Nestle Boosts Skincare Business With Valeant Deal

Swiss food group Nestle has accelerated a push into the fast-growing skincare market, buying the rights to several injectable treatments for facial wrinkles and lines from Valeant Pharmaceuticals International for $1.4 billion.

The world's biggest food group signaled its ambitions in skin health products in February by taking over all of its Galderma dermatology joint venture with L'Oreal.

Nestle now owns North American rights to some products taken on as part of that deal, boosting its control of the brands.

For Quebec-based Valeant, the cash deal clears a potential antitrust hurdle to its proposed $49 billion takeover of US rival Allergan, manufacturer of Botox

Citing data from GlobalData Facial Esthetics, analysts said the US market for Botox and other wrinkle fillers is set to grow from $2.5 billion in 2013 to $4.7 billion in 2018 - compound annual growth of 13.5%.

Nestle said the deal with Valeant would give it US and Canadian rights to sell the Restylane, Perlane and Emervel injectable cosmetic treatments it already manufactures, as well as Dysport, a cosmetic treatment owned by Ipsen.

It is also acquiring from Valeant a skin filler for cosmetic and medical use called Sculptra.

Beside its new skin health division, Nestle has a unit called Nestle Health Science that sells medical nutrition products for people with specific dietary needs related to illness or disease. It is also on a shortlist of bidders for the medical nutrition business of Danone, valued at about €4 billion, sources told the news agency Reuters.

Nestle Health Science is working as well to develop products in gastrointestinal, metabolic and brain health.