Bausch & Lomb, the eye care products maker, is near a deal to sell itself to Valeant Pharmaceuticals for about $9 billion, people briefed on the matter said on Friday.
A deal could be announced as soon as next week, these people said, cautioning that talks were continuing and could fall apart.
If completed, a transaction would be one of the biggest health care deals of the year. It would also be the largest ever for Valeant, a Canadian drug maker with a history of striking deals. The company unsuccessfully sought this year to buy Actavis, a generic pharmaceutical company, in what would have been a takeover worth more than $13 billion.
And it could reap a big gain for Bausch & Lomb’s current owner, the private equity firm Warburg Pincus, which paid about $4.5 billion for it in 2007. Warburg Pincus had been pursuing a sale or an initial public offering of the health care company since late last year.
The buyout firm appeared to be leaning toward an initial offering for Bausch & Lomb earlier this year, after potential takeover bids fell short of a roughly $10 billion price target.
News of the talks was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal online.
