Valeant Pharmaceuticals International advances dermatology presence in Brazilian market

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International (NYSE: VRX) today announced that it has signed a binding agreement to acquire a private branded generics and over the counter (OTC) company located in Brazil for approximately US$28 million.  A large portion of the company's product portfolio is in dermatology and the company had annual sales of approximately US$19 million in 2009. Over the past five years, this company has delivered a compound annual growth rate of nearly 15%.  In a separate transaction, Valeant will acquire a new 165,000 square foot manufacturing plant approved to produce solids, semi-solids and liquids for approximately US$28 million.  Both transactions, which are subject to customary closing conditions, are expected to close in the second quarter of 2010 and will be collectively accretive to Valeant in 2010.  

"We are excited to advance our dermatology presence in the Brazilian market, which is one of the leading dermatology markets worldwide," stated J. Michael Pearson, chairman and chief executive officer.  "This acquisition gets us closer to building the critical mass we need in the Brazilian pharmaceutical market.  The new state of the art manufacturing plant will allow us to close our current subscale manufacturing facility and eliminates the need for any third party manufacturers – the combination of which should allow us to significantly improve margins."

SOURCE Valeant Pharmaceuticals International