Abbott rumoured to be selling flu vaccine business

Abbott Laboratories is believed to be considering the sale of its flu business, gained earlier in the year through its acquisition of Belgium’s Solvay Pharmaceuticals.

A report by the Wall Street Journal suggested that Abbott initiated a bidding process for the division last week and had begun distributing marketing materials to prospective buyers. The WSJ speculated that the deal could be worth some $US614 million.

Commenting on the speculation today, industry analysts Datamonitor said that the divestment of Abbott’s flu business made perfect sense, “as the company is a niche player without critical mass in the increasingly competitive seasonal flu vaccine market”.

Hedwig Kresse, head of vaccines & infectious diseases with Datamonitor said that the two key assets of the business were its connections to Russia through the Petrovax Pharm alliance, and its cell-based manufacturing technology. Both of these he said are of potential interest to British drug producer GlaxoSmithKlin.

“Already successfully marketing its influenza portfolio in several Asian countries and looking to further increase its emerging market footprint in vaccines, GSK could seize this opportunity to gain an entry route to the Russian market,” Kresse said.

“In addition, Abbott’s late-stage cell-based program may be interesting for GSK, which is lagging behind other flu vaccine players with regards to cell-based manufacturing.”

Another scenario, according to Kresse, could see a smaller player such as AstraZeneca or MedImmune seek to weld Abbott’s flu business to their own influenza operations, thereby increasing their critical mass and therefore competitiveness in a field dominated by very large firms.