Content about Acquisition

NORTH BERGEN, N.J. — The Vitamin Shoppe will buy a Pacific Northwest-based supplement chain, the New Jersey-based company said.

The Vitamin Shoppe said it would buy Super Supplements for $50 million. Super Supplements operates 31 stores in Washington, Oregon and Idaho, and the Vitamin Shoppe said the acquisition would expand its presence in the Northwest, where it already operates 17 stores. The transaction is expected to close on Dec. 31.

OSAKA, Japan — Japanese drug maker Takeda Pharmaceutical is selling its generics business to India-based Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Takeda said Monday.

Takeda said it would sell URL Pharma, through U.S. subsidiary Takeda Pharmaceuticals USA, to Sun subsidiary Caraco Pharmaceutical Labs while retaining control of the gout treatment Colcrys (colchicine). Takeda acquired rights to Colcrys when it bought URL Pharma for $800 million in June 2012; financial terms of the current deal with Caraco were not disclosed.

LONGUEUIL, Quebec — The Jean Coutu Group recently announced that it is acquiring a 50% stake in Le Groupe Médicus, which specializes in orthotic and prosthetic devices.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded in 1957 by Jean-Claude Bleau, Médicus is a private-sector employer of orthotist and prosthetist graduates in Quebec and specializes in orthotic and prosthetic devices and rehabilitation products by completing the multidisciplinary treatment plan.

ADDISON, Texas — Walgreens last month acquired UCH Pharmaceutical Services, an independent retail pharmacy based in Indiana, the company that helped broker the deal announced Wednesday. 

UCH is an independent retail pharmacy that provided specialty compounding services throughout Grant County, Ind. 

The Transition Companies acted as UCH’s sole M&A advisor for this transaction, which closed in November 2012.

It’s a marriage of industry icons. In June, Walgreens finally made a long-awaited leap across the Atlantic to acquire British-based Alliance Boots, one of the world’s premier retailers of pharmaceuticals, health and beauty aids, and beauty care products. 


SUPPLIER NEWS — Not Your Mother’s hair care is further expanding its distribution by adding Ricky’s NYC to its retail mix.


As of mid-November, Ricky’s NYC had brought in Not Your Mother’s full line of hair care in all its retail stores, as well as its online store. There are more than 11,500 retail locations in the United States currently selling Not Your Mother’s.


GREENWICH, Conn. — Brynwood Partners VI on Monday announced that it has sold its Balance Bar Company, which manufactures nutrition and energy bars, to NBTY. 

SLOUGH, England — The battle for Schiff Nutrition is on. Reckitt Benckiser on Friday commenced its previously announced tender offer to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Schiff Nutrition — a provider of branded vitamins, nutrition supplements and nutrition bars in the United States and elsewhere — for $42 per share in cash, or approximately $1.4 billion.

MADISON, Wis. — Consumer products company Spectrum Brands Holdings has acquired a 56% interest in Shaser Bioscience, a privately held developer of energy-based, aesthetic dermatological technology for home use devices, for $50 million in cash.

The transaction provides Spectrum Brands with exclusive rights to Shaser Bioscience’s entire range of technology platforms and strengthens the position of Spectrum Brands’ Remington personal care division in the growing segments of the worldwide beauty and skin care retail device market.

ZUG, Switzerland — Alliance Boots on Thursday announced that it has acquired ownership of its associate, Alliance Healthcare Russia, from AB Acquisitions Holdings Limited, the ultimate parent company of Alliance Boots.

This follows the recently established strategic partnership with Walgreens, which included, among other things, an option for Walgreens to acquire the Alliance Healthcare Russia shareholding on exercise of its option to proceed to a full merger with Alliance Boots.

PARSIPPANY, N.J. — Watson Pharmaceuticals on Wednesday announced the sale of its Rugby over-the-counter business to the Harvard Drug Group — a distributor and provider of private-label OTCs and generic prescription products under the Major Pharmaceuticals brand — for approximately $117 million.  

"I am confident that Major, with its leadership position as a marketer of OTC products, will be more strategically positioned to maximize the value of the long-known and respected Rugby name," stated Paul Bisaro, president and CEO of Watson.

WOODCLIFF LAKE, N.J. – Par Pharmaceutical Cos. has bought rights to a generic version of a drug used to treat bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.