Schering-Plough completes Organon BioSciences acquisition

US-based pharmaceutical company Schering-Plough (S-P) has completed the acquisition of Dutch biotech Organon BioSciences (OBS).

S-P's agreement to acquire OBS was announced back in March 2007. The US company paid approximately EUR 11bn in cash for the company, which used to be a subsidiary of Dutch chemicals giant, Akzo Nobel.

OBS is comprised of the pharmaceutical company Organon and the animal health business Intervet. It also includes Nobilon, a human vaccine development unit, and Diosynth, a third-party manufacturing unit of Organon.

Along with the acquisition S-P's gains the following OBS products: fertility treatment Follistim/Puregon, the muscle relaxant Zemuron/ Esmeron and the contraceptive implant Nuvaring/ Implanon.

For the animal health business, S-P gains the following vaccines for major animal species: Vista/Bovilis, a vaccine line for respiratory and reproductive infectious diseases in cattle; the poultry vaccine Nobilis; and Continuum/ Nobivac, a range of canine and feline vaccines. S-P will also gain the antiparasitic Safe-Guard/Panacur, the anti-infective COBACTAN, which is a broad-spectrum antibiotic for livestock species and horses, as well as the canine/ feline antidiabetes products Vetsulin/Caninsulin. S-P already has the animal health service, Homeagain, a US-based pet recovery network.

The CEO of S-P, Fred Hassan, said: "With Organon, we expand into two important prescription pharmaceutical franchises, women's health and central nervous system. These therapeutic areas add to our existing strengths in cardiovascular care, respiratory, immunology and oncology."

"We [also] increase our scale in Animal Health. This greatly increases the value we will bring to customers. We see this strong combined Animal Health unit as a key strategic part of our integrated business that will contribute to long-term high performance," concluded Hassan.