Mitsubishi Tanabe acquires Vaccine maker Medicago

Mitsubishi Tanabe together with Philip Morris Investments BV limited will acquire vaccine maker Medicago for CAD 1.16 per share or CAD179 million.  Post acquisition Medicago will become a joint venture  company of Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma and Philip Morris Investments. Mitsubishi Tanabe will own 60%, while Philip Morris Investments will own 40%.

International Medica Foundation outlicenses China rights to its neonatal rotavirus vaccine to Shanghai BravoBio

The International Medica Foundation has outlicensed to Shanghai BravoBio Co., Ltd. of China,  rights to Rotashield -  the first rotavirus vaccine that has been clinically tested for use in newborns. Shanghai BravoBio will be responsible for developing the vaccine in China.  

Rotashield has several attributes, which makes it the ideal rotavirus vaccine, of which the important ones being

GSK acquires vaccine developer Okairos

GlaxoSmithKline has acquired Okairos AG (Okairos), a specialist developer of vaccine platform technologies for €250 million (approximately £215 million/$325 million) in cash. The deal gives GSK access to Okairos genetic vaccine development platform, which uses viral vectors to spur a T-cell attack on a range of diseases such as hepatitis C, HIV, malaria, tuberculosis and human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

Takeda to Acquire Vaccine development company - Inviragen Inc

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited will acquire privately held  Inviragen which is focused into research and development of innovative vaccines for emerging infectious diseases, including dengue and hand, foot and mouth disease.

Guizhou Factorr, a subsidiary of Hua Han Bio-Pharmaceutical Holdings Ltd. Enters into a Joint Venture with National Vaccine & Serum Institute (NVSI)

As per the terms of the Joint Venture, NVSI and Guizhou Factorr will jointly establish a new company in Guizhou Province. NVSI would contribute to 51% and Guizhou Factorr would contribute to 49% of the registered capital of the New Company.  

After the New Company is established, NVSI and the New Company will enter into agreements in relation to the transfer of technical know-how of three medical products, including placenta pills, placenta blood albumin injection and placenta tissue fluid injection. NVSI will transfer the relevant technical know-how to the New Company according to the fair value assessed by an asset valuation firm. 

NVSI and Guizhou Factorr confirmed that the fair value of know-how of placenta pills, placenta blood albumin injection and placenta tissue fluid injection are RMB12,000,000 (equivalent to HK$15,074,400), RMB5,000,000 (equivalent to HK$6,281,000) and RMB5,000,000 (equivalent to HK$6,281,000) respectively. 

GSK and Biological E. announce joint venture to develop combination vaccine for India and other developing countries

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Biological E Limited (Biological E.), a leading Indian vaccines company, today announced an agreement to form a 50/50 joint venture (JV) for the early stage research and development of a six-in-one combination paediatric vaccine to help protect children in India and other developing countries from polio and other infectious diseases.

Takeda to acquire Ligocyte Pharmaceuticals

Takeda will acquire Ligocyte Pharmaceuticals, a privately help company specializing in innovative vaccines. Takeda will pay $60m in upfront payment, and milestone payments will be contingent on the development of pipeline projects.

LigoCyte’s lead product, the norovirus vaccine, uses VLP (Virus like platform) technology which enables the production of vaccines designed to cover multiple genetic varieties (or “strains”) of norovirus. The vaccine candidate has been shown to confer protection in an initial human challenge trial. In recent years, norovirus has become recognized as the most common cause of outbreak and foodborne gastroenteritis in developed countries. In addition to the norovirus vaccine candidate, LigoCyte has also initiated preclinical development of vaccines against respiratory syncytial virus, influenza and rotavirus.

Sagent Advisors advised Ligocyte on the transaction.