$7 billion too much for Novartis Vaccine Unit?

Did GSK pay too much for vaccine business. Just this past February Novartis was looking for someone to buy the vaccine business for $ 1 Billion - we paid $ 7 Billion! Think about it this way Menveo is a small player currently in global menningicoccal vaccine market of $ 800 million - $ 600 million of that is with Sanofi/Menactra. So currently Menveo is about $ 200 million - we paid $ 7 Billion - not good with math but seem like an outstanding deal for Novartis!


Buzz: Novartis mulls selling its vaccine unit as swap deal with Merck stalls

February 5, 2014 | By Nick Paul Taylor
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Last week Novartis' ($NVS) vaccine unit posted yet another operating loss, extending its streak in the red to four years. Yet despite its well-known, long-term problems, suitors are reportedly circling the unit, with the potential of Bexsero and Menveo likely to be a factor attracting potential buyers.


Joe Jimenez
News of interest in an outright buyout of the vaccine unit comes weeks after Bloomberg reported that Novartis was trying to arrange a swap deal with Merck ($MRK). Talks with Merck are continuing, the publication reports, but the companies have yet to agree on a valuation of the assets. In light of these difficulties, Novartis is reportedly looking into alternatives, including selling the vaccine business separately for $1 billion.

Although the buzz suggests the likelihood of an asset swap is fading, it is only a week since Novartis said anything is possible. "We want to build leading businesses at Novartis, and if that means that we're going to have to assume different or unconventional structures, or ways of thinking about the businesses differently, we're going to do that. So I wouldn't take anything off the table today," Novartis CEO Joe Jimenez said during last week's conference call to discuss fourth quarter results.



Read more: Buzz: Novartis mulls selling its vaccine unit as swap deal with Merck stalls - FierceVaccines http://www.fiercevaccines.com/story/buzz-novartis-mulls-selling-its-vaccine-unit-swap-deal-merck-stalls/2014-02-05#ixzz2ze8V6V3i
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I don't understand it. GSK already has "ACWY Vax" (Meningococcal polysaccharides serogroups A, C, W135 and Y) which is the same as Menveo from Novartis.

The only other NVS product is Bexsero, which is for the remaining Mening B serogroup. But that has no chance for approval in the US, and where it is approved (Europe) it isn't selling and/or it can't be made I hear.

Something very strange is going on.

 

No chance? It's on fast track for approval now and thousands of doses were already requested and given to college students because of recent outbreaks.

 

Well the reality is that it just got fast tracked because Biff and Muffy's parents pushed political buttons. The FDA fully rejected Bexsero in the past. A few thousand doses at an Ivy League university do not equal profits. Still alot of work to do.

 

Like going to Vegas = $7 billion for a vaccine unit that lost $250 million last year. Big time gamble!

 

Andy Dimwitty at it again using our hard earned profits to buy below average products. Another library move! The only thing going for him is he has better teeth than most of his friends.

 

Not "fast track" but "breakthrough" status. Still have to do competent phase 3 trials, which are lacking.

 

Also getting the pipeline for that. GSK now under the microscope for this move. Going big on Vaccines so it had better produce. Watch the micromanagement begin...

 

This will turn out to be the very worst, since it is the biggest, screw-up that Sir Andy and his dandy crew of academic admirers has done. It destroys long term value for the company, getting almost nothing in return. Terrible, Terrible, Terrible.