Allergan To Buy Keller Funnel, Boost Plastic Surgery Unit

Allergan plc (NYSE:AGN) announced a deal to acquire privately held medical device company Keller Medical, Inc, which makes Keller Funnel, for an undisclosed amount.

These novel plastic funnels are used in breast augmentation or reconstruction procedures. They are designed to improve breast implantation and reduce the risks of implant contamination during procedures by minimizing surgeon and patient contact. The acquisition is a strategic fit for Allergan's plastic surgery and regenerative medicine business.

Allergan’s share price is up 8.6% this year so far against the Zacks classified Medical-Generics Drug industry’s decline of 7%.

Acquisitions form an integral part of Allergan’s expansion strategy. In 2017 so far, through the accretive acquisitions of LifeCell and ZELTIQ, Allergan has expanded its medical aesthetics business into regenerative medicine and body sculpting, respectively.

Last year, Allergan made a string of buyouts. The Tobira Therapeutics acquisition added global rights to Tobira’s lead pipeline candidates Cenicriviroc (CVC) and Evogliptin, which are highly differentiated compounds being developed to treat the multi-factorial elements of NASH, including inflammation, metabolic syndromes and fibrosis. These reinforce Allergan’s commitment to this growing space. Allergan also bought privately held Akarna Therapeutics whose lead product candidate AKN-083, a preclinical-stage FXR agonist, is also being evaluated for the treatment of NASH.

Through the acquisition of clinical-stage biotech company, Vitae Allergan boosted its dermatology pipeline. Allergan also bought private clinical stage biotechnology companies, RetroSense Therapeutics and ForSight VISION 5, which strengthened its eye care pipeline. Allergan also acquired Chase Pharmaceuticals Corporation that focuses on the development of treatments for Alzheimer's disease.

Separately, Allergan and partner Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) announced that the FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee will review its regulatory application for biosimilar version of Roche Holding (SIX:ROG) AG’s (OTC:RHHBY) cancer drug Avastin on Jul 13. The candidate is under review in the U.S. and EU. Other than Avastin, the companies are also developing biosimilar versions of Roche’s other cancer drugs Herceptin and Rituxan under a joint Amgen/Allergan label.

Allergan carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

A better-ranked stock in the pharma sector is Aquinox Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AQXP) with a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Loss estimates for Aquinox’s full year have narrowed by almost 6% in the past 30 days. The average earnings surprise over the past four quarters is 8.50%.

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