Valneva SE (Valneva), a European biotech company, today announced the signing of a binding term sheet to sell its Clinical Manufacturing Operations (CMO) in Nantes to Biological E, a leading Indian biopharmaceutical company.
The sale of this unit, which is dedicated to the manufacturing of clinical trial materials, is part of Valneva´s strategy to realize cost synergies of EUR 5 to 6 million annually following the merger of Intercell AG and Vivalis SA to create Valneva.
The divestment of the CMO facility is expected to contribute up to EUR 3 million cost savings to the annual merger-synergies. In addition, Valneva will receive an undisclosed purchase price, exceeding the current book value of the facility.
Valneva and Biological E established a first partnership in 2005 for the development and commercialization of a novel Japanese Encephalitis vaccine for endemic regions, based on Valneva´s JEV technology. The vaccine, which was successfully developed under this partnership, is being commercialized in India under the trade-name JEEV® and further territory expansions in the JE-endemic markets are planned. The CMO facility in Nantes will not be related to the JEV vaccine program.
Valneva and Biological E are also in discussions to potentially extend their strategic partnership into new vaccine development programs based on Valneva´s EB66® manufacturing platform. The EB66® cell line is an advanced system for the production of a wide variety of human and veterinary viral and therapeutic vaccines. Valneva remains the owner of the EB66® cell line and will continue to license it for human and veterinary product development to pharmaceutical and biotech companies and to propose EB66® process development services.
Thomas Lingelbach, President and Chief Executive Officer and Franck Grimaud, President and Chief Business Officer of Valneva, commented: “This agreement demonstrates that Valneva’s merger strategy to become a leading sustainable biotech company in antibodies and vaccines, is on track. We are pleased to broaden our excellent strategic partnership with Biological E with this transaction and believe that it will create additional opportunities for our two companies going forward.”