BioWorld International Correspondent

Crucell NV paid Acambis plc $16.5 million in cash to gain ownership of Berna Products Corp., which holds U.S. marketing rights to an oral typhoid fever vaccine called Vivotif.

Coral Gable, Fla.-based Berna Products was established in 1990 by Berna Biotech AG, the Basel, Switzerland-based firm that Crucell acquired in February in a stock-based deal originally valued at about $449 million. (See BioWorld International, Dec. 7, 2005.)

The company became an independent entity via a management buyout in 2001, before being picked up two years later by Cambridge, UK-based Acambis for $8.4 million in cash, plus up to $3.75 million in sales-related milestones. (See BioWorld International, Sept. 3, 2003.)

Berna Products logged an operating profit of $5.3 million last year, on sales of $12.9 million. That performance was helped by the absence of a competitor product from the market. Crucell, of Leiden, the Netherlands, said Vivotif has so far this year retained part of that additional market share.

"In the near term, I think it's quite important for the bottom line," Marcel Wijma, analyst at SNS Securities, of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, told BioWorld International. "They are aiming to become cash break-even next year. The purchase of Berna Products in the U.S. will contribute to this goal definitely."

Acambis said Berna Products was no longer a strategic asset. It had planned to market the yellow fever vaccine, Arilvax, owned by Emeryville, Calif-based Chiron Corp., through the organization, as well, but that plan never came to fruition. Last month, Acambis received $19 million from Chiron's owner, Basel, Switzerland-based Novartis AG, to settle the dispute.

Berna Products now will assume the role of Crucell's sales force in the U.S. and will be responsible for U.S. commercialization of Crucell's pipeline of vaccine candidates, including its own yellow fever vaccine, a hepatitis A vaccine and an influenza vaccine, Wijma said.

Crucell edged downward from Friday's close of 18.89 (US$24.05) to close at 18.68 Monday.

Wijma said the fall was due to the company's disclosure of revised cash burn estimates for 2006 in an analyst meeting, even though that information had been communicated previously. He has a buy recommendation on the stock, with a target price of 30.

"The near-term driver is, of course, the approval they got from the WHO for quinvaxem," he said. The latter is a pentavalent pediatric vaccine that offers protection against five infections: diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B, and hemophilus influenzae b, which causes bacterial meningitis.

"It was very important to get this approval because now they can participate in the tenders Unicef and PAHO are opening at the end of October," Wijma said. London-based GlaxoSmithKline plc is the only other producer of a pentavalent vaccine and current demand of 50 million doses - at around $4 per dose - is expected to rise to 150 million to 200 million doses in the near term.