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A new sun rises for vaccines
April 2012
SHARING OPTIONS:
LONDON—If an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,
two companies’ worth of prevention might be worth its weight in gold, and
pharmaceutical giants GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Daiichi Sankyo are banking on
that. The companies recently announced the signing of an agreement to form a
joint venture together, one that is expected to result in the No. 1 vaccines
company in Japan.
The joint venture, which will be based in Tokyo, will hold
development and commercial rights for existing preventative vaccines from both
companies, including vaccines for seasonal flu, human papillomavirus,
rotavirus, mumps, diphtheria pertussis and measles rubella.
“This collaboration marks another step in our strategy to
build our presence in key growth markets and will create the first and largest
company dedicated solely to vaccines in Japan,” Christophe Weber, president
designate of GSK Vaccines, said in a press release. “We are very pleased to be
partnering with Daiichi Sankyo, a highly regarded company and an established
leader in Japan. Both companies have strong track records in commercialization
and, in combination, will create further significant economies of scale in the
development and distribution of vaccines in the Japanese market.”
The two companies will form Japan Vaccine Co. Ltd., each
selling their respective vaccines into the joint venture at agreed-upon prices,
and will receive sales synergies. GSK and Daiichi will hold equal stakes in the
joint venture and will split profits 50/50, with the partners equally splitting
the minimum total cash investment of 100 million Yen (approximately $1.2
million) for start-up capital requirements. No additional financial terms were
disclosed.
Masaya Tamae, director of the public relations group in
Daiichi’s corporate communications department, says that the opportunity to
partner with GSK was “extremely significant” for the company, adding that
Daiichi has “high expectations that the partnership will prove fruitful in the
roles it will take on, such as vaccine development, marketing and sales, as
well as in other areas such as vaccine research and manufacturing.”
“Moreover, we expect the company to contribute greatly to
the group’s business results, as well as improve our presence in the growing
Japan domestic vaccine market,” Tamae adds. “As a Japanese pharmaceutical
company, we feel an acute responsibility to contribute to improved health and
welfare in Japanese society, as well as to do everything we can to help protect
people living in Japan from infectious diseases.”
The location of the joint venture in Japan is a benefit for
GSK as well, a company spokesman notes, as GSK already has “a strong presence
in Japan in its own right.” The company reported 28-percent growth in Japan in
2011 on an underlying basis, and the Japanese market, in addition to the U.S.
market, “is one of the key pro-innovation markets where we are focusing our
R&D efforts.” The company feels that combining Daiichi Sankyo’s history in
the country with GSK’s vaccine expertise together in the joint venture will
“have a positive impact on public health in Japan.”
“There are many factors that GSK takes into account when
deciding on whether to enter into a JV. The choice of partner, the development
potential and how the venture will fit into our growing global vaccines
development network were all important considerations,” says GSK’s spokesman.
“Daiichi Sankyo meets all of these criteria and holds similar values and
commitment to excellence and meeting public health needs to GSK, and emerged as
the natural choice to partner with on this JV.”
They went on to note that “Japan is emerging as a key driver
of innovation in the pharmaceutical sector, and we expect this to translate
into growth in the future as more companies focus their efforts in the region,”
adding that the pharmaceutical market has seen 5.6 percent growth in Japan. The
expectation of growth is one that Daiichi Sankyo agrees with.
“Naturally, as our home market, the Japanese domestic market
is very important to Daiichi Sankyo. As in many countries, there are pressures
on healthcare cost and so on, but overall we see the future of the
pharmaceutical market in Japan as being bright,” says Tamae. “Regarding the
vaccine market in particular, due to the Japanese government’s strong support
of market growth in terms of the introduction of foreign, innovative vaccines,
there is great expectation for continued market expansion in the future.”
The transaction is expected to be complete in the third
quarter of this year, subject to local regulatory approvals.
Code: E041202
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