OREANDA-NEWS. March 02, 2012. GSK Japan and Daiichi Sankyo announce that GSK Biologicals, GSK Japan and Daiichi Sankyo have agreed to enter into a strategic alliance in vaccines business and will form a Vaccine Joint Venture in Japan. Joint Venture will be named Japan Vaccine Co., Ltd. (hereinafter, JV) GSK and Daiichi Sankyo will invest equally to JV.

1. Background and Significance

Recently due to the progress of science and medicine, efforts towards disease prevention are increasing significantly. In Japan however, many vaccines which have effectively contributed to diseases prevention in other advanced countries are not used. To improve the situation, the Vaccine Industry Vision proposed by MHLW in March 2007 talks about the need to strengthen the vaccine industry and in recent years many new vaccines are being introduced showing substantial change in the environment for vaccines.

 Under such environment, it has been decided to create a new vaccine company combining the strength of both partners, namely GSK, with its extensive global development know-how, rich pipeline, most advanced technology and recent contributions to the Japanese vaccine market environment, coupled with Daiichi Sankyo's development know-how in Japan, domestic production capability, and the domestic experience of sales and logistics, to meet the medical needs of society by delivering vaccines quickly. JV will be responsible for late stage development, marketing and sales of prophylactic vaccines and will aim to protect Japanese people of all ages from children to the elderly from infections.

Specifically;

Contribute to improving access to vaccines in Japan.

Introduce new vaccines for which vaccination is recommended overseas and increase product line-up.

Create better, more convenient combination vaccines by bringing together the technologies and products of parent companies.

Provide evidence based information and ensure stable supply of vaccines to realize wide distribution and high vaccination rate.

 2. Outline of JV

JV will inherit the development and commercial rights for prophylactic vaccines from both parent companies and will be responsible for clinical development, marketing and sales in Japan. At start up, JV will market vaccines marketed by GSK and Daiichi Sankyo and expand the business as new vaccines in the development pipeline are approved.


3. About GSK

GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals - (GSK Biologicals), GlaxoSmithKlineЃfs vaccines business, is one of the worldЃfs leading vaccine companies and a leader in innovation. The company is active in vaccine research, development and production with over 30 vaccines approved for marketing and 20 more in development - both in the prophylactic and therapeutic fields. Headquartered in Belgium, GSK Biologicals has 14 manufacturing sites strategically positioned around the globe. In 2010, GSK Biologicals distributed 1.43 billion doses of vaccines to 179 countries in both the developed and the developing world.