Irish pharmaceutical company Allergan plc (NYSE:AGN) said on Friday that it has agreed to acquire Bonti Inc for an upfront payment of USD195m as well as additional potential commercial milestone payments, subject to certain adjustments and other customary closing conditions.

Based in Newport Beach, CA, Bonti is a privately held clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the development and commercialisation of novel, fast-acting neurotoxin programmess for aesthetic and therapeutic applications.

Upon closing of the acquisition, Allergan will acquire the global rights to Bonti's pipeline consisting of two botulinum neurotoxin serotype E (BoNT/E) programmes currently in Phase 2 development, EB-001A (aesthetic) and EB-001T (therapeutic). The active ingredient in both programmes, EB-001, is a novel botulinum neurotoxin serotype E (BoNT/E) with a unique clinical profile, characterized by a rapid onset of action within 24 hours and a two to four week duration of effect.

Recently, Bonti's topline results from the first clinical study of EB-001 in glabellar frown lines confirmed both the safety and efficacy of the differentiated profile. In the US, there are about 65 million consumers who are considering facial injectable treatments, including being treated with a faster acting shorter-duration product.