Allergan to buy acne gel from QLT in $150 million deal

IRVINE, Calif. The rights to a gel for treating acne will soon change hands.

Allergan will buy Aczone Gel from QLT for $150 million, the companies announced Monday. QLT said it plans to focus on treating eye diseases. Allergan expects Aczone sales of up to $75 million and will launch the product during the fourth quarter of this year.

Based in Irvine, Calif., Allergan markets the Botox anti-wrinkle treatment. QLT is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, and markets Visudyne, a drug for treating wet age-related macular degneration. Aczone was never previously on the market because of an FDA label restriction that required patients to be screened to detect if they were predisposed to hemolytic anemia due to a deficiency in the Glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase enzyme. This restriction has been removed.