Allergan to buy Australian tissue repair company for $95m

Allergan is set to acquire Australia-based Elastagen, a clinical-stage company focused on developing medical device products based on recombinant tropoelastin, for $95 million.

Elastagen has an advanced tissue repair platform based on tropoelastin, the building block of elastin—which is a key component of the skin, arteries and lungs that gives tissue its elasticity.

According to the Australian company, its tropoelastin is identical to that present in human tissue, and has many potential clinical applications, including treatment for acne scars, stretch marks, aesthetic skin repair and surgical wound repair.

Allergan currently sells injectable Botox (onabotulinumtoxinA).

Bill Meury, chief commercial officer at Allergan, said: “This acquisition and the development of a next generation of injectables based on this technology will ensure Allergan offers innovative filler products for years to come.”

Robert Daniels, Elastagen CEO, added that partnering with Allergan is incredibly exciting.

“I thank the Elastagen team for their hard work and dedication in developing our innovative tropoelastin product pipeline and look forward to working with Allergan to take these products to market,” he said.

This is the latest in a spate of acquisitions this year.

Earlier this month, Seattle Genetics announced plans to acquire biotech company Cascadian Therapeutics for approximately $614 million.

In another deal, Celgene revealed that it would acquire Juno Therapeutics for $9 billion, while Sanofi announced it planned to acquire Bioverativ for $11.6 billion and Ablynx for approximately $4.8 billion.

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