The world’s pharmaceutical companies have fallen heavily for the charms of ophthalmology in recent times, with a string of acquisitions and product launches, including:
- Abbott’s recent US$400 million purchase of OptiMedica, four years after the purchase of Advanced(now Abbott) Medical Optics.
- Valeant Pharmaceuticals’ US$8.7 billion acquisition of Bausch & Lomb, one of the world’s largest suppliers of eye health products, earlier this year.
- Bayer HealthCare and Regeneron’s entry into the ophthalmology market last year with aflibercept. Approved in the EU to treat wet AMD, aflibercept is also under consideration for treatment of visual impairment due to macular edema secondary to central-retinal- vein occlusion; in the US, the FDA has approved both indications.
- Shire’s procurement of SARcode Bioscience in May for $160 million, driven in part by the appeal of the dry eye disease therapy, the T-cell antagonist Lifetegrast.
Why? Pipelines and profits. In press releases announcing acquisitions, ophthalmology is frequently cited as a lucrative and growing market. And many pharmaceutical companies, suffering from dwindling pipelines and blockbuster drugs going off-patent, are anxious to buy into a winning trend. According to Jean-Marc Wismer, CEO of Sensimed (see page 52) and veteran of the Swiss ophthalmology biotech scene, “Ophthalmology is an attractive space for both Big Pharma. It is a growing market, margins are good, and new drugs and technologies – both devices and instruments – are going to transform the way the disease is diagnosed and managed. Companies that make the right strategic acquisitions that connect all of the dots are likely to be very successful.”
