Viatris Closes Acquisitions of Oyster Point Pharma and Famy Life Sciences

At the beginning of this month, global healthcare firm Viatris Inc announced the completion of its Oyster Point Pharma and Famy Life Sciences acquisitions. The two companies will be combined, and their pipelines and infrastructure will be leveraged to support the new Viatris Eye Care Division.

The transactions cost Viatris more than $700 million, including $425 million in cash for possession of Oyster Point and approximately $280 million for the Famy Life Sciences drug development platform. In the press release, Viatris CEO Michael Goettler commented, "We are starting the year out strong with the closings of our acquisitions of Oyster Point Pharma and Famy Life Sciences, bringing together our collective commercial expertise, scientific capabilities, and global infrastructure to create the Viatris Eye Care Division, which has the potential to deliver even more access to patients and showcases the power of our Global Healthcare Gateway.”

The acquisition of Oyster Point cedes the company’s proprietary gene therapy platform for select ocular surface diseases and two small molecule programs for treating dry eye disease and neurotrophic keratopathy Stage 1.

Jeffery Nau, PhD, MMS, and head of the new Viatris Eye Care Division, remarked, “With this combination, we are well on our way to expanding our portfolio and commercial footprint and creating a global eye care leader. We believe that a new leader in the space can meaningfully shape the future of eye care to address the unmet needs of patients with ophthalmic disease and the eye care professionals who care for them.”

Headquartered in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, Viatris is a product of the 2020 merger of Pfizer’s Upjohn and Mylan. The company employs 37,000 colleagues worldwide and occupies 40 manufacturing facilities in 165+ countries and territories where it produces injectables, oral solid doses, and active pharmaceutical ingredients.

Where Viatris thrives is through its creation of biosimilar drugs. Since its inception in 2020, it has announced the launch of seven biosimilar molecules globally, with several other products in development. And through its Global Healthcare Gateway, Viatris offers healthcare companies the support of its R&D and manufacturing supply chain in addition to other professional services.

In the United States, increased biosimilar spending has been proposed to reduce overall healthcare expenditures and the Medicare Part D budget. One industry survey looking at spending from 2014 to 2022 found that biosimilars already saved the US consumer $12.6 billion. Another study examining employer health plan spending of 13 large companies discovered that each company could save an average of $1.53 million if biosimilars were available for their employees.