GlaxoSmithKline Continues Power Play in Hot Global Vaccine Market with $1.4 Billion Buyout Offer for Canada’s ID Biomedical

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). With the flu season fast approaching amidst the not-so-distant memories of last year’s vaccine supply fiasco, British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline plc (NYSE:GSK) has made a strategic move for growth in the sector. The company has signed an agreement with ID Biomedical Corporation (NASDAQ:IDBE) (Vancouver, British Columbia) to purchase the company and its U.S. and Canadian facilities for $1.7 billion. As reported in Industrialinfo.com’s Pharmaceutical Tracker - Online Database, ID Biomedical has made significant capital expenditures to upgrade and expand their vaccine manufacturing and research facilities in the Montreal (Laval) area.

In September 2004, ID Biomedical paid $120 million for the Laval facilities in a deal with Shire Pharmaceuticals (LSE:799803) (Basingstoke, UK) when that company exited the Canadian vaccine market. The Laval site is expected to eventually produce 75 million does per year of Fluviral, an egg-based influenza vaccine, by 2007. GSK recently received FDA approval for their own influenza vaccine, Fluarix, and with the ID Biomedical purchase they will also acquire a number of other vaccines under development-- FluINsure (intranasal influenza vaccine), StreptAvax (injectable group A Streptococcus vaccine), and PGCvax (Streptococcus pneumonia vaccine). ID Biomedical will become a wholly owned subsidiary of GSK under the agreement, which is expected to be completed later this year or in early 2006,

Industrialinfo.com’s 2005 Pharmaceutical Industry Forecast discusses the growing importance of vaccines in today’s pharmaceutical-biotech market. Global vaccine demand already outpaces supply, a situation that is expected to not only continue but also grow in the foreseeable future. GSK’s purchase of ID Biomedical is but one step in its quest to build its position as a global leader in vaccine production. On September 1, 2005, the company purchased Wyeth’s (NYSE:WYE ) (Madison, New Jersey) vaccine manufacturing plant in Marietta, Pennsylvania. Wyeth discontinued operations at the plant in December 2004. With their own people already in place, the company is now working on capital plans to implement new flu vaccine production technology at the site.

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