Allergan buys regenerative medicine firm LifeCell for $2.9bn

Allergan has rounded off a particularly acquisitive 2016 – even by its own standards - with a $2.9bn deal to buy US regenerative medicine specialist LifeCell.

While most of the dozen deals Allergan has signed this year have been bolt-ons to bolster its pipeline, the purchase of LifeCell is somewhat different. The company is already making revenues from established products used for plastic surgery and hernia repair procedures, and is predicting sales will reach $450m this year – adding immediately to Allergan's top line.

Allergan chief executive Brent Saunders said the acquisition is "both strategically and financially compelling" and will "create a world-class aesthetic and regenerative medicine business in plastic surgery". In addition to its commercial products, Allergan also acquires LifeCell's manufacturing and R&D operations, based in New Jersey.
LifeCell's portfolio includes human skin repair product AlloDerm, fat-grafting device Revolve and porcine-based tissue matrix Strattice for abdominal wall repairs, and will slot in alongside the Dublin-headquartered company's own cosmetic pharmaceuticals. 

Those are headed by blockbuster wrinkle treatment Botox but also include Kybella - bought along with Kythera last year for $2.1bn - for reducing double chins and dermal filler Juvederm.

Allergan's other deals in 2016 have included a $1.7bn acquisition of Tobira Therapeutics - which gave it two drug candidates for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) - a $639m takeover of dermatology specialist Vitae Pharmaceuticals as well as smaller deals such as the purchases of Akarna and Topokine. All of those deals involved companies with no revenues.

The company has been selling off assets to fund its acquisitive streak too, and earlier this year completed the $38.8bn divestment of its generic drugs business to Teva. 

The string of acquisitions followed Allergan's failed $160bn merger with Pfizer that was called off in April after a US government clampdown on tax inversion deals.