Allergan Inc. plans to build a laboratory on its Irvine campus to make small quantities of neurotoxin, a component used in its flagship anti-wrinkle drug Botox.
The drug maker plans to keep production of Botox, which is used in several medical and cosmetic treatments, at its Westport, Ireland plant, said Caroline Van Hove, a company spokeswoman.
Allergan will ship the neurotoxin to the Irish plant as needed to make Botox, a purified form of the botulinum toxin.
The 30,000-square-foot lab is set to be built next to Allergan’s primary research and development facility, the Herbert Research Center. The lab is expected to open in 2007.
Van Hove declined to say how many workers would be at the laboratory. Allergan has some 1,100 research and development scientists worldwide, but is reluctant to give totals for OC.
The lab is the latest of many research and development initiatives during Chief Executive David Pyott’s eight years as head of the drug maker.
Allergan spent $387 million, or about 17% of its total revenue, on R & D; last year. The spending includes an expansion of its R & D; operations.
Allergan’s Botox sales have surged in the past few years as the company earned regulatory approval for its use in treatments beyond anti-wrinkling.
Its Botox unit produced revenue of $223 million in the first quarter, up 47% from a year ago. Earlier this year, Allergan upped its forecast for Botox sales in 2006 to $890 million to $925 million.
The company opened its $60 million Herbert Research Center in late 2005. The complex has research areas for modular biology, neuromodulator research, screening and chemistry.
When Allergan opened the Herbert center, it said it “represents a significant expansion” of its capability to conduct early research into eye diseases such as age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma and dry eye, along with work in neurology topics such as Alzheimer’s disease and neuropathic pain.
Allergan built the center after running “out of space,” said Scott Whitcup, the drug maker’s executive vice president of research and development, in an interview earlier this year.
Allergan is pursuing new uses for Botox. It’s used in a therapeutic manner to treat neck spasms. The company also is seeking to get Botox approved to treat migraine headaches.
“These are people with headaches for at least half the month,” Whitcup said. “We’re going after the severe end of the spectrum.”
Allergan doesn’t expect to get Food and Drug Administration approval to treat migraines with Botox until 2010 or so.
The company also is eyeing Botox to treat overactive bladders, a condition that mainly affects women, and benign prostate hypertrophy, a condition that comes with male aging.
