British Columbia Innovation Council

The QLT case studies the factors and process the CEO underwent when deciding to acquire ForSight Newco II, a company that had developed a promising device key to QLT's market advantage. QLT was the first sizeable and successful Vancouver-based biotechnology company.

QLT had developed and commercialized Visudyne, one of the most successful products used to halt the progression of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) - the leading cause of blindness in people over the age of 50. Visudyne had given QLT tremendous growth in worldwide sales but was now suffering in the face of new competitors in the AMD space.

In this case, the CEO is considering a new acquisition. The target company, ForSight Newco II, had developed a promising device that could be inserted into the eye to deliver eye drops over a three month period. It was a risky proposition given that ForSight hadn't completed any human trials and that QLT was still recovering from a drastic fall in the company's stock price from a major acquisition two years before. The technology they were developing was a good fit for QLT and would give the company the next set of products in its development pipeline. Further, the company and CEO had been successful before in launching a product and the company had strong relationships with ophthalmologists based on its earlier products. Still, there needed to be a rigorous review of the potential acquisition before a decision could be made. The ForSight acquisition would only go forward with the CEO's strong and unwavering support. Was the CEO prepared to stake QLT's future on this strategy?

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