Sanofi-Aventis

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Sanofi-aventis (Euronext: [SAN], NYSE: [SNY]), headquartered in Paris, France, is the world's sixth largest company in the pharmaceutical industry (behind Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, and AstraZeneca, but above Novartis. Sanofi-aventis engages in the research, development, manufacturing and marketing of pharmaceutical products for sale principally in the prescription market. Sanofi-aventis covers 7 therapeutic areas: cardiovascular, thrombosis, oncology, diabetes, central nervous system, internal medicine and vaccines.

Contents

1 History

1.1 Sanofi-aventis
1.2 Sanofi-synthélabo
1.3 Aventis

2 Business

2.1 Management
2.2 Stockholders
2.3 Earnings

3 Aventis Foundation
4 Company profiles
5 External links

History

Sanofi-aventis

Sanofi-aventis was formed in 2004 when Sanofi-Synthélabo merged with Aventis. In early 2004, Sanofi-Synthélabo made a hostile takeover bid worth €47.8 bn against Aventis. Initially, Aventis rejected the bid because it offered inferior value based on the company's share value. The three-month takeover battle concluded when Sanofi-Synthélabo launched a friendly bid of €54.5 bn in place of the previously rejected hostile bid. Government intervention also played an active role. French government, desiring a local merger solution, put heavy pressure on Sanofi-Synthélabo to raise its bid for Aventis after it became known that Novartis, a Swiss pharmaceutical company, was in the running.

Sanofi-synthélabo

Sanofi-synthélabo was formed in 1999 when Sanofi merged with Synthélabo. The merged company was based in Paris, France.

Aventis

Aventis was formed in 1999 when Rhône-Poulenc S.A. merged with Hoechst Marion Roussel, which itself was formed from the merger of Hoechst AG with Roussel Uclaf and Marion Merrell Dow. The merged company was based in Strasbourg, France.

Business

Management

Jean-François Dehecq, Chairman and CEO
Gérard Le Fur, Senior EVP

Dehecq has been the General Manager of Sanofi since its creation in 1973.

Stockholders

Breakdown of share ownership: 12.65% by Total, 10.13% by L'Oréal, 5.47% treasury shares, 1.29% employees, the remaining 70.46% are publicly traded.
Voting right distribution: 21.37% to Total, 17.12% to L'Oréal, 1.54% to employees, and 59.97% to the public.

Earnings

In 2003, sanofi-aventis's consolidated sales was €25 bn. It has operations in more than 100 countries throughout the 5 continents and has 99,700 employees worldwide. Research and development investment was €4 bn.

Sales by activity breakdown: 39% from Cardiovascular/Thrombosis, 29% from Central Nervous System, 18% from Internal Medicine, 11% from Oncology, 3% from other pharmaceutical products.
Sales by geographic area breakdown: 58% from Europe, 24% from U.S., 18% from rest of the world.

Aventis Foundation

The Aventis Prizes for Science Books, which celebrate the very best in popular science writing for adults and children, have grown to be one of the world's most prestigious non-fiction literary prizes.

The Aventis Prizes are managed by the Royal Society, the UK national academy of science, and the Aventis Foundation, a German charitable trust established in 1996 as the Hoechst Foundation with an endowment of €50 million. In 2000 the foundation was renamed the Aventis Foundation subsequent to the 1999 merger of Hoechst and Rhône-Poulenc.

Company profiles

[Yahoo! - sanofi-aventis Company Profile]

External links

CAC 40 companies of France

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