merial industry animal healthcare founded august 1 1997 headquarters lyon france revenue 2.5 billion 2015 number of employees 6 900 parent sanofi website www.merial.com merial is a multinational animal health company . in june 2016 the sanofi announced it had struck an asset swap deal with boehringer ingelheim sanofi would sell merial valuing it at 11.4 billion whilst acquiring boehringer s consumer health division valuing it at 6.7 billion and 4.7 billion in cash . 1 contents 1 overview 2 investigations 3 references 4 external links overview edit in august 1997 merial started as a joint venture between the animal health subsidiaries of merck & co. msd agvet and sanofi aventis rh ne m rieux . merial is now the animal health subsidiary of sanofi formerly known as sanofi aventis . 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 . 2 their sales in 2015 were about 2.5 billion . 3 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 4 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 . merial s global headquarters is located at lyon france since 2011 5 after having been located at duluth georgia . investigations edit merial was investigated in connection with a 2007 united kingdom foot and mouth outbreak after a strain of foot and mouth disease alleged to have been sourced from one of their research facilities was found at pirbright a farm in surrey england in august 2007 . 6 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 treatment tanks on another part of the pirbright site . 7 the two independent inquiries found that merial complied with all regulations and committed no breaches of biosecurity . references edit aiming for top dog status sanofi and boehringer swap animal and consumer health units fiercepharma . company merial . merial.com . retrieved 2015 11 03 . sanofi key facts & figures . en.sanofi.com . retrieved 2015 11 03 . sanofi aventis and merck to create a global leader in animal health pdf . march 8 2010 . retrieved november 3 2015 . sanofi has chosen the city of lyon to establish the global headquarters of merial its animal health division . initial report on potential breaches to biosecurity at the pirbright site 2007 . uk health and safety executive . may 12 2008 . retrieved 2009 04 22 . national emergency epidemiology group 29 august 2007 . fmd in surrey uk 2007 epidemiology report on the probable release of fmd virus at the pirbright site and the transmission of infection to the first infected cattle herd from investigations up to 29 august 2007 day 26 pdf . uk department for environment food and rural affairs defra . retrieved 2009 04 22 . external links edit official website more about merial on the lyon area economic development agency s website this united states corporation or company article is a stub . you can help wikipedia by expanding it . v t e retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title merial & oldid 731625279 categories veterinary medicine companiescompanies based in duluth georgiaunited states company stubshidden categories all stub articles navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages deutschfran aisportugu s edit links this page was last modified on 26 july 2016 at 14 39 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view