Inamed Corp., developer of a potential rival to Allergan Inc.’s Botox wrinkle-fighting drug, is being bought in a big cosmetic surgery deal.
Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp. of Scottsdale said last month it plans to spend $2.8 billion to buy Santa Barbara-based Inamed, which also makes breast implants, anti-wrinkle gels, injections and other products.
Inamed plans to come out with a wrinkle reducer based on botulinum toxin type A,the basis of Botox,in 2006. The company is in final phase trials for the product, dubbed Reloxin.
Beaufor Ipsen SA, a French drug maker, is working with Inamed on Reloxin.
Analysts have said that Inamed’s product, if approved, could make a dent in the market. Medical and cosmetic uses of Botox accounted for $705 million of Allergan’s $2 billion in drug sales last year.
The Medicis-Inamed deal has another local tie: Charles Ruck, a partner in Latham & Watkins LLP’s Orange County office, led the legal team for Medicis.
Inamed isn’t the only one hoping to take on Botox. Mentor Corp., also based in Santa Barbara, is developing a wrinkle reducer with the working title of Puretox. The product isn’t expected until 2007 or later.
For its part, Allergan hasn’t expressed a great deal of fear over the possible competition. The company has a big head start over its challengers. The company often stresses Botox’s 15-plus year history and safety profile as advantages.
Inamed also may have a separate challenge aside from developing a botulinum toxin. Next month, the Food and Drug Administration is set to consider for a second time a bid by Inamed to reverse a 12-year ban on silicone breast implants.
Regulators banned the implants after thousands of women said they suffered a range of maladies caused by the implants, such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.
Those led to a slew of lawsuits and product recalls from several makers.
Panic’s Deja Vu
It’s been nearly three years since Milan Panic parted ways with what’s now Valeant Pharmaceuticals International. Panic founded the Costa Mesa-based drug maker more than 40 years ago as ICN Pharmaceuticals and firmly presided over it until shareholders ousted him in 2002.
It seems some old habits die hard.
Consider the logo of Panic’s new company, MP Biomedicals LLC. It features a blue capital “MP” and three chemical symbols,a design strikingly reminiscent of ICN’s longtime corporate logo.
The ICN logo disappeared in late 2003, when the drug maker’s new management traded it in for the black-and-purple Valeant logo.
The name change came as part of the company’s effort to distance itself from Panic’s long reign over the company.
Panic created MP Biomedicals in 2003, when he bought ICN’s former biomedical unit. MP Biomedicals makes and sells more than 55,000 products used by scientists and researchers.
MP Biomedicals is based in Irvine, with satellite offices in Europe, Asia and Australia.
Ista Gets FDA Nod
Ista Pharmaceuticals Inc., an Irvine eye drug maker, said last week that the Food and Drug Administration approved a new drug application for its Xibrom eye medication.
Xibrom is used to treat eye inflammation, pain and photophobia following cataract surgery.
Ista, in a release, said it expected to launch Xibrom this quarter, after getting commercial qualities of the drug from its manufacturer and completing further expansion of its sales force.
The drug maker acquired U.S. marketing rights for Xibrom from Japan’s Senju Pharmaceuticals Co. in 2002. Xibrom is Ista’s third commercial product, following the introduction of Vitrase, a drug to treat back-of-the eye bleeding, and Istalol, a glaucoma drug.
Bits and Pieces:
CaliforniaChoice, Orange, said it’s teaming with a unit of Mellon Financial Corp. to provide health savings accounts. Mellon is set to provide a custodial account that includes checking and debit cards for participants to pay for qualified medical expenses The Department of Health and Human Services and the Environmental Protection Agency picked Orange County as one of eight early launch sites for the National Children’s Study, a research project. The study is set to include 96 counties and track the physical and mental health of 100,000 children from the womb to age 21 Sovereign Healthcare, Newport Beach, opened an outpatient surgical center on Newport Boulevard in Costa Mesa. The center is one of six owned and operated by Sovereign and local physician investors.
