EANS-News: Valneva SE announces the sale of its Clinical Manufacturing Operations (CMO) in France to Biological E
07.06.2013 – 08:09
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Corporate news transmitted by euro adhoc. The issuer/originator is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Company Information Lyon (euro adhoc) - Valneva SE announces the sale of its Clinical Manufacturing Operations (CMO) in France to Biological E Next step in broadening an excellent strategic partnership Lyon (France), Hyderabad (India) 7th June, 2013 - Valneva SE (Valneva), a European biotech company, today announced the signing of a binding term sheet to sell its Clinical Manufacturing Operations (CMO) in Nantes to Biological E, a leading Indian biopharmaceutical company. The sale of this unit, which is dedicated to the manufacturing of clinical trial materials, is part of Valneva's strategy to realize cost synergies of EUR 5 to 6 million annually following the merger of Intercell AG and Vivalis SA to create Valneva. The divestment of the CMO facility is expected to contribute up to EUR 3 million cost savings to the annual merger-synergies. In addition, Valneva will receive an undisclosed purchase price, exceeding the current book value of the facility. Valneva and Biological E established a first partnership in 2005 for the development and commercialization of a novel Japanese Encephalitis vaccine for endemic regions, based on Valneva's JEV technology. The vaccine, which was successfully developed under this partnership, is being commercialized in India under the trade-name JEEV® and further territory expansions in the JE-endemic markets are planned. The CMO facility in Nantes will not be related to the JEV vaccine program. Valneva and Biological E are also in discussions to potentially extend their strategic partnership into new vaccine development programs based on Valneva's EB66® manufacturing platform. The EB66® cell line is an advanced system for the production of a wide variety of human and veterinary viral and therapeutic vaccines. Valneva remains the owner of the EB66® cell line and will continue to license it for human and veterinary product development to pharmaceutical and biotech companies and to propose EB66® process development services. Thomas Lingelbach, President and Chief Executive Officer and Franck Grimaud, President and Chief Business Officer of Valneva, commented: "This agreement demonstrates that Valneva's merger strategy to become a leading sustainable biotech company in antibodies and vaccines, is on track. We are pleased to broaden our excellent strategic partnership with Biological E with this transaction and believe that it will create additional opportunities for our two companies going forward." Further inquiry note: Valneva SE Corporate Communications Tel.: +43-1-20620-1222/-1116 Email: communications@valneva.com end of announcement euro adhoc -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- company: Valneva SE Gerland Plaza Techsud, 70, rue Saint Jean de Dieu F-69007 Lyon phone: +33 4 78 76 61 01 mail: communications@valneva.com WWW: www.valneva.com sector: Biotechnology ISIN: FR0004056851 indexes: ATX Prime stockmarkets: regulated dealing: Euronext Paris, regulated dealing/prime standard: Wien language: English