Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health is a multinational animal health company, formed in January 2017 when Merial was acquired by

Boehringer Ingelheim C.H. Boehringer Sohn AG & Co. is the parent company of the Boehringer Ingelheim group, which was founded in 1885 by Albert Boehringer in Ingelheim am Rhein, Germany. As of 2018, Boehringer Ingelheim is one of the world's largest pharmaceutical ...

and merged with Boehringer Ingelheim's existing animal health assets.

Overview

In August 1997, Merial started as a joint venture between the animal health subsidiaries of Merck & Co. (MSD AgVet) and Sanofi-Aventis (Rhône-Mérieux). Merial became the animal health division of Sanofi, when Sanofi bought out Merck's 50% share of the joint venture. On December 30, 2016 Boehringer Ingelheim completed a swap of their OTC business for Sanofi's animal health business. Merial is now owned by Boehringer Ingelheim and combined with their animal health business, Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, to form Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health. Merial produces many products and vaccines for domestic pets, farm animals and wildlife. Merial has about 6,900 employees and is present in more than 150 countries in the world. Their sales in 2015 were about €2.5 billion. Some of Merial's most popular products are Frontline, Heartgard, NexGard, Ivomec, PureVax and Previcox. In October 2009, Merial announced it was investing 70 million US$ at its poultry vaccines plant in Nanchang Hi-tech Development Zone, China. On March 9, 2010, Sanofi-Aventis announced it had exercised an option to combine Merial with Intervet/Schering Plough, the animal health business of Merck. The new joint venture would be equally owned by Merck and Sanofi-Aventis. On March 22, 2011, they announced the mutual termination of their agreement to form a new animal health joint venture.

Location

Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health's global headquarters is located in Ingelheim, Germany.

Investigations

Merial was investigated in connection with a

2007 United Kingdom foot-and-mouth outbreak The 2007 United Kingdom foot-and-mouth outbreak occurred when the discharge of infectious effluent from a laboratory in Surrey led to foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) infections at four nearby farms. The infections were detected via regular livest ...

, after a strain of

foot-and-mouth disease Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) or hoof-and-mouth disease (HMD) is an infectious and sometimes fatal viral disease that affects cloven-hoofed animals, including domestic and wild bovids. The virus causes a high fever lasting two to six days, follo ...

alleged to have been sourced from one of their research facilities was found at Pirbright, a farm in

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant ur ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, in August 2007. The investigators concluded that "release was most likely due to escape of live virus from the drainage system that connects the vaccine production plant to the

sodium hydroxide Sodium hydroxide, also known as lye and caustic soda, is an inorganic compound with the formula NaOH. It is a white solid ionic compound consisting of sodium cations and hydroxide anions . Sodium hydroxide is a highly caustic base and al ...

treatment tanks on another part of the Pirbright site." The two independent inquiries found that Merial complied with all regulations and committed no breaches of biosecurity. In 2016, the NOAH Code of Practice Committee found Merial Animal Health to be in breach of 2 out of 4 items under complaint. This related to the promotion of NexGard Spectra® to the veterinary profession by both account managers and technical teams via telephone conversations and webinars from February 2016 onwards.

References

External links

Official WebsiteMore about Merial on the Lyon Area Economic Development Agency's website
{{Atlanta companies Veterinary medicine companies Sanofi Boehringer Ingelheim Health care companies based in Georgia (US State) Companies based in Duluth, Georgia Pharmaceutical companies of the United States Pharmaceutical companies established in 1997 2017 mergers and acquisitions