Viatris builds in pain relief with $1.65bn Pacira purchase
As it waits for an FDA decision on one non-opioid pain drug, Viatris has its eye on two more, via a takeover bid for Pacira BioSciences.
Viatris is offering $36.50 per share for Pacira, a near-45% premium on the latter's closing price, in an all-cash deal that would value the company at around $1.65 billion. Predictably, shares in Pacira shot up to approach that value soon after the agreement was made public.
Buying Pacira would give Viatris control of non-opioid pain therapies Exparel (bupivacaine liposome injectable suspension) and Zilretta (triamcinolone acetonide injectable suspension), which are approved for post-surgical analgesia and osteoarthritis knee pain, respectively.
In its second-quarter results update, Pacira said it is expecting Exparel to make sales of $600 million to $620 million this year, with Zilretta coming in roughly at the same level as 2025's tally of around $116 million. Viatris said it expects to expand the reach of the two products across international markets if the takeover goes through.
Viatris is already a player in pain relief with products like painkiller Brufen (ibuprofen) and migraine therapies Relpax (eletriptan) and generic rizatriptan. It is currently waiting for an FDA verdict on a marketing application for MR-107A-02, a fast-acting formulation of meloxicam for moderate-to-severe acute pain, which is expected towards the end of this year.
"The pending acquisition of Pacira BioSciences is an important step in advancing our strategy to build our innovative medicines business," said Scott Smith, Viatris' chief executive.
"The addition of Exparel [and] Zilretta…are synergistic with our fast-acting meloxicam market opportunity and position us as a leader in non-opioid pain management therapies, an area where patients and healthcare providers continue to seek more treatment options."
He also said that buying Pacira will beef up Viatris' commercial, market access, medical affairs and global R&D capabilities and will "accelerate our path to sustained revenue and earnings growth."
Buying Pacira also adds several R&D projects to Viatris' pipeline, notably PCRX-201 (enekinragene inzadenovec), a locally administered gene therapy in phase 2 development for knee osteoarthritis. Earlier-stage projects include a formulation of ropivacaine for post-surgical pain management and candidates for degenerative disk disease and dry eye disease.
It is the first acquisition for Viatris since it bought Japan-based neurological drug developer Aculys Pharma last October for an undisclosed sum.
Viatris said it expects the Pacira acquisition to close by the end of 2026 and be immediately accretive to its financial guidance.
