Sanofi Pasteur and US Merck to End Vaccines JV
France’s Sanofi Pasteur and Merck of the US have announced plans to end their 50:50 European vaccines joint venture, Sanofi Pasteur MSD, by the end of 2016 and manage their vaccine product portfolios independently.
More than 100 jobs at the headquarters in Lyon, France, will be affected.
The jv, with 2015 sales of €824 million, was created in 1994 to combine the two companies’ research and manufacturing capabilities and develop and commercialize vaccines from the respective pipelines in 19 European countries.
In its 20-year lifespan, Sanofi Pasteur MSD – outside the US and Canada, Merck is known as MSD – has launched or provided vaccines to protect against a range of diseases, including human papillomavirus disease, hepatitis A and B, herpes zoster, rabies, polio, typhoid fever and pneumococcal diseases.
Not all of the vaccines are available in all of the 19 EU countries served and trade names vary.
After carefully considering their individual strategic priorities, as well as the economic and regulatory environments for vaccine operations in the EU, the partners said they had decided it was in their best interest to manage the portfolios independently. This, they added would better position each to drive growth and optimize vaccine coverage.
