“We are excited to enter a new attractive market segment with an already established sales infrastructure focused entirely on the dental community,” said J. Michael Pearson, chairman and CEO of Valeant. “We believe that this market segment has similar characteristics to the dermatology, podiatry and ophthalmology markets and should offer us the opportunity to cross-sell some of our current products, most notably our new topical prescription cold sore medication, Xerese. We believe the OraPharma business is a new growth platform from which to build additional opportunities in the future.”  

 

The transaction is expected to close sometime this month, subject to the satisfaction of certain closing conditions, and Valeant expects the transaction to be accretive in this calendar year.

 

Horsham, Pa.-based OraPharma's lead product is Arestin, a locally administered antibiotic for the treatment of periodontitis that utilizes a controlled-release delivery system and is indicated for use in conjunction with scaling and root planing for the treatment of adult periodontitis.

 

According to the companies, OraPharma currently has the largest specialized pharmaceutical sales force in the dental industry and, as of March 31, 2012, OraPharma's trailing 12-month net revenue was approximately $95 million with the business growing at a high single digit rate.  

 

SOURCE: Valeant Pharmaceuticals news release