GSK has announced the acquisition of Swiss-based GlycoVaxyn, a specialist vaccine biopharmaceutical that was incorporated in 2004 as a spin-off from the ETH Zurich, Switzerland.
Since forming a scientific collaboration in 2012, GSK has held a minority stake in GlycoVaxyn and has now acquired the remaining shares for US $190 million in cash to take full ownership of the company.
The innovative biological conjugation platform technology developed by the Swiss company has the potential to play an important role in the development of new prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines for a range of bacterial diseases. It could also enable GSK to develop a simplified conjugate vaccine manufacturing process.
Under the terms of the transaction, GSK will additionally acquire a small number of early stage vaccines in development against bacterial infections such as pneumonia, Pseudomonas, Staphylococcus aureus and Shigellosis, supplementing the company’s existing vaccines pipeline.