Merial Joins Intervet/Schering-Plough Joint Venture
Date of publication: April 9, 2010
A new global player in the animal health sector has been created as a result of Sanofi-Aventis exercising its option from a deal announced back in September 2009.
As a result, a newly formed joint venture was formed between Merial and Intervet in a deal resulting in payments of $1 billion from Sanofi-Aventis to Merck.
The deal came about as a result of the acquisition of Schering-Plough by Merck & Co. in a $41 billion deal in March 2009, where Merck was required by competition regulatory bodies to off-load some of its assets in order to reduce its overall market position. Read full details of Merck & Co. from the past five years in our downloadable report
originally, Merck planned to sell its animal health division to Sanofi-Aventis. The deal has now evolved into a 50/50 joint venture, enabling merck to retain a toe-hold in the animal care market, whilst meeting its obligations to the competition authorities.
The parties are now seeking to sell numerous animal health assets as they await regulatory approval of the joint venture. See this partnership on our Partnering Scorecard
Steve Poile
April 2010