A pair of companies battling Allergan Inc. in the medical cosmetic market made their way to the Botox maker’s turf last week.
Artes Medical Inc. of San Diego and Scottsdale’s Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp. showed themselves off during last week’s Roth Capital Partners LLC annual stock conference in Laguna Niguel.
Inamed Battle
In 2005, Medicis lost to Irvine-based Allergan in a short-lived acquisition battle over Santa Barbara’s Inamed Corp.
Allergan, which recently came out with its Juv & #233;derm skin filler acquired from Inamed, competes with Medicis’ Restylane in the market for drugs to smooth wrinkles on the lower face. The global market is pegged at $500 million yearly worldwide. Allergan and Medicis dominate.
Allergan dominates another wrinkle segment with Botox, which is injected into the forehead and upper parts of the face.
Artes is looking to get in on the action. The company, which went public in December, is going after patients with “injection fatigue and credit card fatigue,” Chief Executive Diane Goostree said.
Most skin fillers need to be injected every three to six months.
The company’s ArteFill, a lower-face wrinkle filler, came out last month. It lasts for about six months, the same as Juv & #233;derm and Restylane.
But Artes is sending trial data to the Food and Drug Administration in a bid to get ArteFill approved as a five-year treatment.
ArteFill is a combination of purified bovine collagen, a protein, and polymers that stimulate the face’s natural collagen production. It’s designed to smooth “smile line” wrinkles near the nose and mouth, Goostree said.
“This is an attractive business,” she said, adding that patients pay for procedures themselves with no pressure for lower prices from insurers.
If ArteFill is approved as a long-term treatment, Artes hopes to pick up male patients, Goostree said. Women now make up about 95% of the dermal filler market.
“Men don’t want (to be injected) every three to six months,” Goostree said.
Wall Street’s response to ArteFill has run the gamut.
ArteFill could become a threat to Juv & #233;derm and Restylane, said Jose Haresco, an analyst for Merriman Curhan Ford & Co., earlier this month.
“Medicis and Allergan are a little bit afraid of it, and they have a right to be,” Haresco said in a CNNMoney.com article.
Aaron Gal, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., isn’t so sure:
“Most of the dermatologists want something that lasts longer than six months, but not something that lasts five years,” he said. “The sweet spot seems to be one or two years. The problem with fillers that last longer is that our faces change over time.”
Medicis Push
Medicis’ chief financial officer, Mark Prygocki, updated on his company and Restylane. The filler is made of hyaluronic acid, a moisturizing agent in skin.
Medicis is awaiting FDA approval for Perlane, described as a more robust version of Restylane that could last longer.
The company also is planning Restylane Touch, which is used to correct very thin, superficial lines around the eyes and mouth.
“Yes, we have the market leader, but we’re not done with the product,” Prygocki said.
Medicis wants “to do a better job in driving patients into the dermatologist’s office,” he said.
That’s something Allergan has done with Botox and seeks to do with Juv & #233;derm.
Meanwhile, Medicis hopes to compete with Botox with Reloxin. Like Botox, Reloxin is made from a purified form of the botulinum toxin.
“We hope to be the first competitor to Botox,” Prygocki said, referring to Reloxin.
Medicis hopes to file for FDA approval on the drug this year, he said.
Inamed once held the rights to Reloxin under license from France’s Beaufour Ipsen SA. Allergan gave up the rights to avoid regulatory concerns over having both products.
Allergan has downplayed potential threats to Botox, saying the drug’s longtime hold on the market and safety record will see it through any competition.
