RHONE-POULENC RORER THREATENS CPF TAKEOVER

The Franco-American Rhone-Poulenc Rorer group wants to undertake its own distribution of the best-selling analgesic Doliprane (paracetamol) in France, handled for the last 15 years by the wholesaler cooperative Cooperation Pharmaceutique Francaise. Negotiations are in hand with CPF but R-PR has made it clear that if its request is blocked, it may well launch a takeover bid for the wholesaler.

Volume sales of the drug are around 70 million packs a year, generating sales of some 500 million francs ($83.8 million). The link with CPF is renegotiated every three years and, according to drug industry observers in Paris, for CPF to lose this drug could mean the payment by R-PR of 300-400 million francs in compensation.

A spokesman for R-PR confirmed that the group was interested in CPF but added that nothing had yet been decided on either the retrieval of Doliprane or a purchase offer for CPF. Some commentators say that R-PR is interested in Doliprane once more because of the constraints on sales of prescription drugs in the cost-cutting climate in France.