Dutch vaccine developer Intravacc becomes public shareholding company effective 1st January 2021
Bilthoven, The Netherlands, 22 December 2020 – Intravacc, one of the leading translational research and development vaccine institutes with an extensive track record in developing infectious diseases vaccines, today announced that it will become a Public Shareholding Company with limited liability (B.V.) as of January 1st, 2021. The Dutch State will be the sole shareholder. Until now, Intravacc has been a separate entity under the responsibility of the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport.
As a result of this privatization process, all assets, employees, intellectual property, and contracts and agreements will be transferred to the new entity on January 1st, 2021, to ensure a smooth transition of operations and to avoid disruptions to current customers and suppliers.
In May 2018, the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (MoH) announced the launch of the privatization process of Intravacc’s operations. In preparation for this, Intravacc B.V. was established in February 2019. In May 2020 Intravacc announced the appointment of Dr. Jan Groen as CEO in order to prepare the organization for the privatization and to restructure Intravacc into a commercial stage Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO)
With the operationalization of the Public Shareholding Company on January 1st, 2021, the Dutch State will be a 100% shareholder of Intravacc B.V. Intravacc joins a list of 31 public shareholding companies partly or fully owned by the Dutch government.
Nico Oudendijk, General Director representing the Minister of Public Health, Welfare and Sports, says:
“Intravacc becoming a public shareholding company combines the best of both worlds. Intravacc obtains the freedom to pursue a more commercial future and at the same time, the Dutch public interest is safeguarded. The current Covid-19 pandemic has shown the importance of vaccine development know-how, and Intravacc’s track record in this field is impressive.”
Over the coming 5 years the company will continue working on vaccine development projects for the Dutch government. In addition, Intravacc is expanding its business development team in order to increase revenue through contracts with commercial entities, including biotech and pharma companies. The company also started developing its own vaccine concepts for various human diseases. These vaccine candidates, among which four Covid-19 vaccines, are brought into clinical phase I and/or II and are open for licensing to third parties.
Dr. Jan Groen, Intravacc’s CEO, says:
“We aspire to be one of the few full service CDMO’s in the world, specialized in vaccine contract development and manufacturing, and continue to move forward with our mission and vision to globally reduce disease burden through innovative vaccines. Recently Intravacc has significantly increased its market visibility through media communication, rebranding and a new website. Intravacc’s dedicated and highly experienced staff form the strong fundament on which the company will further build towards playing a true leading role in worldwide vaccine development!”
