GSK creates Chinese flu vaccine joint venture
GlaxoSmithKline, the UK-based pharmaceutical group, on Tuesday agreed to create a joint venture flu vaccine business in China, in its latest push into emerging markets.
The company will combine forces with Shenzhen Neptunus, which is quoted in Hong Kong, taking an initial 40 per cent stake for £21m with the prospect of increasing to majority control within two years.
The deal allows GSK to enter the potentially large Chinese market for vaccines for the first time, overcoming the local authorities' preference to purchase vaccines from domestic manufacturers.
It will give the company access to Chinese antigens for flu, and allow them to add in GSK's proprietary “adjuvant”, a patented ingredient that boosts the human immune response, adding to the efficacy and efficiency of the vaccine.
The transaction marks the first time GSK has created a joint venture in vaccines, with the company indicating that it would follow a similar model in other emerging markets in the future.
It heralds the latest in a series of investments and deals by large pharmaceutical companies into vaccines, which have become an increasingly important and lucrative way to diversify away from traditional “small molecule” chemical based medicines.
The company will combine forces with Shenzhen Neptunus, which is quoted in Hong Kong, taking an initial 40 per cent stake for £21m with the prospect of increasing to majority control within two years.
The deal allows GSK to enter the potentially large Chinese market for vaccines for the first time, overcoming the local authorities' preference to purchase vaccines from domestic manufacturers.
It will give the company access to Chinese antigens for flu, and allow them to add in GSK's proprietary “adjuvant”, a patented ingredient that boosts the human immune response, adding to the efficacy and efficiency of the vaccine.
The transaction marks the first time GSK has created a joint venture in vaccines, with the company indicating that it would follow a similar model in other emerging markets in the future.
It heralds the latest in a series of investments and deals by large pharmaceutical companies into vaccines, which have become an increasingly important and lucrative way to diversify away from traditional “small molecule” chemical based medicines.
The agreement with Shenzhen allows GSK to substantially strengthen its expanding franchise in flu vaccines, adding to its existing fully controlled factories for flu in Lavalle in Canada and Dresden in Germany, as well as its central plant in Rixensart, Belgium, for the production