Alliance Pharma, the specialty pharmaceutical company, has acquired the rights to the anaesthetic gel Ametop from global medical firm Smith & Nephew for $7.5m (£5.5m).
The Chippenham-based firm, which buys underperforming drugs brands and realises their potential through investment, said the deal would immediate boost its earnings. 
Ametop is a topical anaesthetic gel product used to numb the skin before an injection. It joins Alliance Pharma portfolio of around 90 pharmaceutical and consumer healthcare products, which it eithers owns or licences.
Smith & Nephew has been selling Ametop in the UK, Republic of Ireland, New Zealand and Canada for more than 10 years, achieving sales of $2.8m in the year to October 31. Around three quarters of sales are in the UK and Ireland.
Alliance Pharma said the deal was being funded from existing cash and bank facilities, including drawdown from its £35m revolving credit facility. Around £11m of the facility remains available to fund further acquisitions.
Alliance Pharma chief executive John Dawson said: “We are delighted to acquire Ametop, an attractive and established brand. The acquisition will be immediately earnings enhancing, accretive to our underlying return on invested capital, and it fits well in our existing bedrock business operations.”
Alliance Pharma, which has sales in more than 100 countries worldwide, has been listed on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market since 2003.
Its shares were unchanged in early trading this morning.
