Rorer To Sell Plant To Britons Medeva Plc Will Pay $400 Million For The N.y. Facility And For Licensing Rights As Rpr Continues Its Divestiture Plans.

By Donna Shaw, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Posted: June 07, 1996

Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Inc. announced yesterday it was selling a former Fisons PLC manufacturing facility in Rochester, N.Y., to British drug-maker Medeva PLC.

The $400 million agreement is part of an RPR divestiture plan, announced in January, to raise $750 million and retire debt incurred in the purchase of U.K.-based Fisons in October.

Under terms of the deal, Medeva will pay $370 million for the plant and to license for 4 1/2 years the 10 pharmaceutical products made at the facility. Medeva will have an option to purchase the products after that time.

Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, of Collegeville, said Medeva also would pay $30 million to license, with a purchase option, some medicines made by RPR in France.

Medeva has agreed to retain ``substantially all'' of the approximately 200 workers in Rochester, according to RPR.

The Rochester sale is the second this year by RPR of assets from Fisons. In March, Rhone-Poulenc Rorer sold off Fisons' scientific instruments business. Together, the sales have brought in $636 million in cash.

The announcement of the Medeva agreement comes a day after RPR's French parent, chemical concern Rhone-Poulenc S.A., said it planned to sell some pharmaceutical assets.

The Rochester facility includes offices, warehouses and a plant that formerly served as Fisons' U.S. headquarters. The drugs produced there include diuretics, appetite suppressants and medicines for respiratory ailments, which had combined sales of $100 million last year.

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