Pasteur Acts To Resolve Financial Problems

The entire staff of the Lyons-based vaccines, diagnostics and medical biology group Institut Pasteur are being put on short-time for several months in a bid to resolve the company's financial problems. The firm's first losses of around 4.8 million French francs ($437,391) were reported as long ago as 1990, but increased to 13 million francs in 1993. The expected operating losses in 1994 will be around 19.7 million francs.

Joel Gourgand, a spokesperson for Pasteur, said that having lived off reserves, the company's own resources were now nil. The slow worsening is attributed to a fall-off in medical biology business, which accounts for 80% of Pasteur Lyon (197.8 million francs of sales in 1989, falling to 169.4 million francs this year). This sector no longer supports Pasteur's other less lucrative activities - research carried out by six units and a public health sector business, including vaccinations.

The medical biology area is now being reorganized, and a merger is in hand with the medical analysis company, Fondation Marcel Merieux, which is complementary in terms of clientele with the Lyons group. The merger will take place in the first half of 1995.