October 4, 2007

Belgium's VMD takes over French pharmaceutical firm

Belgian veterinary medicine manufacturer VMD, based in Arendonk, has acquired the private French pharmaceutical laboratory Laboratoires Biove.

Biove's offices are located in Arques, the North of France with a strong market presence in other areas of the world including Magreb, the Middle East and South East Asia.

Jan Moons, managing director and CEO of VMD, is the majority shareholder of the new entity with Pierre Stoven, managing director of Biove retaining a minority stake in the new structure. The board of directors of both companies will be actively involved in the overall management process.

Moons said "both companies will expand independently on a national basis whilst competently continuing to serve all major and existing partnerships."

In a statement, company executives said the structures will remain unchanged: "...internationally, VMD will focus more on enhancing sales & marketing as well as research and development whereas Biove will focus on the production process. Biove will also coordinate all toll manufacturing opportunities directly with their existing network."

VMD provides a wide range of registered antibiotics, vitamins and chemotherapeutics in the form of injectable preparations, water soluble powders and premixes relating to the treatment of animal diseases that mainly affect large animals.

VMD's veterinary medicines are currently marketed in more than 70 other countries worldwide through a network of distributors and VMD subsidiaries in Hungary, Turkey and Nigeria.

The pharmaceutical laboratory Laboratoires Biove produces its own product range in France, mainly for productive livestock, i.e. livestock intended for human consumption (for example, bovines, poultry, fish and bees) as well as dedicated formulations for pets.