Sanofi-aventis and Mérieux Alliance recently announced the signature of a strategic agreement for the acquisition by Sanofi Pasteur of Mérieux Alliance’s French subsidiary ShanH, which owns a majority stake in vaccine company Shantha Biotechnics based in Hyderabad, India.
Under the terms of the agreement, Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of the sanofi-aventis Group, will support Shantha’s ongoing development as a platform to address the need for high quality affordable vaccination in international markets. Dr Varaprasad Reddy, the founder of Shantha Biotechnics in 1993, will continue to lead the company as Managing Director. The transaction, set to close before the end of the third quarter, values Shantha at 550 million euros. For the current fiscal year, sales of Shantha are expected to be around 90 million US dollars. Sales are expected to grow significantly given the commercial resources of Sanofi Pasteur and through the development and launch of Shantha’s pipeline of new vaccines.
Shantha was created in 1993 by Dr. Varaprasad Reddy and is based in Hyderabad, India. Shantha develops, manufactures and markets several important vaccines. It operates at international standards in a state-of-the-art facility.
Shantha works with supranational organizations like UNICEF and PAHO to supply major international markets including Asia-Pacific, Africa and Latin America. In 1997, Shantha launched SHANVAC-B™, the first recombinant Hepatitis B vaccine produced in India. SHANVAC-B™, SHANTETRA™ (combination vaccine of Diphteria, Pertussis, Tetanus and Hepatitis B), SHAN5™ (combination vaccine of Diphteria, Pertussis, Tetanus, Haemophilus influenza B and Hepatitis B) and SHANTT™ (Tetanus toxoid vaccine) are prequalified by the World Health Organization for supplying to United Nation agencies globally. Shantha also has an important portfolio of vaccines in development.
