Sanofi Pasteur completes Acambis acquisition

Sanofi Pasteur has announced the completion of its acquisition of Acambis, in a move it claims has strengthened its vaccine pipeline to better deal with global health needs.

The company said it has acquired Acambis for a sum of 285 million pounds, with the firm becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sanofi Pasteur Holding.

Acambis develops innovative vaccines that seek to substantially improve existing standards of care or address areas of medical need that are currently unmet.

Sanofi Pasteur said the integration of the discovery and development capabilities of Acambis into the firm would strengthen its research efforts and feed future growth with new projects.

These new projects include a vaccine against C difficile, a new approach to an influenza vaccine based on M2 protein and a pre-clinical programme to develop protection against herpes.

Prior to this merger, Sanofi Pasteur had already been developing three vaccines in collaboration with Acambis, against dengue, Japanese Encephalitis and West Nile Virus.

Wayne Pisano, president and chief executive officer of Sanofi Pasteur, said: “This acquisition is a logical and strategic step, building upon Sanofi Pasteur and Acambis’ decade long partnership to develop novel vaccines.”

He added the skilled workforce of Acambis would contribute to its efforts to answer unmet medical needs of patients worldwide.

Earlier this month, Sanofi Pasteur announced plans to sponsor a phase II trial assessing a multi-pronged therapeutic cancer vaccine regimen.