Viatris agrees to buy Pacira BioSciences for $1.65 billion to build its pain portfolio

Viatris said on 8 October 2026 that it will acquire Pacira BioSciences for $1.65 billion, taking on two marketed treatments for post-surgical and arthritis pain ¹. Pacira shareholders are to receive $36.50 per share in cash, which Viatris put at a 45% premium to the closing price the day before the announcement, and the company expects the transaction to complete by the end of 2026 ¹.

What Viatris is buying

Pacira's two lead products are Exparel, used for pain after surgery, and Zilretta, which treats knee pain linked to osteoarthritis ¹. Both are new formulations of older non-opioid drugs that are now generic: bupivacaine in the case of Exparel and triamcinolone in the case of Zilretta ¹. Together the pair recorded $692 million of sales in 2025, roughly 4% more than in 2024 ¹.

The assets sit alongside pain medicines Viatris already sells, Celebrex and Relpax ¹. Viatris also has a fast-acting version of meloxicam awaiting a Food and Drug Administration decision, with a deadline of 27 December ¹. Viatris said it plans to widen the products' reach in selected markets through its global infrastructure ¹.

Leerink analyst Daniel Clark, who covers both companies, described the purchase as consistent with a strategy of "purchasing on-market, commercial assets" and said it should add to revenue straight away and support earnings growth into the 2030s ¹.

What it means for the market

The deal is a bet on commercial products with known revenue rather than on pipeline risk, and its value depends heavily on how long Exparel keeps its exclusivity ¹. Patent settlements Pacira agreed last year with Fresenius Kabi and a subsidiary of Hengrui Pharma allow those two companies to start selling generic versions in early 2030, initially at a share of total US volume in the high single digits of total US volume and rising to around 30% within three years ¹. Manufacturing patents Pacira won in 2024 extend Exparel's listed protection in the FDA's Orange Book to 2044, but two other manufacturers are contesting them ¹. Zilretta's patents expire in 2031 ¹.

Viatris said it intends to use its intellectual property expertise and its record of extending product lifecycles to keep sales going once generics enter ¹. For competitors and payers, that sets up a period in which the defence of Exparel's patents, rather than new clinical data, will decide much of the return on the purchase.

Growth may also be harder to come by than the price implies. Clark noted when he began covering Pacira in September that hospital formularies had been slow to add Exparel to standard post-surgical protocols ¹. The drug has since gained coverage from the insurer United Healthcare, and Clark said he saw no other growth opportunities likely to beat current Wall Street targets ¹. He wrote that he did not expect the deal to change the near-term trajectory much, while welcoming Viatris's execution of its capital deployment strategy ¹.

Caveats

The acquisition has been announced but not completed, and Viatris has only guided to a close by the end of 2026 ¹. The revenue figures are for Pacira's two largest drugs only. The patent position for Exparel remains under challenge from two manufacturers, and the meloxicam product that Viatris sees as complementary still needs FDA clearance, with the agency's decision due by 27 December ¹.