US authorities clear Sanofi takeover offer for Aventis

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2004

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US regulatory authorities conditionally agreed to accept the pending merger of French-German pharmaceutical group Aventis and its smaller French rival Sanofi-Synthelabo into the world's third-largest pharmaceutical group.

The Federal Trade Commission agreed to the merger on the condition that the two companies give up key drug patents to rivals GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer. The companies agreed to the conditions, the commission said.

The two companies agreed to sell rights to Sanofi's Arixtra factor Xa inhibitor and related assets to GlaxoSmithKline, divest to Pfizer key clinical studies for Aventis's Campto colorectal cancer treatment and sell the rights to the insomnia drug Estorra to an approved buyer.

"In a merger of this size and...