Deal includes U.S. and Canadian aesthetic and therapeutic business and Canadian manufacturing site.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals will acquire Dermik, Sanofi’s dermatology unit, for $425 million. The deal includes Dermik’s U.S. and Canadian therapeutic and aesthetic dermatology operations, and global aesthetics businesses, which achieved combined sales of $206 million in 2010. The Dermik portfolio spans a range of dermatology brands including the acne treatment Benzaclin®, and Carac®, for the treatment of keratoses. The deal gives Valeant worldwide rights (excluding France), to the Sculptra® Aesthetic injection for the correction of facial wrinkles.
Also included is Sanofi’s Laval, Canada, site, which houses Dermik’s manufacturing facility. Valeant points out the Laval site currently produces some 70 formulations for both Sanofi products and for third parties. Sanofi’s Canadian affiliate, sanofi-aventis Canada, will maintain its operations in greater Montreal.
Sanofi wants to offload its Dermik operations in order to focus on its key growth platforms of diabetes, vaccines, consumer healthcare, new products, animal health, and emerging markets. Sales in these sectors reached €4.6 billion in the first quarter of 2011, up 4.3% on the equivalent 2010 period (up 15.5% if sales of A/H1N1 products are discounted), and represented 59.2% of total consolidated sales for the 2011 period.
