Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) -- The shares of Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp., which is trying to buy Inamed Corp., may rise after it received a $2.2 billion hostile bid from Mentor Corp., the latest offer in an industry where acquisitions have risen 15 percent from a year earlier.

Mentor on Nov. 18 offered 0.62 share for each Medicis share, Santa Barbara, California-based Mentor, a maker of plastic-surgery products, said yesterday in a statement sent by Business Wire. The bid values Medicis stock at 25 percent more than its closing price on Nov. 18. Medicis, a Scottsdale, Arizona-based maker of dermatology drugs that help fill out lips and smooth wrinkles, said in a separate statement its board rejected the bid.

Cosmetic treatments have become increasingly popular as more people in the U.S. get older. Those 65 or older are expected to make up 20 percent of the population by 2030, compared with 12.4 percent in 2000, according to the Administration on Aging. Americans spent about $8.4 billion on 9.2 million cosmetic procedures last year, up 24 percent since 2000, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

Mentor's acquisition of Medicis would allow ``the combined company to establish a strong basis for sustainable competitive advantage in surgical and non-surgical cosmetic procedures in the plastic surgery and cosmetic dermatology markets,'' according to Mentor's statement.

Medicis is vying with Allergan Inc., the maker of Botox wrinkle treatment, to acquire Inamed, which produces medical devices used in plastic surgery. Inamed last week received a $3.2 billion bid from Allergan, which would be the biggest deal in the area this year, according to Bloomberg data.

There have been 195 U.S. health-care products companies bought this year for a total of $12.2 billion, according to data on announced deals compiled by Bloomberg as of Nov. 15, compared with 169 deals worth $14.6 billion in the same period of 2004.

Mentor said Medicis's shareholders would benefit more from the company's sale than from a proposed $2.64 billion purchase of Santa Barbara, California-based Inamed.

Medicis's plan to buy Inamed has been stalled by requests from regulators and opposed by Inamed's third-largest shareholder, SAC Capital Advisors LLC, a hedge fund run by Steven Cohen.

Mentor said it's prepared to add cash to its offer for Medicis. The addition of Medicis would add to earnings ``immediately,'' the company said.

A call after hours yesterday to the office of Peter R. Nicholson, Mentor's vice president of strategic planning and investor relations, wasn't immediately returned.

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