Viatris Inc. plans to acquire Oyster Point Pharma and Famy Life Sciences in deals worth a total of $700 million to $750 million.
Oyster Point includes a commercial asset, Tyrvaya, for the treatment of dry eye disease, according to a press release. Famy Life Sciences has “a complementary ophthalmology portfolio,” including a pipeline of drug candidates ready for Phase III clinical trials.
Viatris stated that it “anticipates these acquisitions have the potential to add at least $1 billion in sales by 2028.”
The ophthalmology franchise will function as a separate division within the company and will be led by current Oyster Point CEO Jeff Nau after closing of the transaction. The deals are expected to close in first-quarter 2023.
Nau said: “When we started Oyster Point Pharma in 2017, we embarked on a journey to build a leading company within the eye care space. Building on our success in the U.S. market, we are excited to join Viatris to now bring the strengths of Oyster Point to help build a leading global ophthalmology business. We believe that together we will meaningfully shape the future of eye care to address the unmet needs of patients with ophthalmic disease and the eye care professionals who take care of them.”
Viatris Executive Chairman Robert J. Coury said: “Two years into our journey as Viatris, I am extremely pleased with the strength and execution of our business. After seven straight quarters of delivering strong results, we are well on our way to completing all Phase 1 commitments and can now turn our focus to setting up for Phase 2 – 2024 and beyond. We are pleased to announce this morning our agreements to acquire two high quality businesses to form a new ophthalmology franchise within Viatris. Oyster Point, under the leadership of Dr. Jeff Nau, has a well-respected reputation within the ophthalmology space, and we look forward to having Jeff join the Viatris management team as leader of our ophthalmology franchise following the closing of the transactions. In addition to discussing these acquisitions, I look forward to sharing more updates to our February 2022 Investor Event during our conference call at 8:30 a.m.”
Viatris CEO Michael Goettler said: “We’ve been talking about the potential power of our Global Healthcare Gateway since we launched Viatris, that is why I am especially excited that the two ophthalmology acquisitions we announced today came about directly as the result of the Global Healthcare Gateway. These acquisitions bring us an innovative growth asset, Tyrvaya®, and five additional Phase III or Phase III-ready programs that give us a significant head-start in creating a leading ophthalmology franchise.”