Announced Actions for August 2, 2002

The Commission has received an application for approval of a proposed divestiture concerning its April 15, 2002, consent agreement with Biovail Corporation (Biovail). Under the terms of the proposed order, Biovail is required to "divest absolutely, in good faith, and only in a manner that receives prior approval of the Commission," all exclusive licenses to U.S. Patent No. 6,162,463 in the Tiazac field. Tiazac is an extended release formulation of the drug diltiazem. Through this application, Biovail has requested FTC approval of a July 19, 2002, amendment to a previous agreement between Biovail and DOV Pharmaceuticals (DOV). The amendment would return to DOV the exclusive license to U.S. Patent No. 6,162,463 in the Tiazac Field.

The Commission is accepting public comments on the application until September 2, 2002. Comments should be sent to: Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580. (FTC File No. 011-0094; staff contact is Elizabeth A. Piotrowski, Bureau of Competition, 202-326-2623; see press release dated April 23, 2002.)

Publication of Federal Register notice:

The Commission has approved revised draft final Guidelines for Ensuring and Maximizing the Quality, Objectivity, Utility, and Integrity of Information Disseminated by the FTC. The Commission's Chief Information Officer has submitted the guidelines, now available on the FTC's Web site, to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in accordance with section 515 of the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2001, Pub. L. No. 106-554. The FTC's guidelines contain detailed information on: 1) their purpose; 2) the FTC's role in public information dissemination; 3) the FTC's commitment to quality information dissemination; 4) information quality principles; 5) guidelines-related definitions; 6) pre-dissemination information quality review; 7) the development of quality information and data; 8) the transparency of underlying data and methods; 9) the integrity of FTC information and data; 10) documentation; 11) the administrative mechanism for seeking and obtaining the correction of information; and 12) compliance, reporting, and effective date of the guidelines. The vote to approve publication of the Federal Register notice was 5-0. (FTC File No. P859907, staff contacts are Alex Tang, 202-326-2447; and Gary Greenfield, 202-326-2753; FTC Office of the General Counsel.

Commission approval of final consent order:

Following a public comment period, the Commission has approved a final consent order in the matter concerning Aventis Crop Science Holdings S.A. and Bayer AG. The vote to approve the final order was 5-0. (FTC File No. 011-0199; staff contact is Wallace W. Easterling, Bureau of Competition, 202-326-2936; see press release dated May 30, 2002.)

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. Call toll-free: 1-877-FTC-HELP.