Leading Russian vaccines producer Petrovax acquired by Pharmstandard

Russian drugmaker Pharmstandard is to acquire Petrovax Pharm, one of the country’s largest producers of vaccines. The deal has already been approved by the Russian Federal Anti-Monopoly Service (FAS), which just a couple of week ago imposed a ban on the acquisition of Petrovax by the USA’s Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT), due to reasons of national security.

According to sources close to the FAS, the Russian government decided not to allow the sale Petrovax to the US company, amid the fears of losing control for one of the country’s leading producers of anti-influenza vaccines, which are very important to Russia where seasonal influenza is suffered by more than 40-50 million local people each year.

The sale of one of the strategic producers of vaccines might pose a threat for the failure of the annual campaign of mass vaccination of local population against influenza, which is regularly conducted each autumn.