Pfizer sells China swine vaccine unit

 

 

Pfizer Inc. the world's biggest drugmaker, is selling its swine vaccine business in China to Harbin Pharmaceutical Group for US$50 million, according to an official source on Monday (May 31).

 

A spokeswoman from Pfizer's Singapore office confirmed the divestment of its China swine vaccine business to Harbin Pharmaceutical but did not disclose any other details.

 

The disposal was required by the Anti-Trust Bureau of China's Ministry of Commerce as a condition for approval of Pfizer's US$68 billion merger with Wyeth, which closed last October, said the source.

 

The deal marked the first time China had ordered a foreign company to divest a locally-based business as a condition for approval of a merger with another foreign company, as part of a review under the country's anti-monopoly law that took effect in August 2008, the source said.

 

Pfizer's will sell its China operations to manufacture its RespiSure and RespiSure-One swine mycoplasma hyopneumoniae (MH) vaccines in the country, to Harbin Bio-Vaccine, an animal health unit of Harbin Pharmaceutical.

 

Business Development Asia (BDA), Clifford Chance, and King & Wood advised Pfizer on the deal; while other bidders for the asset included Novartis, Eli Lilly, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Agenix, the source said.

 

Harbin Pharmaceutical, which counts Warburg Pincus among its major shareholders, manufactures and distributes generic antibiotics in China.

 

Shares of Harbin Pharmaceutical have risen 21% so far this year, compared with a 19% drop in the key Shanghai Composite Index. The stock was down 1.11% by 0542 GMT on Monday.