Valeant purchases QLT’s Visudyne

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. (NYSE: VRX and TSX: VRX) announced today that it has acquired Visudyne^®, used to treat abnormal growth of leaky blood vessels in the eye caused by wet age-related macular degeneration, from QLT Inc. (Nasdaq: QLTI) (TSX:QLT). Valeant paid $62.5 million upfront for all U.S. rights and available inventories for Visudyne, which had U.S. revenue of approximately $21 million in 2011, and another $50 million upfront for rights to non-US royalties on Visudyne sales, which were approximately $14 million in 2011. Valeant has also agreed to pay an additional $5 million in contingent payments relating to the development of QLT's laser program in the United States and up to $15 million in contingent payments relating to the non-U.S. royalties. Additionally, Valeant has manufacturing rights and assumed a supply agreement for outside of United States. The transaction is expected to be immediately accretive.

"We are excited about the opportunity to add a complementary product to our growing ophthalmology business," stated J. Michael Pearson, chairman and chief executive officer.  "Not only will we be able to use Visudyne to better leverage our current ophthalmology sales force with a complementary product to Macugen, we are pleased to add a product that retinal specialists around the county can use as an adjunctive to products like Macugen to improve treatment options."