Two vaccines, a billion dollars!

Under the leadership of former CEO Andrew witty, GSK has acquired products in a number of treatment areas in its multi billion dollar asset exchange with Novartis But now, GSK has decided to sell the two vaccines it acquired to streamline its product line On October 21, GSK announced on its website that it would sell rabipur, a rabies vaccine, and encepur, a tick borne encephalitis vaccine, to Bavarian Nordic Rabipur is an effective and life-saving vaccine for people bitten by suspected animals (post exposure prevention) and non immune people at risk of rabies (pre exposure prevention) The product has 30 years of market experience and is supported by who prequalification And encepur can be used for active immunization of tick borne encephalitis (TBE) in high-risk population, with unique drug delivery flexibility It is understood that GSK will receive approximately EUR 301 million in upfront payments, EUR 495 million in milestone payments and additional proceeds from the sale of inventory in the course of supply arrangements for a total consideration of EUR 955 million (approximately USD 1.06 billion) At the time of sale, the estimated inventory value of the two vaccines was EUR 159 million According to the agreement, 25 million euros of the total price depends on the future sales performance of the two vaccines At the same time, Bavarian Nordic shall pay the milestone fee after the successful transfer of technology, marketing authorization and fulfillment of GSK's supply commitment until the regulatory approval for the production of vaccines is obtained "This agreement with Bavarian Nordic will allow us to invest more resources in key growth assets and R & D channels, while ensuring that other important and successful vaccines continue to be available to the market," said Roger Connor, President of global vaccines at GSK In 2015, GSK acquired Novartis' vaccine business with a total price of about $7.1 billion, which is the source of the two vaccine products sold This transaction played a huge role in establishing the vaccine product line of the former, namely, increasing key products and reinvesting in the growth assets of the vaccine business, innovating and simplifying the supply chain At this stage, the vaccine business of GSK is in a strong growth trend, which is largely due to the shingrix vaccine launched in recent two years, which was approved by the US FDA in October 2017 and recently approved in China At present, the strong demand for the vaccine has exceeded the supply, and the vaccine has been in a market shortage since 2018, and has continued to this year, GSK has committed to invest to increase production capacity GSK's meningitis vaccine has also been growing, with sales up 22% in the first half of this year to 444 million pounds ($576 million) Overall, in the first half of this year, GSK vaccine sales increased by 25% over the same period in 2018, reaching 3.1 billion pounds (US $4.02 billion) For Bavarian Nordic, the deal comes just before the company (on September 25) announced that the US FDA approved its next generation of vaccine jynneos for smallpox and monkeypox prevention The vaccine represents the first non replicating smallpox vaccine in the United States and the first approved monkeypox vaccine in the world At present, the company only has jynneos, which is on the market, but its vaccine product line under clinical research is quite rich, including the drug under research for infectious diseases and cancer immunotherapy: Bavarian Nordic product line under research To ensure continuity of supply, the two vaccines will continue to be produced at the Marburg plant in GSK Germany until full production is transferred to Bavarian Nordic The phased transfer of technology is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2020 and be completed within five years The deal is expected to be completed by the end of 2019, with no employees or manufacturing plants transferred Reference source: Official Website of [1] zeroing in on fast growing vessels, GSK sheds two shots to Bavarian Nordic for up to $1.1b [2] GSK agreements to invest rabbits and tick borne encephalitis vessels to Bavarian Nordic [3].