Medicis in Valeant Pharma's Bag

The spate of acquisitions in the pharmaceutical industry continued with specialty pharmaceutical company with Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. (VRX - Snapshot Report) completing the purchase of fellow specialty pharma company Medicis Pharmaceutical Corporation for $44.00 per share in cash.

The offer price represented a premium of approximately 39% over Medicis’ closing price of $31.49 on August 31, 2012, last trading day before the announcement of the deal. We note that the deal, whose value was estimated around $2.6 billion at the time of its announcement, was completed following its approval by Medicis’ shareholders at the special meeting held on December 7, 2012.

We are positive on the deal, which will not only broaden Valeant Pharma’s product portfolio significantly but is also expected to create a global leader in the dermatological field. The acquisition will add products, such as Solodyn, Perlane, Restylane, Ziana, Dysport and Zyclara, to Valeant Pharma’s product portfolio.

At the time of announcing the deal, Valeant Pharma had stated that the combined US revenues of both companies’ dermatology and aesthetics portfolio are expected to cross $1.7 billion. At that time, Valeant Pharma had also stated that the acquisition is expected to generate synergies of at least $225 million with 6 months of the closure of the deal.

Apart from announcing the closure of the deal, Valeant Pharma further announced that it expects to unveil its financial guidance for 2013 on January 4, 2013.

We note that Valeant Pharma, on which we have an Outperform recommendation, carries a Zacks #2 Rank (Buy) in the short run. Moreover Allergan Inc. (AGN - Analyst Report), a multi-specialty health care company, also carries a Zacks #2 Rank.