ZO Skin Health has boosted its wrinkle-fighting powers by picking up ReFissa from aesthetics firm Suneva Medical.
The acquisition of the prescription antiaging cream and its generic equivalent, vitamin A derivative tretinoin, is the professional skin-care company’s first deal and will help it bring cheaper tretinoin options to the physicians’ offices. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
“[ZO Skin Health founder] Dr. [Zein] Obagi’s system has always used tretinoin products to achieve the results he thinks are right for his patients,” said Mark Williams, chief executive officer and general counsel of ZO Skin Health. “In the past, we had to rely upon the market to buy these products. It’s a prescription product and not something we could just go and manufacture. Our purchase of ReFissa gives us ownership in order to do our own manufacturing.”
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ReFissa is marketed as an alternative to Botox and facelifts, and it’s the only tretinoin approved by the Food and Drug Administration for antiaging purposes. Tretinoin remedies typically target acne. The firm plans to continue to employ the ReFissa name, but will also launch a tretinoin product under the ZO Skin Health brand umbrella. The generic form of tretinoin is available in hospitals and pharmacies, a segment ZO Skin Health hasn’t delved into before.
“The price of tretinoin products on the market has increased dramatically because the supply has been controlled by very few. By acquiring ownership, it will allow us to see up to a 90 percent a decrease in the cost, and we can pass that along to doctors’ offices,” Williams said. “The patients already using tretinoin products are going to see a reduction in price. Also, physicians were reluctant to introduce these products because the price was so high, so we think there will be growth in the volume of product we are going to sell [due to lower prices].”
ZO Skin Health already marketed roughly 60 products priced primarily from $29 to $170. They are sold at roughly 7,500 physicians’ offices in more than 105 countries worldwide. The company’s revenues topped $60 million last year, and its business has been growing at a compound annual growth rate of 68 percent for about five years.
In September 2016, Williams assumed his current position to keep ZO Skin Health on a steep growth trajectory.
“Part of the reason I was brought into the company was to take Dr. Obagi’s vision and brand, and make it into a significant player in our industry,” he said. “We will do that via organic growth and strategic acquisitions. This is the first one, but it certainly will not be the last.”