The agreements were signed in summer 2018. The world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, the Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd (SII), has acquired a majority stake in Vakzine Projekt Management GmbH (VPM) in an all-cash transaction. This secures the future of the company and its projects. VPM is a spin-off of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI). Its flagship programme, the tuberculosis vaccine VPM1002, has been jointly developed with SII over the past years, with Phase II clinical trials successfully completed. SII shares the vision of all those involved to make the vaccine available to people in every sector of society all over the world at fair price. SII also intends to continue other VMP activities with the existing team in Hanover for the foreseeable future. As majority shareholder of VPM and the technology transfer partner of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI),
Ascenion has supported the HZI start-up intensively for several years and coordinated the sales process. ‘We were extremely glad to have such an experienced negotiating partner at our side,’ says Silke Tannapfel, Administrative Director of the HZI. Together, it was possible to secure the best possible future for VPM and its projects, while feeding a fair share of the sale proceeds back into basic research.
(Annual Review 2018)
