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News
Biomune Company Acquired by CEVA Animal Health
Lenexa, KS - CEVA Animal Health, with international headquarters in
Libourne, France, has announced the acquisition of Biomune Company, a
Lenexa, Kansas-based veterinary biological manufacturer. Formerly owned
by Zeon Corporation and by its founders and directors Mr. Ron Plylar
and Dr. Joan Leonard, Biomune boasts a portfolio of highly innovative
products currently on the market or in development. The Biomune range
provides a perfect fit strategically with that of CEVA Animal Health,
especially in the field of recombinant vaccines produced by genetic engineering.
Synergies are already being realized between Biomune and CEVA Animal
Health.
Formerly the veterinary division of Sanofi, the CEVA Group has been
expanding its international presence since 1999. In 2003, the European
investment fund Industri Kapital purchased the CEVA Group and facilitated
external growth of the company by acquisitions in Mexico, Denmark, Turkey,
and now, in the United States.
Biomune Company manufactures and markets
a highly innovative range of poultry and livestock vaccines and bacterins
in the U.S. as well as internationally. Biomune’s founders, Mr. Plylar
and Dr. Leonard, will continue their key management roles in Biomune under
the new CEVA Group ownership. Zeon Corporation will continue its association
with CEVA in recombinant vaccine research.
North America represents approximately
40% of the world animal health market. The CEVA Group currently has North
American operations via product distribution licenses with key American
distributors who handle the CEVA product range of companion animal products.
With the acquisition of Biomune Company, the CEVA Group gains important
strategic access to the U.S. animal health market.
“What convinced us first of all was the high quality of Biomune’s
human resources and its two founders in particular,” according
to CEVA Group CEO Philippe du Mesnil. “In addition, there was the
company’s dual expertise in conventional and recombinant vaccines,
the latter developed through research conducted with Zeon Corporation”,
he continued. “Today, the CEVA Group has the human resources it
needs to continue the success of an operation which has received the
wholehearted support of the Group’s majority shareholder, Industri
Kapital”.
“We are very pleased to be joining the CEVA Animal Health group
and look forward to expanding our service, research and product offerings
to our U.S. and International customer base,” according to Mr.
Plylar, Biomune President. “We will continue the high level of
service, innovation and product quality our customers have come to expect
from Biomune and feel this move greatly strengthens our group”.
With
this acquisition, CEVA Animal Health further expands its international
coverage and establishes a strategic presence in the important U.S. market.
CEVA Animal Health is a veterinary pharmaceutical laboratory which encompasses
all aspects of the animal health business, from development of the products
all the way through to their sale in most countries worldwide.
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June 23, 2005
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