Valeant, Bausch & Lomb And The Long Reach Of Fred Hassan

The $8.7 billion deal in which Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX) is buying Bausch & Lomb is notable for several reasons. Arguably, the most significant detail is that Valeant, which has been on an acquisition spree over the past few years, will quickly become one of the largest players in the pharmaceutical industry with a diverse product portfolio and a broad reach in numerous markets (more details here). In particular, Valeant will now compete with the global leaders in the eye-care business, a group that includes Novartis (NVS) and its Alcon unit; Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), which sells the Accuvue contact lenses through its Vistakon division, and Allergan (AGN). Until now, Valeant, which had been taken private in 2007 by the Warburg Pincus investment firm, was largely known for its dermatology business. Equally interesting, though, is that Fred Hassan – who previously engineered some of the more notable pharmaceutical deals of the past decade – played a significant role. Besides serving as the Bausch & Lomb chairman, his protégé during his tenure as Schering-Plough ceo – former industry consultant Brent Saunders (see photo) – has been the ceo at the eye-products company.   Hassan, you may recall, sold Schering-Plough to Merck (MRK) for $41 billion four years ago after their partnership to develop the Vytorin cholesterol pill into a blockbuster franchise blew up over clinical trial gaffes.  Several years earlier, he had run Pharmacia and, after buying an...
Source: Pharmalot - Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Source Type: blogs