Vectura Group Limited is a British

pharmaceuticals Medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal product, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy ( pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the ...

company based in

Chippenham Chippenham is a market town in north-west Wiltshire, England. It lies north-east of Bath, Somerset, Bath, west of London and is near the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The town was established on a crossing of the River Avon, ...

, England which develops inhaled medicines and makes

inhaler An inhaler (puffer, asthma pump or allergy spray) is a medical device used for delivering medicines into the lungs through the work of a person's breathing. This allows medicines to be delivered to and absorbed in the lungs, which provides the ...

devices. It was listed on the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

until it was acquired by

Philip Morris International Philip Morris International Inc. (PMI) is a multinational tobacco company, with products sold in over 180 countries. Marlboro is PMI’s most recognized brand, but in the last quarter of 2023, Iqos generated the greatest revenue. Philip Mor ...

in September 2021. The company was purchased from Philip Morris by Molex Inc. in December 2024.

History

Vectura was formed in 1997 at the

University of Bath The University of Bath is a public research university in Bath, England. Bath received its royal charter in 1966 as Bath University of Technology, along with a number of other institutions following the Robbins Report. Like the University ...

as a start-up pharmaceuticals business. In 1999 it acquired Co-ordinated Drug Development and the Centre for Drug Formulation Studies. The company moved from the university campus to a site at

, Wiltshire in 2002. In 2004 it was listed on the

Alternative Investment Market AIM (formerly the Alternative Investment Market) is a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange that was launched on 19 June 1995 as a replacement to the previous Unlisted Securities Market, Unlisted Securities Market (USM) that had been in opera ...

. In 2006, Vectura acquired Innovata Biomed plc, another developer of

pulmonary The lungs are the primary organs of the respiratory system in many animals, including humans. In mammals and most other tetrapods, two lungs are located near the backbone on either side of the heart. Their function in the respiratory syste ...

products, and then moved onto the full list of the London Stock Exchange. It acquired Activaero, a German manufacturer in the same sector, for £108million in March 2014. In June 2016, Vectura completed a £441million merger with Skyepharma, a maker of devices such as asthma inhalers; it was stated that the merged company would continue to be known as Vectura. The former Skyepharma manufacturing plant at

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

, France, makes various oral products including tablets. After Vectura decided to concentrate on inhaled products, in June 2021 the company supported a buy-out of the site by its management, with finance from

Bpifrance Bpifrance also known as the ''Banque publique d'investissement'' () is a French public sector investment bank. It is a joint venture of two state owned enterprises: the Caisse des dépôts et consignations and EPIC Bpifrance Group (formerly EPI ...

. In July 2021, American tobacco company

made an offer to buy Vectura Group for £1 billion.

The Carlyle Group The Carlyle Group Inc. is an American multinational company with operations in private equity, alternative asset management and financial services. As of 2023, the company had $426 billion of assets under management. Carlyle specializes in ...

, an American private equity firm, also submitted an offer which was £44m lower. The board subsequently accepted the offer from Philip Morris International and, in September, it confirmed that circa 75% of shareholders had supported the takeover. The takeover by Philip Morris was widely condemned. In December 2024, three months after an agreement between the parties was announced, Vectura was acquired by the American manufacturing company

Molex Molex LLC is a manufacturer of electronic, electrical, and fiber optic connectivity systems. Molex produces over 100,000 products for a variety of industries, including data communications, medical, industrial, automotive and consumer electronic ...

(a subsidiary of Koch, Inc.).

Operations

Vectura is a developer of inhaled therapies for the treatment of

respiratory disease Respiratory diseases, or lung diseases, are pathological conditions affecting the organs and tissues that make gas exchange difficult in air-breathing animals. They include conditions of the respiratory tract including the trachea, bronchi, ...

s. Since 2019, it has operated as a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), helping other companies bring inhaled medicines to market. The headquarters and development facility at

, England, on a mixed industrial site on the outskirts of the town, employed around 250 . There are also development sites at

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

Muttenz Muttenz is a municipality with a population of approximately 17,000 in the canton of Basel-Country in Switzerland. It is located in the district of Arlesheim and next to the city of Basel. History Under the Roman Empire a hamlet called Montet ...

(Basel, Switzerland) and

Gauting Gauting is a Municipalities of Germany, municipality in the Starnberg (district), district of Starnberg, in Bavaria, Germany with a population of more than 20,000 inhabitants. It is situated on the river Würm (Amper), Würm, southwest of Munich ...

(Germany). There are plans for a new research & development building at the Bristol and Bath Science Park, not far from Chippenham, which could open in 2025.

References

External links

* {{Philip Morris International British companies established in 1997 British subsidiaries of foreign companies Chippenham Companies based in Wiltshire Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange Pharmaceutical companies established in 1997 Pharmaceutical companies of England Philip Morris International 2021 mergers and acquisitions 2024 mergers and acquisitions Contract development and manufacturing organizations