Post by gsxr1100 on Jun 9, 2013 7:59:29 GMT -5
Good article in the Rochester D&C about the recent sale of B&L.
ADVERTISEMENT
Sean Lahman: Patents show value of Bausch + Lomb
Jun. 5, 2013 | 1 Comment
A
A
Purchase Image
Bausch and Lomb building in downtown Rochester. / CARLOS ORTIZ/staff photographer
Written by
Sean Lahman
Patents columnist
FILED UNDER
Business
Sean Lahman
Rochester
It’s no surprise that Bausch + Lomb Inc. fetched such a hefty price.
Last month, Valeant Pharmaceuticals announced an $8.7 billion agreement to acquire the Rochester-based eye-care company.
It’s the latest in a series of acquisitions by the Canadian drug maker, which has completed more than a dozen takeovers since 2010. The latest deal helps establish Valeant as a global heavyweight, competing with giants like Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, and Pfizer for the growing eye care market.
• Archive of Sean Lahman's column
• View patents issued to local inventors
Clearly, there is value in the Bausch + Lomb brand name, and the 160-year old company has a robust lineup of products. But the root of its value comes from a portfolio of proprietary technologies and a research organization that keeps adding new innovations.
Valeant’s Chairman and CEO J. Michael Pearson alluded to this fact in a statement announcing the deal, citing B+L’s “promising late-stage pipeline” — research that’s close to being ready for market — as one of the key selling points.
The number of patents issued to B+L inventors, mostly from the Rochester area, has risen each of the past five years and reveals a diversity of expertise as well as a depth of cutting-edge technologies developed behind the scenes at the eye-care company.
A group of B+L researchers received patent No. 8,337,551 last December for work on silicon hydrogels, which are used to make advanced soft contact lenses.