ID Biomedical has recently been expanding and upgrading its Canadian manufacturing facilities, which are expected, beginning in 2007, to produce around 75 million doses per year of its Fluviral egg-made influenza vaccine.
The acquisition, as well as the company's plans to double production at its current flu vaccine facility in Dresden, Germany, will allow >GSK to produce 150 million doses of seasonal flu vaccine a year by the end of the decade.
Worldwide, influenza vaccine production is currently around 300 million doses annually, but demand is exceeding supply and is expected to increase dramatically, according to GSK.
"This is a major step toward fulfilling our mission of becoming a leading global influenza vaccine manufacturer," said Jean-Pierre Garnier, Chief Executive Officer of GSK.
"ID Biomedical provides GSK with a significant increase in flu vaccine manufacturing capacity, which will improve GSK's ability to address both seasonal and pandemic influenza threats," said Garnier.
In addition to providing GSK with increased production capacity for next generation influenza vaccines, ID Biomedical brings an intranasal flu vaccine candidate that could help GSK to address the public health need for new delivery systems.
Until last year, the flu vaccine market was split mainly between two players - Chiron and Sanofi Pasteur - with other players lagging well behind the leaders. Now, the manufacturing problems that have beset Chiron and led to vaccine shortages in the 2004/5 flu season have opened up the market.
This latest transaction follows other recent strategic moves by GSK to expand its vaccine research and production network in the US. The company bought a facility to be used for flu vaccine production from Wyeth in September and earlier in the year boosted its vaccine technology platform via the $300 million acquisition of long-term partner Corixa. More recently, GSK has purchased a vaccine R&D site in Philadelphia.
GSK has also benefited earlier this year from the approval of its own Fluarix vaccine by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under a special fast-track system.
Fluarix is not a new product and is already distributed in 79 countries, however GSK had never previously pursued approval in the US on the grounds that the market was already saturated and it would not be able to capture significant market share.
Earlier this year GSK predicted that the global vaccine market could quadruple in size by 2015 to £17-£24 billion from its current level of around £5 billion (€7.4 billion).
This anticipated growth has sparked a number of mergers and acquisitions within the industry of late, with Crucell recently announcing a merger with Berna Biotech and Novatris intending to buy the remaining 58 per cent of Chiron it does not already own in an attempt to get in on the vaccine action.