Zoetis has announced an agreement to purchase pharmaceutical company PHARMAQ for US$765m on a debt free basis.
The acquisition will strengthen Zoetis' livestock business within vaccines and pharmaceuticals for farmed fish, which is the fastest growing segment in the animal health industry.
“This acquisition is a great strategic fit that brings to Zoetis an animal health leader with similar competitive advantages, strong customer relationships and world-class innovation and manufacturing,” said Juan Ramon Alaix, CEO of Zoetis.
He added: “PHARMAQ strengthens our core livestock business by providing market leadership in aquatic health and a strong late-stage pipeline in the world’s largest category of protein and fastest growing animal health market.”
Zoetis is a leading animal health company that discovers, develops, manufactures and markets veterinary vaccines and medicines. It generates an annual revenue of $4.5bn and has 10,000 employees worldwide.
Norwegian PHARMAQ is a market leader in sales of vaccines for farmed fish and generated revenues of approximately $80m in 2014. It has 2000 employees with subsidiaries in Chile, the UK, Vietnam, Spain, Turkey, Panama and Hong Kong.
“By combining our experience and R&D capabilities, we believe we can optimise our industry-leading ability to develop vaccines and medicines for farmed fish,” said Morten Nordstad, CEO of PHARMAQ.
He concluded: “With Zoetis’ global footprint, we can deliver greater value to more customers around the world and accelerate our geographic expansion plans.”
