Sanofi Pasteur buys majority stake in Shantha Bio

French pharma major Sanofi-aventis today said its vaccine division Sanofi Pasteur has acquired majority stake in Hyderabad-based Shantha Biotechnics, which has been valued at euro 550 million (over Rs 3,770 crore).

Sanofi Pasteur acquired ShanH, which held majority stake in Shantha Biotechnics - a privately held maker of vaccines against Hepatitis B, Diphteria and Tetanus, among others.

ShanH, the French subsidiary of Merieux Alliance, had bought 60 per cent stake in Shantha Biotechnics in November last year.

Sanofi-aventis said in a statement that it has signed with Merieux Alliance a "strategic agreement for the acquisition by Sanofi Pasteur of Merieux Alliance's French Subsidiary ShanH, which owns a majority stake in Vaccine company Shantha Biotechnics".

"The transaction, set to close before the end of third quarter, values Shantha at euro 550 million," it added.

"Shantha provides Sanofi Pasteur with a portfolio of new vaccines in development which complement Sanofi Pasteur's current Vaccines, positioning the company to accelerate its growth in strategically important emerging markets," it added.

Shantha Biotechnics officials were not immediately available for comment.

The statement said Alain Merieux, Chairman of Merieux Alliance, will chair the Board of ShanH. Besides, "a new joint committee will be created to be chaired by Alain Merieux on vaccine strategy for the Emerging Markets," it added.

It quoted Sanofi-aventis Chief Executive Officer Christopher A. Viehbacher: "The state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities allow Sanofi Pasteur to gain high quality capacity in order to enable us to provide important vaccines at affordable prices to many people around the world."

Shantha Biotechnics, which was founded by Varaprasad Reddy in 1993, is expected to clock sales of $90 million in the current fiscal, the statement said.

The company has been working with organisations like UNICEF and to supply its products in Asia-Pacific, Africa and Latin America.

Its portfolio of new products under development are Rotavirus vaccine, Conjugaed Typhoid Vaccine and HPV vaccine.