• Swindon & Wiltshire M&A, deals
• Wednesday September 18 2024
• Author Name: Peter Davison

Tobacco giant to sell Chippenham firm it bought three years ago

Tobacco giant Philip Morris is to sell Vectura Fertin Pharma, the Chippenham-based asthma inhaler maker it acquired in a £1 billion takeover in 2021.

Philip Morris International said it would be selling Vectura to electronics firm Molex Asia Holdings for £150 million – significantly less than it paid for it.

Molex operates in the automotive, data centre, industrial automation, healthcare, 5G, cloud and consumer device industries.

PMI – manufacturer of the world’s best-selling cigarette brand, Marlboro – purchased Vectura in a bid to transform itself into a “broader healthcare and wellness” group.

However, the move was met with outcry, and critics have continued to hamper its plans.

In September 2021 more than 20 UK, US and European organisations wrote to Vectura’s management urging it to reconsider the takeover on ethical and practical grounds.

Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said: “It’s unethical for a tobacco company to profit from treating diseases made far more prevalent because of its products.

“We also remain concerned that this move is part of the tobacco industry’s attempt to position itself as part of the solution to a smoke-free world, despite continuing to aggressively promote and sell lethal cigarettes globally.”

ELF, the European Lung Foundation, said: “We are very disappointed. Vectura – a company which makes products to improve the lives of people living with lung conditions – is now under the control of Philip Morris International – a company which makes products that damage the lungs and cause long-term lung conditions.”

The British Thoriac Society said: “This is inappropriate, unethical, and should have been prevented.”

Today (Tuesday) PMI said the “acquisition of Vectura has been instrumental in kick-starting Vectura Fertin Pharma’s development of inhaled therapeutics, bringing to the company specialist knowledge, technologies, and formulation science.

“However, despite the investment and commitment to developing products and therapies vital to patients, unwarranted opposition to PMI’s transformation has impacted Vectura’s scientific engagement and commercial CDMO relationships.”

Jacek Olczak, PMI’s chief executive officer, said: “In line with our ambitions, Vectura has enabled us to develop a proprietary pipeline of inhaled therapeutics, and we remain committed to driving innovation in this space over the long term.

“With its experience in pharmaceutical drug delivery devices and its global manufacturing footprint, Phillips Medisize is best placed to lead Vectura into the future—while releasing it from the unreasonable burden of external constraints and criticism related to our ownership.”