Sanofi boosts vaccines pipeline with Acambis acquisition
pharmafile | July 31, 2008 | News story | Sales and Marketing |Â Â Â
Sanofi-Aventis has snapped up UK biotech Acambis for £276 million, gaining access to an early-stage pipeline of vaccine candidates targeting C. difficile, influenza and genital herpes.
The French pharma company also gains full control over three mid to late-stage vaccines – for Japanese encephalitis, dengue and West Nile virus – on which it had been collaborating with Acambis.
The companies' relationship stretches back more than 10 years and Wayne Pisano, head of Sanofi's vaccines division Sanofi Pasteur, said the acquisition was a logical step for both firms that would build on their past work together.
This work includes Acambis's ChimeriVax, which has completed phase III trials against Japanese encephalitis and is currently in phase II against the West Nile virus.
Acambis' only product on the market is its smallpox vaccine, and the biotech company is the leading supplier of emergency stockpiles to the US government. Earlier this year US Government agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded the firm a ten-year, £212 million contract to provide it with a manufacturing capability for Acambis' ACAM2000 smallpox vaccine.
Although Acambis is based in Cambridge, UK, it has two US sites at Cambridge and Canton in Massachusetts and a third US location in Rockville, Maryland, which will provide additional manufacturing capability when it becomes operational.
Acambis went through a period of upheaval last year, ousting its management and unveiling cost-cutting plans after it was knocked out of the running for a US Department of Health and Human Services smallpox contract.
Chairman Dr Peter Fellner said: "Since Acambis appointed its new management team in early 2007, the company has made a series of important advances, both in progressing its pipeline of innovative vaccines through the clinic and in securing its mid-term financial position.
"Sanofi Pasteur recognises the recent advances achieved by Acambis, leading it to make this offer at a substantial premium."
Sanofi's offer of 190 pence per share is a 65% premium on its share price prior to the announcement and values Acambis at £276 million. It has the backing of the biotech's board of directors and two of its major institutional investors, and the deal could be finalised by the end of this year.
Sanofi's biotech aspirations
The move bolsters Sanofi's plans to make up to 30% of its portfolio biotech-based by 2012 and builds on its purchase of an increased stake in US biotech Regeneron last year.
It also strengthens its leading position in the vaccines market – as a renewed focus on public health and advances in vaccines makes the field increasingly attractive and potentially profitable.
Sanofi's decision to acquire Acambis and not another UK biotech collaborator, Oxford BioMedica, has been interpreted as bad news for the latter.
Oxford BioMedica is working with Sanofi on therapeutic vaccine TroVax and had been rumoured to be an acquisition target for the French pharma company.
But the recent failure of TroVax to reach a primary endpoint in a late-stage trial for renal cancer probably influenced Sanofi's decision.
"In choosing to acquire Acambis rather than fellow UK biotech and collaborator Oxford BioMedica, Sanofi-Aventis is also preparing to invest more heavily in vaccines that could end up in national immunisation programmes, particularly in countries outside of its traditional growth markets," said Global Insight analyst Mitra Thompson.
Thompson added that an essential condition of the takeover is that Acambis can't look for alternative partners for two, as-yet-undisclosed, 'key projects' within its clinical pipeline.
