Sanofi and its vaccines global business unit, Sanofi Pasteur, have confirmed that they ended their vaccine joint-venture, Sanofi Pasteur MSD (SPMSD), with Merck & Co., known as MSD outside of the US and Canada, effective on January 1, 2017. The companies announced their intent to end the joint venture in March 2016.

Sanofi Pasteur and MSD will separately pursue their own vaccine strategies in Europe, integrating their respective European vaccines business into their operations. Since the termination announcement, the project has been managed with the SPMSD employees, unions, and relevant external stakeholders, in compliance with the applicable rules and regulations.

SPMSD, owned on a 50/50 basis by Sanofi Pasteur and Merck, was created in 1994 to develop and commercialize vaccines originating from both companies’ pipelines in 19 European countries. Over the past 20 years, SPMSD has launched numerous vaccines originating from Sanofi Pasteur and Merck’s development pipelines. Sales of SPMSD were EUR 824 million ($863 million) in 2015.

Source: Sanofi