Acambis sells typhoid vaccine business for $16.5m
Vaccine-developer Acambis plc (ACM.L) said today that it has sold its Berna Products Corp business to Crucell NV for $16.5m (about £9m).
The Cambridge-headquartered firm said Berna was no longer a strategic asset following the termination of a licensing agreement for the yellow fever vaccine Arilvax, announced on 12 September.
Berna sells and distributes Vivotif, an oral typhoid vaccine, in North America. The sale includes its operations in Miami and Canada, which employ 15 people. Berna has North American sales rights to Vivotif from Berna Biotech AG, which was acquired by Crucell in March. The distribution agreement was due to end in 2010.
Acambis bought Berna three years ago. In 2005, when the competitor product was unavailable for part of the year, revenues from sales of Vivotif were $12.9m, up from $6.8m in 2004. The pre-tax contribution in 2005, before overhead allocations, was $5.3m, compared with $1.9m in 2004. The competitor product has since returned to the market. The value of the gross assets being sold was $10.7m.
Acambis originally acquired Berna to help build a travel vaccines franchise in the US. As well as marketing Vivotif, it had planned to use its rights under a licensing deal with companies since acquired by Novartis to license Arilvax for sale in the US and to distribute it through Berna.
Non-performance
However, due to non-performance by those predecessor companies, Acambis was unable to secure the required marketing approval. Novartis recently agreed to pay Acambis $19m to settle disputes related to this non-performance, which resulted in the Arilvax licensing deal being terminated.
Acambis CEO Gordon Cameron (pictured) said: "Berna Products is no longer a strategic asset and its sale today crystallises $16.5m of value and cash in the short term. Together with the recently announced $19m Arilvax settlement and near-term revenues from the ACAM2000 US Government $30m order, this deal further strengthens our financial position as we drive towards our goal of building a high-value product pipeline."
Acambis develops vaccines to prevent and treat infectious diseases, and is particularly renowned for smallpox vaccines. It is developing an investigational smallpox vaccine, ACAM2000, of which it is making emergency-use stockpiles for the US Government and other governments around the world. It is also developing an attenuated smallpox vaccine, MVA3000, under contracts with the US National Institutes of Health.
Acambis’ share price was unchanged at 153.50p in early trading, valuing the company at about £162m
2nd October 2006
