estimate for the global eye health market of $36 billion in sales in 2011 to more than $48 billion in 2017. The estimate carries the assumption of a compound annual growth rate of about 5%.
Growth “will be driven by multiple factors and trends, including an aging global population, the rapid growth of the middle class in emerging markets, the increasing global prevalence of diabetes, which has a strong correlation with severe ocular conditions, advancements of technology and innovation … and the resilience of the eye health market to volatility and government reimbursement pressures,” Bausch said in its filing.
The company said in its filing that it expected its overall research and development efforts to contribute to ongoing growth. It said it has about 25 entries in its launch and late-stage product pipeline that target market opportunities exceeding $1.4 billion.
A nonsteroidal, anti-inflammatory drug to treat post-cataract surgery patients, “novel prescription pharmaceuticals to treat glaucoma,” and next-generation silicone hydrogel contact lenses are among the pipeline entries, Bausch said in its filing.
“Building upon this success, we plan to continue investing in new product development and actively pursue external business development to complement our internally developed products,” the company said.
Bausch also broke down some of the happenings at Bausch & Lomb Global Surgical, its Aliso Viejo unit, which has some 200 employees.
“We are currently developing what we expect to be the industry’s first accommodating toric [intraocular lens], enhancing the Victus femtosecond laser [line] and investing in new inserters and instruments to provide our customers” with a wider surgical product line, Bausch said in its filing.
The company also touted what it called “balanced” sales across North America, Europe and Asia, as well as a high percentage of revenue from customers in the private sector as part of its filing: “Furthermore, in 2012, [about] 80% of our combined business revenues were private (nongovernmental) pay, which significantly reduces our exposure to potential declines in government reimbursement.”
Bausch mentioned that it has more than 300 products in its portfolio and that its “varied distribution channels ranging from individual eye health practitioners to pharmacies to hospitals help us reach a broad set of customers.”
Abbott Medical Gets FDA Approval
Santa Ana-based Abbott Medical Optics received Food and Drug Administration approval for its new Tecnis Toric 1-Piece intraocular lens and introduced it to the U.S. market.
Tecnis Toric is approved for cataract surgery patients with pre-existing corneal astigmatism.
More than 3.5 million cataract surgeries are performed in the U.S. annually, according to Abbott Medical, a unit of Chicago-based Abbott Laboratories.
The company said in a news release that the number of surgeries is expected to grow by almost 3% annually in coming years because the aging population will look for “improved, precise visual outcomes and independence from glasses.”
Abbott Medical said that Tecnis Toric also minimizes imprecise light focusing to provide sharper distance vision for patients.
PerformRx Opens Irvine Office
Philadelphia-based PerformRx LLC has opened an office in Irvine.
The pharmacy benefit management company serves about 30% of the state’s Medi-Cal population, as well as Medicare Advantage beneficiaries and people enrolled in commercial health insurance plans.
Personnel in account-relationship, call-center and other customer service departments will work out of the office.
PerformRx opened its Irvine office because California “is our largest market,” said Mesfin Tegenu, the company’s president, in a news release.
Bits and Pieces
Officials at Southern California College of Optometry in Fullerton said the college has established the Marshall B. Ketchum University to offer healthcare professional training opportunities, including a new physician assistant program. The optometry college will now become a part of the larger university, which is named after Dr. Marshall Ketchum, who founded the college in 1904. … Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach is now offering Linx, a medical device for treating gastroesophageal reflux disease, which if left untreated can lead to Barrett’s esophagus and throat cancer. Linx is made by St. Paul, Minn.-based Torax Medical Inc.
