Crucell linked with new takeover suitors
pharmafile | January 29, 2009 | News story | Sales and Marketing |Â Â Crucell, MAÂ
Dutch vaccines firm Crucell could be snapped up by other pharmaceutical companies after Wyeth pulled out of negotiations to buy the firm.
Wyeth withdrew from the takeover talks when it was itself acquired by Pfizer on Monday for $68 billion.
The sudden withdrawal of Wyeth brought about a sharp drop-off in Crucell's share price, but there is now talk of interest from other companies.
Rumours suggest both Sanofi-Aventis and Novartis are considering stepping up to acquire the company.
The Dutch company's vaccines portfolio is the main attraction for potential buyers, but there is also interest in its lucrative biomanufacturing technology portfolio.
This contributed around 12% of Crucell's total revenues of Euros 190 million in the first nine months of 2008 and is widely used in the production of vaccines and biologics.
Sanofi-Aventis, through its Sanofi-Pasteur vaccines subsidiary, and Novartis are both leading vaccine companies, ranked third and fifth in the global market, respectively. Wyeth comes between these two in the number four slot, thanks largely to its $3bn-selling pneumococcal vaccine Prevnar, with Merck and GlaxoSmithKline claiming the front of the grid.
Thanks to its fast-growing vaccines portfolio, Crucell could be an attractive target for any one of these players, helping them consolidate their positions in a rapidly expanding market. In Europe alone, vaccine sales are tipped to more than double from $4.5bn in 2007 to $9.85bn in 2014, according to figures released recently by Frost & Sullivan.
Crucell's vaccines include Quinvaxem (for diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenzae type b) and travel vaccines Epaxal – the only aluminium-free hepatitis A shot – and Dukoral to prevent diarrhoea caused by cholera and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli.
Crucell's product sales came in at around Euros 150m in the first nine months of 2008, a 31% increase year-on-year.
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