Valeant close to buying ‘female Viagra’ maker

Sprout Pharmaceuticals, the maker of Addyi the drug known as Female Viagra will be purchased by Valeant Pharmaceuticals for approximately $1 billion in cash, both companies announced Thursday. Sale of the company’s libido drugs will begin in October, under the brand name Addyi.

Sprout got the U.S. drug regulator’s green light on Tuesday to market its drug Addyi in the United States. Sprout recently received approval for Addyi, the first drug created for treating female sexual dysfunction.

The Sprout deal will be the latest in a recent M&A frenzy for Valeant, which has used multiple acquisitions including Bausch & Lomb, Medicis and recently Salix to beef up its portfolio of eye, skin and stomach treatments.

After the deal is finalized, female Viagra maker Sprout will remain headquartered in Raleigh, N.C. and become a division of Valeant.

Addyi may also have potential as a therapy for men experiencing low libido, said Whitehead, who will join Valeant to run Sprout as a unit of the Canada-based drugmaker after the deal closes.

Shares of Valeant (NYSE:VRX) were trading this morning at $244.65, down 26 cents. They include a boxed warning that highlights the risks of low blood pressure and fainting in patients who drink alcohol while taking the drug, as well as a requirement that doctors complete a training course before being allowed to prescribe it.

Flibanserin, sold as Addyi, has now been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) but strict measures will be put in place to make users aware of its side effects, reports BBC News.

Sprout’s chief executive, Cindy Whitehead, praised the “commitment and passion” of the comapny’s 34 employees.

Valeant, though, has a reputation as something of a bully in biopharma, ready to ignore criticisms over its pricing policies with a rep for pumping profits from approved therapies and avoiding drug development whenever possible.

During its clinical trials, Addyi also called flibanserin was modestly effective in raising the desire and the amount of satisfying sexual experiences women had. The same month, Eyegate Pharmaceuticals Inc. drew the firm into an exclusive global licensing agreement for commercial and manufacturing rights to lead candidate, EGP-437, which consists of the reformulated corticosteroid, dexamethasone phosphate, delivered into the ocular tissues using the company’s Eyegate II delivery system.

Potential side-effects are so severe, especially for patients who consume alcohol or certain other medications, that Addyi will only be available through doctors and pharmacies that receive special certification.