The British consumer goods company Reckitt Benckiser is buying K-Y personal lubricants from U.S. health care giant Johnson & Johnson.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed Monday by Reckitt Benckiser, which expects to close the acquisition by the middle of the year.
The company acquired global rights to the K-Y brand from J&J’s McNeil unit, and no employees or fixed assets were included in the deal.
K-Y products are sold in more than 50 countries, and net sales topped $100 million last year. Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC also makes the Durex brand of condoms.
The deal was announced more than a year after McNeil removed three types of K-Y Jelly from pharmacy and grocery store shelves after the company determined that each might require a detailed review by regulators. McNeil had considered them similar enough to existing products to not require such a review.
About a dozen types of K-Y Jelly are still available.
