The call sealed a 5-billion franc (U.S. $800 million) deal in which Merieux won out over a competing bid from Ciba-Geigy, the Swiss pharmaceutical giant, and its U.S. partner, Chiron Corp. The acquisition puts it on the road to becoming the undisputed leader in a $1 billion global vaccine market. It's the latest evidence that the family-run but government-controlled enterprise, founded in 1897, is ready to shed its low profile and challenge the big boys in the biological sciences.
"Everybody knows that 1989 was the bicentennial of the French Revolution," says Alain Merieux, chairman and CEO of the company. "But it was also the year of revolution for Institut Merieux."
Those words are unusually strong for the soft-spoken pharmacist and Harvard business school graduate, whose grandfather, Marcel Merieux, founded the company 93 years ago. But they are no overstatement: Last year was, indeed, a very active one for Merieux. Along ...
