Merck Animal Health / Shire Krems Austria

Shire retained PharmaBioSource, Inc. as its exclusive consultant to market and sell its 340,000-square-foot pharma / biotech manufacturing facility located in Krems, Austria. Shire — a global biotechnology company focused on rare diseases and specialized conditions across therapeutic areas including hematology, immunology, neuroscience, and lysosomal storage disorders — had acquired the Krems site as part of the 2016 Shire-Baxalta merger. As part of its manufacturing network consolidation program, Shire elected to divest the site. Located near Vienna, the utility-ready facility represented an opportunity for a strategic buyer to acquire a significant pharma / biotech manufacturing asset at a discount to replacement cost, with a substantial reduction in time to market. The scale and specialty of the site required an advisor with technical fluency and access to global life sciences operators.

PharmaBioSource engaged the pharmaceutical and biotech industry to market and sell the Krems site to a strategic acquirer. We drew on our technical expertise and extensive contacts within the life sciences industry to identify qualified potential buyers for the site.

Services provided by the PharmaBioSource team:

• Facility assessment
• Prep for sale
• Creation of introductory project teaser
• Target identification and marketing
• Creation of a site management presentation
• Support in developing a data room
• Managed confidentiality agreements
• Hosted site visits and meetings with Shire and buyer management teams
• Supported buyer due diligence
• Contract document support
• Deal structure and negotiations
• Closing support

PharmaBioSource solicited multiple offers for the Krems site and identified Merck Animal Health — the global animal health business unit of MSD, offering veterinary pharmaceuticals, vaccines, and health management solutions — as the acquirer. The transaction closed in 10 months.