Allergan ramped up its plastic surgery business with a deal to acquire Acelity's regenerative medicine and reconstructive surgery unit LifeCell. In March, Allergan also entered a pact with Editas Medicine of Cambridge, Massachusetts, to tackle genetic eye diseases. Editas, the Cambridge, Massachusetts–based biotech expects to get $90 million in cash from Allergan in exchange for licensing five experimental eye disease treatments based on CRISPR–Cas gene editing. These include LCA10, a drug for Leber congenital amaurosis type 10, the Editas' lead program. The company expects to file papers to start the first human trials for this rare form of genetic blindness by the end of the year. Other treatments that form part of the deal are for a form of retinitis pigmentosa called Usher syndrome and for herpes simplex virus type 1 in the eye. The partnership with Editas adds more investigational drugs to Allergan's already extensive eye therapy franchise, made up mainly of treatments for glaucoma and dry eye disease.

In February, Allergan, best known as the manufacturer of Botox (Botulinum toxin), completed a $2.9-billion cash deal to acquire Branchburg, New Jersey–based LifeCell. The sale gives Allergan access to LifeCell's wound care portfolio and dermal matrices pipeline, including Alloderm human allograft tissue matrix, and Strattice, an acellular, matrix from porcine dermis. These deals add to the string of transactions forged in recent months by Dublin-based Allergan (Nat. Biotechnol. 34, 1005, 2016), some focused on strengthening its skin portfolio, others venturing into new areas. An agreement with Assembly Biosciences of Carmel, Indiana, for example, gave Allergan rights to microbiome-based gastrointestinal disease candidates, and with the acquisition of Lysosomal Therapeutics of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Allergan gained candidate drugs for neurological disorders. Last November, Allergan also added products for treating neurodegenerative disorders to its pipeline with the purchase of Chase Pharmaceuticals, of Irvine, California.