Allergan to Buy Medical Optics Firm in Irvine

Seeking entry into the interocular lens market, Allergan Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Monday that it intends to buy American Medical Optics, the nation’s third largest interocular lens maker. Terms of the deal between the two Irvine-based companies were not disclosed.

The sale requires the approval of federal regulators and the boards of directors of both companies’ parent corporations. Allergan is a subsidiary of SmithKline Beckman; American Medical Optics is a unit of Baxter Travenol Laboratories Inc. The sale is expected to close next month.

Norris Battin, Allergan’s vice president for business development, said the purchase will make the company one of the top manufacturers of interocular lenses--tiny pieces of film that are surgically implanted in the eyes of patients whose natural lenses have been destroyed by cataracts. About 80% of American Medical Optics’ $60 million in sales last year came from its interocular lenses.

Battin said Allergan has been attempting to create its own interocular lens business through development of its surgical device business and has just introduced some products to the market.

“But it makes more sense for us to buy a business now than wait to build one for ourselves,” he said.

A spokesman for Baxter Travenol, which obtained American Medical Optics when it purchased its parent, American Hospital Supply, said the pending sale in unrelated to the Baxter Travenol-American Hospital Supply merger. Rather, he said, the decision to sell to Allergan was dictated by Baxter Travenol’s need to focus its attention on its strongest operations.

“The ophthalmic market is consolidating, and we either had to make an investment in ophthalmic drugs or sell our ocular lens business while it was still strong,” he said. “Baxter Travenol is not known historically for its strength in eye care, so it made sense for us to concentrate on our strengths and sell the rest.”