The joint-venture company, to be owned 51 per cent by Chiron and 49 per cent by Hoechst Marion Roussel, will initially manufacture the anti-rabies vaccine, Rabipur. The joint venture has purchased Hoechst Marion Roussel's existing cell culture rabies manufacturing facility at Ankleshwar in Gujarat which uses Chiron Behring's technology.

According to a release, Hoechst Marion Roussel will market the joint venture's products in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, while Chiron will handle the marketing in the rest of the world. Hoechst Marion Roussel will also market certain other vaccines including those for hepatitis A, hemophilus influenza type B and measles/mumps/rubella, made at Chiron's facilities in Germany and Italy.

Hoechst Marion Roussel's investment in the new company is notexpected to exceed Rs 10 crore and shareholders have already cleared the joint venture proposal. Chiron had earlier entered into an alliance with Behringwerke AG, a Hoechst AG subsidiary, for research and manufacture of adult and paediatric vaccines.

The Ankleshwar unit's hiving off will entail a mutually agreed consideration. The consideration may be received either in cash or by way of allotment of shares in the new company or a combination of both.

Chiron Vaccines and Chiron Therapeutics president Magnus Lundberg said this venture was a meaningful step in further establishing Chiron's presence in the international vaccines market and would expand the company's reach in the important Asian markets.

Hoechst Marion Roussel managing director D Bhadury said the venture offered a win-win situation for both partners. "Though vaccines is generally not the easiest of markets to operate in, nevertheless in India, it offers excellent potential."

Hoechst Marion Roussel had, in 1996, expanded the capacity ofits Rabipur plant at Ankleshwar from about 1.8 million doses to three million doses.In fact, provision had been made to further enhance the anti-rabies vaccine capacity by installing balancing equipment without undergoing any major structural changes.

Hoechst Marion Roussel, which commands a 70 per cent share in the anti-rabies market in India, has also created a cold-chain network for the Rabipur vaccine. This will ensure the safe and effective distribution of other Chiron vaccines to be introduced here. Chiron Corporation, headquartered in Emeryville, California, is a leading biotechnology company and participates in three global healthcare markets: diagnostics, vaccine and therapeutics. The company also conducts R&D in biological proteins, gene therapy and combinatorial chemistry.