Valeant to buy Bausch & Lomb

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Canadian drug maker Valeant Pharmaceuticals International is buying U.S.-based Bausch & Lomb Holdings for $8.7 billion, the companies said Monday.

Bausch & Lomb makes prescription and over-the-counter eye health products, as well as contact lenses and solutions and eye-surgery equipment.

"Bausch & Lomb's world-renowned brand, comprehensive portfolio of leading eye-care products and promising late-stage pipeline are an ideal strategic fit for our current ophthalmology business, and we are strongly committed to continuing to build a sustainable eye-health business," Valeant chairman and CEO J. Michael Pearson said. "With this transaction, Valeant will be a worldwide leader in both dermatology and eye health."

Valeant's all-cash offer for the company includes $4.5 billion to an investor group led by Warburg Pincus and $4.2 billion to pay Bausch & Lomb's outstanding debt.

In other news, the Food and Drug Administration declined to approve an experimental drug made by Valeant for the fungal nail infection onychomycosis. The drug maker announced Tuesday that it received a complete-response letter from the FDA for efinaconazole, meaning that the agency had finished reviewing its application for the drug, but questions about its chemistry, manufacturing and controls remained that precluded approval.