Sanofi slumps on US criminal probe into generics deal

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2006

PARIS (AFP) — Shares in Sanofi-Aventis fell sharply on news that a deal it struck to keep a cheaper generic version of its blockbuster drug Plavix off the market was the subject of a US criminal investigation.

Shares in Sanofi, a heavyweight on the Paris market, plunged by 3.88 percent to 75.70 euros, while the CAC-40 index of leading shares had gained 1.18 percent.

In a draft deal announced in March, Sanofi and Bristol-Myers Squibb -- which co-produces Plavix -- offered Canadian firm Apotex money to stop it launching a copycat version of the blood clot medicine before 2011.

Sanofi said on Thursday that it "learned yesterday that the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) is conducting a criminal investigation" regarding the...