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.