Nothing to Sneeze at: CSL Scoops Up $1 Billion North Carolina Flu Vaccine Plant in $275 Million Novartis Deal

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Reported by Annette Kreuger, Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--With its offer of $275 million to purchase Novartis' influenza vaccine business, Australian drug maker CSL Limited has scored arguably one of the industry's biggest bargains. In addition to acquiring the existing Novartis influenza vaccine drug portfolio and development pipeline, the purchase will include the company's $1 billion vaccine plant in Holly Springs, North Carolina.

View Project Report - 300138240

Last week, the Holly Springs complex was named by the federal government as a possible site to produce anti-Ebola therapeutics. One of three federally designated Centers for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing, construction of the plant began in 2005, with capital expenditures reaching $1 billion to date.

See below for a chart of all completed, currently active and planned projects for the Holly Spring plant.

Globally, the company's vaccines business has produced nearly 1 billion doses of both seasonal and pandemic influenza vaccines. The company was the first and only manufacturer with the flexibility of two production technologies: egg-based vaccines for seasonal, pandemic and pre-pandemic; and cell-culture-based vaccines for antibiotic-free production, with the potential for rapid scale-up to protect against pandemic threats.

Despite a solid track record, the Novartis flu vaccine business lost $200 million in 2013. The company announced earlier this year that it expected to sell off the unit as part of a corporate restructuring to target other areas of treatment.

The sale of the influenza business follows earlier deals, including the sale of all vaccines other than influenza to GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK) (Brentford, England) in April 2014, and shedding its Animal Health Division to Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) (Indianapolis, Indiana). Two areas of sharpened focus for Novartis include eye care, generics and oncology products. The company also has entered into a joint venture with GSK to combine their individual consumer divisions into one global consumer healthcare product business.

CSL, considered the world's largest blood products company, will merge the newly acquired unit with its existing influenza vaccine operation, bioCSL. Projections call for the newly formed unit to deliver $1 billion in annual sales over the next three to five years, creating the No. 2 global player in the $4 billion global influenza vaccine industry.

Project Number	Total Investment Value	Project Name	Activity/Status	Kick-Off	Completion
15002194	$1,000,000,000.00	HOLLY SPRINGS GRASSROOT VACCINE PLANT	Completion/Start-Up	200704	201001
300025381	$36,000,000.00	HOLLY SPRINGS VACCINE DEVELOPMENT LAB & PILOT PLANT ADDITION	Completion/Start-Up	201102	201206
300093612	$15,000,000.00	HOLLY SPRINGS INFLUENZA VACCINE PLANT 2013 CAPITAL UPGRADE PROGRAM	Completion/Start-Up	201305	201312
300116547	$18,000,000.00	HOLLY SPRINGS INFLUENZA VACCINE PLANT 2014 CAPITAL UPGRADE PROGRAM	Construction - Merit Shop	201404	201501
300138240	$60,000,000.00	HOLLY SPRINGS INJECTABLE FLU VACCINES VIAL FILLING LINE(S) EXPANSION	Economic Evaluation	201511	201705
300138257	$45,000,000.00	HOLLY SPRINGS INJECTABLE FLU VACCINES PLANT R&D LABORATORY ADDITION	Market Analysis	201707	201807
300138440	$25,000,000.00	HOLLY SPRINGS INJECTABLE FLU VACCINES WAREHOUSE SOUTH EXPANSION	Preliminary Engineering	201503	201603
300152305	$17,000,000.00	HOLLY SPRINGS INFLUENZA VACCINE PLANT 2015 CAPEX PROGRAM	Site Characterization	201504	201601

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