Announced Actions for November 27, 2001

Petition to reopen and modify Commission order:

The Commission has received a petition to reopen and modify a final FTC order. Through this petition, Aventis S.A. (formerly Hoechst AG and Rhone-Poulenc S.A.) has requested that the Commission reopen the final order in FTC Docket No. C-3919, finalized on January 20, 2000, concerning Rhone-Poulenc S.A's acquisition of Hoechst AG. That order required the successor entity, Aventis S.A., to divest its newly developed anti-coagulant drug, Revasc, within six months of the order. As Aventis did not comply with this requirement, under the terms of the order, it was required to divest its established product Refludan instead of Revasc. In a letter dated September 26, 2001, the Commission approved a divestiture of Refludan assets to Schering AG, pursuant to an application filed by the trustee appointed by the Commission to divest the Refludan assets. In that letter, the Commission noted that the divestiture to Schering "did not include all of the assets that are required to be divested by the Order."

As detailed in the petition, Aventis has requested that the Commission modify the final order so that its terms conform to the divestiture approved by the Commission and specify that it may: 1) retain its manufacturing facility in Romainville, France - specifically, the portion of the facility where the active ingredient of Refludan is manufactured - in exchange for a manufacturing and supply agreement with the purchaser that is broader than that required by the order; 2) receive from the purchaser a license to use certain intellectual property that must be divested to the purchaser pursuant to the order, for applications unrelated to the relevant markets defined in the order; and 3) retain title to certain intellectual property, but grant exclusive rights to Schering for all applications relevant to Refludan.

The Commission is accepting comments on the petition until December 17, 2001, after which it will vote on whether to approve it. Comments should be sent to: FTC Office of the Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580. (Docket No. C-3919; staff contact is Daniel P. Ducore, 202-326-2526; see press releases dated December 7, 1999; August 17, 2001; August 25, 2001; and September 28, 2001.)

Consent agreement given final approval:

Following a public comment period, the Commission has finalized a consent order regarding the following: FanBuzz, Inc. The vote to approve the final consent agreement was 5-0. (FTC File No. 012-3151; staff contact is Carol J. Jennings, Bureau of Consumer Protection, 202-326-3010; see press release dated October 11, 2001.)

Copies of the documents mentioned in this release are available from the FTC's Web site at http://www.ftc.gov and also from the FTC's Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580.