Alcon

The medical aesthetics and cosmeceuticals market is large, loyal, and relatively insulated from reimbursement pressure.

And number five, Alcon acquired Neurotech Pharmaceuticals for $550 million plus contingent payments.

Neurotech is working on macular telogyactasia type 2, which is a rare degenerative retinal disease, and Alcon deepening its ophthalmology pipeline.

All right, so the themes across October M&A, rare disease, pain management, RNA therapeutics, ophthalmology, nobody is making a big splashy oncology acquisition this month.

And after years of oncology dominating M&A, it's interesting to watch capital flow towards small therapeutic areas with cleaner, competitive landscapes, and more predictable reimbursement.

Way back in time before my wife ever took a disc test, she was a successful salesperson and she worked at Xerox and was really good.

And then she worked at Alcon and was very good.

But Eventually her personality profile caught up to her because she's the opposite of a salesperson and retired from being a salesperson.

And she worked with you.

These names, I swear to God.

Brightly, which is made by Alcon, a different manufacturer, Brightly.

And what this is, it's not bromonidine, but it's another alpha agonist called apriclonidine.

Also, A glaucoma medication.

And we're seeing these themes emerge around connected patient care and driving greater efficiency in what we're doing within ophthalmology.

And for Alcon, one of the exciting things is the launch of Unity M, which will be a big presence on our booth here this year at the show, bringing new innovation to the microscope space, building on the launch of Unity VCS and CS that happened last year.

But Unity is not the whole story for us.

We're obviously excited about the things that we're doing on the IOL platform.

Last year we brought Clarion Panoptix Pro to the marketplace and this year we've launched Clarion True Plus, our entry into the monofocal plus space.

Doctors tell us they want to be able to do more, and we want to find ways to support that desire and ensure great outcomes for their patients.

Secondly, we recently announced the beginning of development of our next gen LAL platform, which allow us to do things like optimize intermediate vision, address astigmatism, and potentially reduce the number of visits needed to get to a lock-in on the adjustments.

And lastly, we also recently announced the partnership with Alcon, where we'll be looking to incorporate adjustability into Alcon's portfolio of PCIOLs.

I do believe that there is an edge having the beveled tip.

And I think that only Alcon has right now that type of anatomical tip of the bit probe.

But going back to 27 versus 25, do you think that with the bevel tip, is there a difference during surgery?

I think there's a significant difference during surgery, and it is because, you see, you have to access planes.

So I think that's fantastic.

Another one that's public is Alcon, which is a life sciences business, about $11 billion in turnover.

And this is a very, very progressive supply chain team.

I find it quite impressive.

so you work for a lot of big companies in vision k you work for balsham cooper vision alcon what have you learned from each company or specific leaders that you could bring with you to treehouse as you become this leader

and ceo oh my goodness there is a ton there is a ton Let me tell you a story about Karen Goff.

Karen Goff was my first division president at SEBA Vision, Alcon, right? She was amazing.

She started like three weeks prior to me.

So we're both new.

we've got Mark Rahman on the show today.

Who is Mark? Mark is Alcon's Chief Data and AI Officer and Chief Information Officer for Research and Development.

His work brings together AI, data, and technology.

So he's well-positioned to talk about how these capabilities move from promising ideas to practical applications inside the life sciences company.

And for listeners who aren't familiar with Alcon, what is it? Alcon is an eye care company with two main businesses, surgical products and vision care.

It makes equipment and implantable lenses for eye surgery, as well as contact lenses and products for conditions such as dry eye.

Its work ranges from helping people manage their everyday vision needs to giving surgeons tools to treat eye conditions.

And what are you hoping to learn from Mark today?

In today's Pharmaceutical Executive Daily, the FDA grants Altamiris accelerated approval for adults with primary immunoglobulin A nephropathy based on a 43.4% placebo-adjusted reduction in proteinuria.

A pharma funding roundup covers Alcon's $550 million acquisition of Neurotech Pharmaceuticals and AI Proteins collaboration with Estella's worth more than $400 million.

and incubates John Stanford, argues MFN deals pose the greatest risk to moonshot drug development in cancer, Alzheimer's, and rare disease.

Alexion, AstraZeneca, rare diseases Ultimeris, Ravalizumab, has been approved by the FDA under accelerated approval to reduce proteinuria in adults with primary immunoglobulin A nephropathy at risk of disease progression.

It marks the fifth indication for the C5 inhibitor, with continued approval contingent on verifying clinical benefit at the trial's week 106 endpoint.

Two deals closed this week in ophthalmology and protein design.

Alcon acquired Neurotech Pharmaceuticals for $550 million, plus contingent milestone payments, gaining Enkelto, the only FDA-approved cell therapy for macular telangiectasia type 2.

Separately, AI Proteins entered a research collaboration and license agreement with Astellas worth more than $400 million in upfront and milestone payments to design novel mini-protein therapeutics against targets selected by Astellas, which holds an exclusive worldwide license to any resulting candidates.