Johnson & Johnson Acquires Mentor; Is Purtox on the Horizon?
Saturday, December 13th, 2008
On the first of December, breast implant and cosmetic specialties supplier Mentor corp (MNT) announced a deal to be acquired by Johnson and Johnson, for the price of $1.1 billion.
While Mentor is mostly focused on providing breast implants, FDA approval is expected in 2010 for their new wrinkle reducing injectable, PurTox. Since it is similarly derived from the botulinum toxin, the drug is supposed to compete with the well-known wrinkle relaxer, Botox.
With the recently troubled market, Mentor tried to boost sales of silicone breast implants, which had typically generated double the revenue of comparable saline implants since the FDA lifted the ban on them two years ago.
A JP Morgan analyst said that the acquisition by JNJ was a result of recent economic issues faced by Mentor Corp. – issues which ultimately forced them to succumb to the deal.
