Irvine-based Allergan Inc. wants to turn wrinkle-smoother Juv & #233;derm into its next big hit.
“We’re trying to establish Juv & #233;derm like we’ve established Botox,” said Robert Grant, president of Allergan Medical, the division that includes Juv & #233;derm as well as megahit Botox Cosmetic, a wrinkle remover.
Botox, which is injected into the forehead to remove wrinkles, has yearly sales of about $1 billion. Juv & #233;derm, acquired as part of Allergan’s $3.2 billion buy of Inamed Corp. in 2006, is used to smooth wrinkles in the lower part of the face.
Allergan hopes to see Juv & #233;derm follow in the footsteps of Botox as something people seek out by name.
The company, which launched Juv & #233;derm at the start of the year, is kicking up its marketing to consumers with network and cable television advertising that started in May.
Allergan’s been “very pleased” by the campaign’s response, Grant said.
“The market receptivity of Juv & #233;derm has really surpassed even our expectations,” he said.
Dermal fillers such as Juv & #233;derm accounted for $43 million of Allergan’s $886 million in first-quarter sales, Grant said.
The company “doesn’t break out specifically Juv & #233;derm, but Juv & #233;derm obviously is a very, very substantive component of that,” Grant said. “That was a dramatic jump over the prior year in our sales of dermal fillers.”
Allergan is working on increasing “connectivity” among Botox, Juv & #233;derm and breast implants also acquired from Inamed, said Grant, who came to Allergan last year after serving as chief executive of BioLase Technology Inc., an Irvine-based dental laser maker.
Plastic surgeons often perform all three procedures, he said.
The company got a boost last week when the Food and Drug Administration cleared Juv & #233;derm to be marketed as smoothing wrinkles for a year, up from six months.
“We see this as an advantage for Allergan in its competition against other dermal fillers,” said Alexander Arrow, an analyst with Lazard Capital Markets LLC, in a report.
“Patients, we believe, use duration as a key metric when deciding which dermal filler to choose,” Arrow said.
Scottsdale-based Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp.’s market-leading Restylane dermal filler has a six-month duration claim.
Allergan faces potentially bigger competition with another product acquired from Santa Barbara’s In-amed,the Lap-Band stomach device to fight obesity.
Johnson & Johnson has submitted an FDA application for a Lap-Band competitor and could see approval by 2008.
“We don’t really comment on competitor activity,” Grant said. “We believe very strongly that with more than 60 million obese Americans and 130 million overweight Americans, we think the opportunity for growth in this entire category is quite substantial.”
Allergan hopes to see Lap-Band surpass gastric bypass surgery as the top surgical obesity treatment because of lower cost and fewer deaths, according to Grant.
Figures from a Lazard research report show that gastric bypass costs around $30,000 a procedure, compared to about $10,000 for Lap-Band.
