Pharma BD Deal Intelligence

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. / Bausch + Lomb

2013 · Acquisition/Merger · $8.7B · Complete

$8.7B cash roll-up buy that briefly worked—Bausch + Lomb's eye-care revenue grew from ~$3.8B to ~$5.1B and it got its own 2022 IPO—but the parent's debt-fueled strategy collapsed under the Philidor scandal, wiping out Valeant/Bausch Health shareholders and leaving a levered survivor still facing a 2028 patent cliff.

WRONG BY 44 POINTS
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The coverage arc

May 27, 2013 Bloomberg Neutral

Valeant's $8.7 billion deal for Bausch & Lomb, the eye-care company owned by Warburg Pincus, positions Canada's largest drugmaker to compete globally in the…

Jun 01, 2013 Financier Worldwide Bullish

Warburg Pincus roughly tripled its 2007 take-private investment; Valeant CEO Pearson framed the deal as putting Valeant 'among the 15 largest global…

Apr 08, 2016 Fortune Neutral

Three years on, the B+L unit was the best-performing asset Valeant owned and arguably the only piece worth the original price — a retroactive vindication of…

Source summaries from our enrichment pipeline; follow links for originals.

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Valeant agreed to acquire Bausch + Lomb from Warburg Pincus-led group for $8.7B cash ($4.5B to investors, $4.2B to repay B+L debt); created global eye-health platform with pro-forma 2013 net revenue >$3.5B.

Did it work? Outcome assessment

Strategic verdict
Achieved Stated Rationale
Financial impact
Accretive
Bausch + Lomb became the cornerstone of the company. By Q1 2018 the Bausch + Lomb/International segment generated $1.103bn (annualizing well above $4bn) and was driving the company's first organic revenue growth since 2015. The eye-health franchise was prized enough that Valeant adopted its name, renaming itself Bausch Health Companies in July 2018.
Pipeline outcome
Assets Advanced
B+L was a marketed global eye-health business (vision care, surgical, consumer/ophtho Rx) rather than a clinical pipeline; it was integrated as a core operating segment and continued to expand product lines through the window. (B+L was later spun out as a separately listed company in 2022, beyond this 5yr window.)

Key facts

Disease & market context

Ophthalmology (eye health)

$48.3B Global eye care market projected $48.3B by 2017 (5% CAGR)

Disease Overview

Ophthalmology spans cataract surgery, glaucoma, dry eye, contact lenses/lens care, and back-of-eye disease (AMD, diabetic retinopathy). Demand drivers are aging populations, rising diabetes prevalence, and emerging-market access — making the category a stable, mid-single-digit growth market less exposed to genericization than systemic specialty Rx.

Competitive Landscape

At deal close (Aug 2013), the global eye-care space was dominated by Novartis's Alcon (the #1 player following the 2010-2011 acquisition from Nestle), Allergan (Restasis, Lumigan, Ozurdex; Botox-funded ophth pipeline), J&J Vision Care (Acuvue), and a fragmented prescription tail. Bausch + Lomb — taken private by Warburg Pincus in 2007 and rebuilt — had a balanced contact lens (Biotrue, PureVision, ULTRA), lens-care (renu, Boston), surgical (Stellaris, Storz, VICTUS), and pharmaceutical (Besivance, Lotemax, Ocuvite, PreserVision) portfolio with weakness in glaucoma. Valeant paid $8.7B (~$4.5B to Warburg, ~$4.2B B+L debt) and projected $800M of synergies, immediately accretive >40% to 2013 cash EPS, framing the combined entity as the #2 global eye-health player against Alcon. Stifel's Annabel Samimy valued the ophth Rx business alone at ~$6.8B (14x EBITDA), implying Valeant essentially got contacts/surgical for ~$2B. The deal pre-dated the Allergan attempt and the Philidor scandal that would later collapse Valeant's M&A engine.

Related deals — scored

DealYearValueOutcome
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. / Bausch + Lomb (this deal)2013$8.7B36
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. / Dow Pharmaceutical Sciences, Inc.2009$285M66
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. / iNova Pharmaceuticals2011$700M63
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. / Xcel Pharmaceuticals, Inc.2005$280M42
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. / Dermik Laboratories (Sanofi dermatology unit)2011$425M36
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. / Medicis Pharmaceutical Corporation2012$2.6B33
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. / PreCision Dermatology, Inc.2014$475M23

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