R-PR Has Sought To Take Advantage, Says Fisons

In its defence document against the proposed 240 pence ($3.72) per share offer from Franco-American drug group Rhone-Poulenc Rorer (Marketletter September 4), UK-based Fisons contends that "the very considerable value within Fisons" has not been recognized. Moreover, it says, shortly to be published interim results will provide evidence of the progress which has been made within the business this year.

Fisons' chief executive, Stuart Wallis, stated: "we believe that R-PR has sought to take advantage" at a "time when it knows more about the value in Fisons that the shareholders do, due to the extensive privileged access they have had over the past two and a half years." Under a confidentiality agreement signed in February 1993, R-PR has had access to Fisons' technology.

Mr Wallis, who joined troubled Fisons just a year ago (and recently told the London Evening Standard that "being an outsider who would not know a monoclonal antibody from a tin of baked beans, has its advantages"), added that "R-PR must also know it cannot succeed in becoming a major force in the asthma market without Fisons' delivery technology, global sales and marketing infrastructure and proven products." Moreover, he said, "the ingredients of success are present within Fisons as an independent company, and we are well positioned to develop the business further for the advantage of shareholders."