BASF To Get Boots Pharmaceuticals

The supervisory council of the major German chemicals and pharmaceuticals group, BASF, has endorsed the takeover by the group of the UK drugmaker Boots Pharmaceuticals (Marketletter November 21, 1994). The negotiations with The Boots Company are expected to be concluded within the first quarter of 1995.

The acquisition of Boots Pharmaceuticals and its merging with BASF's own pharmaceutical-producing arm, Knoll AG, is described by the head of the group's pharmaceutical division and chairman of Knoll, Thorlef Spickschen, in a letter to the workforce as "a decisive strategic step in the right direction."

Dr Spickschen says that while expansion and consolidation of the ethical pharmaceutical business was a crucial long-term investment in the future, BASF Pharma would continue to push ahead on other strategic fronts such as expansion of the generics business, further development of extrusion technology, and expansion of the pharmaceutical chemicals sector.