-Caveat Lector- CNI News---04/Nov/99 11:10 Roche pays $632m in vitamin price-fixing suit LONDON (CNI)--Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche is to pay $632m (Euro601m) to vitamin purchasers in the US as part of a $1.05bn price-fixing settlement which includes six other companies who were involved in antitrust investigations in the bulk vitamins industry, CNI was informed on Thursday. The settlement was signed on Wednesday by Roche, Germany's BASF and Hoechst, France's Rhone-Poulenc (R-P) and Japanese firms Eisai, Daiichi Pharmaceutical and Takeda Chemical Industries. The companies will also pay legal fees of some $122m, raising their total payment to $1.17bn. BASF will contribute $287m, R-P will pay $86.8m and Hoechst will contribute just $2m. Eisai is reported to have agreed to pay up to $44.97m, and Daiichi and Takeda are reported to have agreed to pay up to a combined $124.8m. The settlement will require the approval of a US federal judge. The lawsuits stem from a US Department of Justice investigation of the vitamin industry, in which most of the companies pleaded guilty to price-fixing and agreed to pay substantial fines. R-P was not charged because it co-operated with the government. A spokeswoman for Hoechst's pharmaceutical unit Hoechst Marion Roussel (HMR) told CNI its price-fixing charges relate to vitamin B12, which was sold in the US prior to the merger that created HMR. Total sales of the product were $16.5m within the designated period 1990-1998. R-P said the costs of the settlement have been accounted for as part of a non-recurring charge of about Euro100m that the group took in Q2-1999 for litigation related to animal vitamins. Roche said in its nine-months figures that it made the necessary provisions for the cost of the settlement in its half year accounts. DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
