French pharma giant Sanofi is to acquire Meriden-based Protein Sciences, the company that makes the Flublok vaccine. The deal, announced Tuesday, is worth up to $750 million.
Flublok was first approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2013. The vaccine is not grown in eggs from a live virus, which is the conventional method, but is produced using the genetic code of the virus.
And it turns out that’s what Sanofi is interested in.
“The acquisition of Protein Sciences will allow us to broaden our flu portfolio with the addition of a non-egg based vaccine,” said David Loew, Sanofi Executive Vice President and Head of Sanofi Pasteur, the company’s vaccines division,in a statement.
Though Sanofi is headquartered in France, it has operations in many countries including out of its U.S. headquarters in New Jersey.
“Protein Sciences was actively looking for an opportunity to grow its business, particularly in the U.S.,” said Manon Cox, the CEO of Protein Sciences in the same statement. “We expect our Flublok influenza vaccine to benefit from Sanofi Pasteur’s expertise in the field of influenza vaccines.”
Protein Sciences is looking to use Sanofi’s much greater scale and marketing operation to boost sales. Executive Chairman Dan Adams said the company has previously only been able to sell several hundred thousand doses a year.
“The biggest problem we faced is that we only had one product and it’s a seasonal product, so you can’t really hire a sales force," he told WNPR. "So we really concluded the only way we could see this product reach its potential was to have a marketing partner - and a big one.”
Adams hopes that Protein Sciences will be able to remain a separate unit within its French parent, and he said he’s been assured that the 100-person workforce at the Meriden headquarters will grow.
But he also sounds a note of caution. “If you sell your car, you can’t any longer expect to drive it," he said. "It’s our understanding that Meriden will stay in place and expand, but it all depends.”
The acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter of this year, subject to regulatory approval.
