Valeant to Buy Janssen’s Ortho Dermatologics Business for $345M

Deal follows just days after firm acquired Sanofi’s Dermik unit for $425 million.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals has agreed to buy Janssen Pharmaceuticals’ Ortho Dermatologics business for $345 million in cash. The business recorded revenues of some $150 million in 2010, and includes the prescription brands Retin-A-Micro®, Ertaczo®, and Renova®. Earlier this week Valeant separately announced its acquisition of Sanofi’s therapeutics and aesthetics dermatology unit, Dermik, for $425 million.

“With the combination of this transaction and other recently announced transactions, Valeant is well on its way to being one of the leading companies in dermatology,” states J. Michael Pearson, Valeant’s chairman and CEO. “We believe that dermatology remains an attractive therapeutic area for Valeant and we are pleased to be able to add another strong franchise to our growing operations.”

Valeant’s product and whole business acquisition spree has been evident this year, despite the firm’s persistent but failed attempt to get its hands on Cephalon, which instead agreed to be taken over by Teva in a $6.8 billion deal announced in May.  So far in 2011 Valeant has already signed deals to acquire generics and OTC firm PharmaSwiss, for €350 million, and Lithuanian generics firm Sanitas for €314 million (plus another €50 million in assumed debt).

The firm has also inked a plethora of product deals this year, including spending $300 million to acquire U.S. and Canadian rights to nonophthalmic topical formulations of GlaxoSmithKline’s Zovirax™, and shelling out another $200-$330 million over the next few years a part of an agreement for Meda’s dermatology products Elidel and Xerese in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.