CRUCELL BUYS VACCINE MAKER BERNA FOR $449M

Crucell, the Dutch biotechnology company, agreed to buy Berna Biotech of Switzerland for SFr591m ($449m) to create one of the world's biggest independent companies focused on vaccines. By mid-morning, shares in Berna rose 13.4 per cent to SFr 14 while Crucell shares fell by 4.5 per cent to ⁈21.65. The combination of the groups will give them the scale to more effectively compete with the vaccine units of large pharmaceutical companies such as Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, and Sanofi-Aventis.
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