Novartis makes another foray into China, buying Zheijian Tianyuan for $125 million

Just a day after revealing a $1 billion-plus investment in China for R&D (The Pharma Letter November 3), Swiss drug major Novartis announced that it will acquire an 85% stake in Zhejiang Tianyuan Bio-Pharmaceutical, a private vaccines company for $125 million as a part of its strategic initiative to expand human vaccines presence in China. The acquisition will require Chinese regulatory and government approvals.

Tianyuan offers a range of marketed vaccine products in China and R&D projects focused on various preventable viral and bacterial diseases. The Chinese firm has been delivering dynamic and profitable growth, having more than doubled its net sales to approximately $25 million in 2008 compared to 2006, Novartis noted.

"Novartis has a long-standing commitment to improving healthcare in China. Our future activities with Tianyuan are an important step in our strategy to enhance the prevention of diseases in China with high-quality products," said Daniel Vasella, chairman and chief executive of Novartis.

As part of the collaboration, the two companies will work together to expand Tianyuan's product portfolio and R&D pipeline through targeted investments in vaccines innovation, manufacturing technologies and commercial networks. This collaboration is also expected to facilitate the introduction of Novartis' vaccines into China, where the Swiss firm currently has a limited presence with an offering of vaccines only against influenza and rabies.

China is the world's third largest vaccines market, with annual industry sales of more than $1 billion and has expectations for sustained double-digit growth in the future given the government's commitment to improve access to quality health care, said Novartis.