Botox

Struggling office landlord Maguire Properties Inc. sold an Orange County building Friday for $22 million to one of the tenants at the Irvine complex, pharmaceutical company Allergan. Allergan, which makes Botox, eye-care solutions and other products, bought the building at 18581 Teller Ave. in a deal that allowed it to take over Maguire's $20-million mortgage on the property. The 88,000-square-foot building is part of Allergan's headquarters campus.

Shares of Allergan Inc. rose 13% on Tuesday on speculation that the maker of Botox might be bought. Allergan surged $5.78 to $48.95 for its biggest one-day percentage gain since June 21, 1989. A report on the website DealReporter.com said London-based GlaxoSmithKline might be interested in acquiring Allergan, citing a person familiar with Glaxo's policy. Irvine-based Allergan agreed in 2005 to share promotion of Botox with Glaxo and jointly market two Glaxo migraine medicines.

Two Newport Beach clinics have been scammed of wrinkle-erasing Botox treatments in recent weeks by a middle-aged woman now gone without a trace. She may be setting new frown lines, though, if caught: The doctors' services she stole are valued at more than $2,000, a grand theft felony that could send her to jail, said Newport Beach Police Department spokesman Sgt. Evan Sailor.

Patients of a West Hollywood dermatologist became unwitting guinea pigs for an experimental drug when the doctor began secretly injecting them with an unapproved substitute for Botox, federal authorities allege. Dr. David Cary Hansen was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles in connection with an alleged scheme to treat patients with an experimental form of the popular wrinkle reducer that was labeled "Not for Human Use."

Botox, the botulism-based drug that has wiped wrinkles from the faces of millions, may be approved for another use: stopping headaches. Drug maker Allergan Inc. said Thursday that it had new evidence that its injectable drug could help relieve migraine headaches. Based on preliminary results from two company-funded studies, Allergan said it would ask the Food and Drug Administration to approve Botox for chronic migraine next year. The FDA approved Botox to smooth wrinkles and age lines in 2002, and it has grown into a blockbuster product for Irvine-based Allergan, with $2.1 billion in sales last year.

Allergan Inc., maker of the wrinkle smoother Botox, said second-quarter profit rose 6.9% as overseas sales of facial treatments and prescription eye-care products helped the Irvine company weather a slowing U.S. economy. Net income increased to $147.3 million, or 48 cents a share, from $137.8 million, or 45 cents, a year earlier. Adjusted profit of 63 cents a share matched analysts' estimates. Revenue climbed 20% to $1.17 billion, topping the average estimate of $1.14 billion in a Bloomberg survey.

More than a dozen Botox users and relatives filed a lawsuit Wednesday contending that the blockbuster wrinkle-buster injured them or killed their relatives, and they blamed maker Allergan Inc. for failing to warn them of the dangers. The suit, filed in Orange County Superior Court near Allergan's Irvine headquarters, links the toxin-based drug to three deaths, including one in March of a 69-year-old Texas nurse who received injections for neck and shoulder pain.

Growing older has its perks -- heftier income, respect of one's peers -- and its drawbacks such as, for men, a steady enlargement of the prostate gland. Soon, men with this problem may have a broader set of therapeutic options. A 2003 study already has revolutionized the standard of care men get for this common condition.

Allergan Inc.'s net income more than doubled in the first quarter as sales accelerated outside the U.S. for the wrinkle remover Botox. Demand cooled in the U.S., and the company blamed the economy. Net income increased to $111.4 million, or 36 cents a share, from $43.8 million, or 14 cents, a year earlier, the company said. Revenue grew 23% to $1.08 billion, bolstered by converting overseas sales in other currencies to the dollar. Irvine-based Allergan sells cosmetic and medical products including breast implants, surgical devices to remedy obesity and a treatment for overactive bladders.

I know we're all supposed to be watching this season of "Dancing With the Stars" to see whether professional athletics or Broadway provides a better foundation for dance. But I'm pretty sure most of us are far too preoccupied with figuring out whether Priscilla Presley has had the first successful head transplant and why there wasn't a "Frontline" or at least an E! special about it.