Acambis sells Berna Products to Crucell for $16.5m

05-Oct-2006

Acambis plc announces the sale of its Berna Products Corporation business to Crucell NV . Berna Products is no longer a strategic asset for Acambis following the termination of the ARILVAX licensing agreement, which was announced on 12 September. The sale agreement and consequential termination of the product distribution agreement between Berna Products and Crucell resulted in Acambis receiving cash proceeds of $16.5m (c.£9m).

Berna Products sells and distributes Vivotif®, an oral typhoid vaccine, in North America. The sale includes its operations in Miami and Canada, totalling 15 employees. Berna Products has North American sales rights to Vivotif from Berna Biotech AG, which was acquired by Crucell in March 2006. The distribution agreement was due to end in 2010.

Acambis acquired Berna Products in 2003. In 2005, when the competitor product was unavailable for part of the year, revenues from sales of Vivotif were $12.9m, up from $6.8m in 2004. The pre-tax contribution in 2005, before overhead allocations, was $5.3m, compared with $1.9m in 2004. The competitor product has since returned to the market. The value of the gross assets (including intangibles) being sold was $10.7m.

Acambis originally acquired Berna Products to help build a travel vaccines franchise in the US. As well as selling Vivotif, it had planned to use its rights under a licensing agreement with companies since acquired by Novartis to license the ARILVAX yellow fever vaccine for sale in the US and to distribute it through Berna Products. However, due to non-performance by those predecessor companies, Acambis was unable to obtain the required marketing approval. Novartis recently agreed to pay Acambis $19m to settle disputes related to this non-performance, which resulted in the ARILVAX licensing agreement being terminated, as announced on 12 September.

Gordon Cameron, Chief Executive Officer, said:

"Berna Products is no longer a strategic asset and its sale today crystallises $16.5m of value and cash in the short term. Together with the recently announced $19m ARILVAX settlement and nearterm revenues from the ACAM2000 US Government $30m order, this deal further strengthens our financial position as we drive towards our goal of building a high-value product pipeline."

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