Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

(RVNC)—ABBV acquires dermal-filler for undisclosed price:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/allergan-aesthetics-abbvie-company-acquires-120000967.html

Today Allergan Aesthetics, an AbbVie company (NYSE: ABBV), announced that it has entered into an agreement with Luminera, a privately held, aesthetics company based in Israel with a portfolio and pipeline of dermal filler products.

Under the terms of the agreement, Allergan Aesthetics will acquire Luminera's full dermal filler portfolio and R&D pipeline… Luminera's key value driver for the future is HArmonyCa, an innovative dermal filler intended for facial soft tissue augmentation comprised of a combination of cross-linked hyaluronic acid (HA) with embedded calcium hydroxyapatite (CaHA) microspheres. The combination of HA and CaHA in a single product is highly differentiated in the dermal filler category.

HArmonyCa is currently commercially available in Israel and Brazil. Allergan Aesthetics will continue to develop this product for its International and US markets.

Calcium hydroxyapatite is not a new idea in dermal fillers; it was the ingredient in Radiesse, the product developed by Bioform Medical, which was acquired by Merz in 2010 (#msg-45071380). Radiesse is still on the market, but it is rarely used because most injectors and consumers prefer HA-based products. Adding calcium hydroxyapatite microspheres to a HA-based filler sounds intriguing, but it’s unclear whether this can provide a better outcome than combining multiple HA-based fillers, as many injectors currently do.