Business Development Asia LLC announced that its client, Pfizer Inc, the global pharmaceutical company, has sold its market-leading swine vaccine business in China to an animal health subsidiary of Harbin Pharmaceutical Group, Harbin Bio-Vaccine.

This divestment was required by the Anti-Trust Bureau of China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) as a condition for its approval of the US$ 68 billion Pfizer/Wyeth merger that closed in October 2009. It was the first time that a business in China has been sold as a consequence of Chinese competition authorities’ review of a global merger following the new Anti-Monopoly Law of August 2008.

The transaction had to be executed within a pre-determined statutory limit of six months, failing which an independent trustee appointed by the ministry would have effected the sale.

The assets sold comprised all those required to continue the manufacture and sale of Pfizer’s RespiSure and RespiSure-One swine mycoplasma hyopneumoniae (MH) vaccines in China. The MH strain of swine pneumonia causes lung lesions leading to weight loss in adult pigs - a particular concern in China which has the world’s largest national swine herd, estimated at over 500 million.

Per the conditions of the divestment, Pfizer is providing technical assistance to the buyer in connection with the procurement of the raw materials for the production of the vaccines as well as training and consulting services to the relevant personnel.

BDA worked with Pfizer’s legal advisers Clifford Chance and King & Wood during the mandate. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Pfizer is a research-based, global biopharmaceutical company. Pfizer’s diversified global health care portfolio includes human and animal biologic and small molecule medicines and vaccines, as well as nutritional products and many of the world’s best-known consumer health care products.

Harbin Pharmaceutical Group Holding Co Ltd, based in Harbin, China, is a leading domestic pharmaceutical company in China. The Company is a manufacturer and distributor of generic antibiotics drugs and one of the best-known branded marketers of over-the-counter and nutritional supplement products in China.

Business Development Asia LLC assists multinational corporate and financial sector clients to identify and execute acquisitions, disinvestments, JVs, restructuring and capital raising, in Asia and internationally.