R-PR's Share Price

Franco-American pharmaceutical company Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, which is a subsidiary of the French chemical firm Rhone-Poulenc, has had a disappointing share price performance compared with the US pharmaceutical sector and a sample of French groups.

Analysts at Paribas Capital Markets say that the firm's share price is particularly disappointing given the trend in the US pharmaceutical sector, which has seen a 60% rise in the Standard & Poor's Pharmaceuticals Index over the last 12 months compared with 30% for R-PR. This, they say, reflects investor uncertainty.

The company was adversely affected by a US Food and Drug Administration advisory committee decision on Taxotere (docetaxel) a year ago, and a number of corporate deals carried out in the first half of the year has distorted any comparison of accounts, say the analysts.