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Allergan’s Irvine Campus Key to Open-Science Focus

Allergan PLC hasn’t been shy about declaring a plan to grow its “open science” pipeline since Actavis PLC acquired the company two years ago. The strategy looks outward—acquisitions or partnerships with companies and academia to pursue late clinical-stage opportunities—versus doing the research and development in-house.

The pharmaceutical company has completed 26 open-science deals since 2014. Over 57%, or 15 deals, belong to its Irvine campus, which houses aesthetic medicine, dermatology, eye care, and Botox-based therapeutic categories, including central nervous system and urology applications.

While deals don’t necessarily translate to acquired companies relocating to Irvine or employees being added here, Chief Research and Development Officer David Nicholson said Irvine is “not going to walk away.” The open-science platforms, in fact, require Irvine-based research personnel to guide late-stage therapies to commercialization.

Allergan employs more than 2,000 people in California. Its Irvine campus, the company’s largest research and development facility, has approximately 1,500 employees, 800 of whom serve in research and development roles.

“There’s a lot of reason to fish the external world [for opportunities],” Nicholson said. “The amount of research in the external world is massive, more than any one company can do.”

Its “6 stars”—six therapies in phase three development this year, were all added through the open-science model. Three programs are part of its Irvine unit: abicipar, an anti-angiogenic inhibitor drug for wet age-related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema; ubrogepant atogepant, an oral drug targeting chronic migraines; and antidepressant rapastinel. The programs came from Molecular Partners AG in Zurich, Switzerland, Merck & Co. Inc. in Kenilworth, N.J. and Naurex Inc. in Evanston, Ill., respectively.

Irvine makes up Allergan’s U.S. Specialized Therapeutics segment, which reported $1.2 billion in fourth-quarter revenue—about a third of total revenue, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings, and up from $1.1 billion the previous year.

Allergan is chartered in Dublin, Ireland, and maintains U.S. headquarters in Parsippany, N.J. It recently traded at $239 per share and has about an $80.6 billion market cap.

Money Makers

Its leadership is interested in acquiring development-stage drugs and devices, as well as cash-flow assets. The company’s most recent acquisition announcement, which came in February, was for Pleasanton-based Zeltiq Aesthetics Inc.’s nonsurgical body contouring CoolSculpting System for $2.47 billion. The technology removes fat cells through cooling to induce natural elimination without affecting surrounding tissues. Zeltiq reported fourth-quarter revenue of $105.1 million, up $95 million month-over-month.

“We like to say we own the face because of Botox and dermal fillers, so body contouring is the next frontier for us,” Nicholson said.

He said the company will continue building out its product pipeline through open-science sourcing—“our pipeline in the future will be skewed massively to the external world”—but that Irvine will continue to have a strong hold, both in terms of talent and a dynamic local economy.

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