Crucell

Crucell (now Janssen Vaccines, a division of Johnson & Johnson) is a pioneer in vaccine development, responsible for the first single-shot inoculation to be used in the fight against COVID-19. Initially a spin-out from Leiden University in 1993 named IntroGene, Crucell was created via a merger with U-Bisys, a Dutch antibodies developer, in 2000¹. The company listed on the Euronext in Amsterdam with venture capital backing the same year. It later went on to acquire fellow vaccine specialists including Switzerland’s Berna Biotech and Sweden’s SBL Vaccin, positioning it as one of the world’s largest vaccine developers, with efforts focused on infectious diseases including influenza, malaria and Ebola.

In 2009, J&J bought an 18% stake in the company for €302 million², forming a partnership that resulted in the discovery of an antibody predicted to neutralise close to 50% of all flu viruses. The following year, J&J agreed a $2.4 billion takeover of the remainder of the company, giving the US company a strong foothold in the global vaccines market³. In addition to its ground-breaking work on COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases, today Janssen Vaccines is working on treatments for other life-threatening viruses including Hepatitis B and HIV.