Allergan Inc. has gone to France to tie up a loose end from its $3.2 billion spring buy of Santa Barbara’s Inamed Corp.
The Irvine drug maker is paying $217 million in cash to buy Groupe Corneal Laboratories of Paris. Allergan expects to close the deal during the first quarter.
Buying Groupe Corneal gives Allergan worldwide rights to Juv & #233;derm and a range of hyaluronic acid dermal fillers for wrinkles in the lower face.
Allergan already holds the rights to Juv & #233;derm for the U.S., Canada and Australia by way of Inamed.
The company also gets control of the production and development of Juv & #233;derm, which enables Allergan “to gain additional expertise and intellectual property to further develop next generation dermal fillers,” the drug maker said in a release.
Allergan plans to sell off Groupe Corneal’s eye surgery products, a process already begun by Groupe Corneal.
Four years ago, Allergan spun off its own eye surgery device and contact lens care businesses as Advanced Medical Optics Inc. in Santa Ana.
Juv & #233;derm became the flipside to Allergan’s wrinkle remover Botox earlier this year, after the company won a brief acquisition battle to acquire Inamed.
Inamed signed Canadian and Australian licensing pacts for Juv & #233;derm from Groupe Corneal in 2004.
Juv & #233;derm products first were sold in Europe in 2000 and expanded to Canada in 2002.
In an earlier interview, Rob-ert Grant, president of Allergan Medical,the newly formed division that Juv & #233;derm, Botox Cosmetic and other products fall under,said it’s getting ready to start an advertising campaign for Juv & #233;derm.
Allergan is looking to put the brand “into the household consciousness of America,” Grant said.
Valeant Ends Par Pact
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International of Costa Mesa is going alone when it comes to promoting Cesamet, its drug to treat chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting.
Par Pharmaceutical Co., a Woodcliff Lake, N.J., maker of generic drugs, said earlier this month that Valeant ended a promotional pact with it on Cesamet. Under the Valeant-Par deal, either company had the right to end it as of Nov. 1.
Par stops being a promotional partner for Cesamet this week.
“Since entering into the Cesamet agreement last year, strategic priorities have changed for both companies,” Patrick LePore, Par’s chief executive, said in published reports. “We wish Valeant success with the product and look forward to working with them again in the future.”
Cesamet is a cannabinoid, a synthetic chemical based on tetrahydrocannabinol, the active ingredient in marijuana. Cesamet is used for treating nausea and vomiting in cancer chemotherapy patients who don’t respond to other treatments.
Valeant bought Cesamet from Eli Lilly & Co. in 2004 and launched it in the U.S. earlier this year. Par and Valeant signed their deal in 2005.
SecureHorizons and Wal-Mart
SecureHorizons Medicare Advantage, a health plan line for seniors from Cypress-based PacifiCare Health Systems, soon is going to be available at Wal-Mart stores.
The plans are set to be offered at enrollment centers in more than 700 Wal-Marts in California and 29 other states.
Secure Horizons now is part of UnitedHealth Group Inc.’s Ovations.
UnitedHealth picked up the SecureHorizons brand and programs through its $9 billion buy of PacifiCare last year.
PacifiCare’s plans for elderly and disabled Americans were a key attraction for UnitedHealth, according to analysts.
SecureHorizons Medicare Advantage also is sold via call centers, the Internet and insurance brokers. Open enrollment for the plans runs from Nov. 15 through the end of the year.
About 1.4 million people are Secure Horizons plan members.
Bits and Pieces:
In other UnitedHealth news, Prescription Solutions, a Costa Mesa-based mail-order pharmacy that also came from PacifiCare, opened a 196,000-square-foot facility in Overland Park, Kan. Prescription Solutions, also has a pharmacy just over the county line in Carlsbad The Orange County office of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP, a real estate investment bank, arranged a $7.5 million loan for Newport Superior Medical Plaza, a 36,278-square-foot medical office building in Newport Beach GluMetrics, an Irvine medical device company, raised an undisclosed round of venture capital funding. Versant Ventures, which has an office in Newport Beach, and Silicon Valley’s Advanced Technology Ventures are among the investors. GluMetrics is developing glucose monitors BioLase Technology Inc. of Irvine said it received a European patent for laser and pulse technology. Chief Executive Jeffrey Jones said in a statement that the patent covered applications beyond dentistry and medicine BioLucent Inc. of Aliso Viejo said it received clearance from the Food and Drug Administration for its Savi applicator, which helps treat breast cancer through targeted irradiation CoreValve of Irvine said its less-invasive aortic replacement heart valve was implanted successfully in a high-risk patient during last month’s Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics scientific symposium UCI Medical Center of Orange said it introduced an intra-operative magnetic resonance imaging scanner that provides what it calls “highly detailed, three-dimensional pictures of the brain.”
