Aventis

The company Aventis was one of the largest and most short-lived pharmaceutical companies in the world, based in Strasbourg, France.

The company was formed in 1999 from the merger of Hoechst AG (Frankfurt am Main ), and the French pharmaceutical company Rhone- Poulenc (Lyon). The largest production and research location of the company was the Höchst Industrial Park in Frankfurt-Höchst. The pharmaceutical division of the Group, Aventis Pharma AG, took its seat in Frankfurt am Main, the pesticides division of the new group as Aventis CropScience SA in Lyon.

2003 Aventis sold the plant protection division of the Group to its competitor Bayer AG. This led to the Bayer CropScience subgroup and Aventis has since been briefly a pure pharmaceutical company.

Mid-2004, merged the rest of Aventis with the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi -Synthelabo. The new company Sanofi -Aventis became the largest pharmaceutical companies in Europe. Formal was the takeover of a merger of equals, in fact it was a takeover, which was preceded by a so-called hostile takeover bid by Sanofi -Synthelabo in January 2004.

Although Sanofi -Synthelabo was significantly smaller than Aventis, the company had because of its rapid growth, a high rating on the stock market and was located in a relatively safe position, since it had two major shareholders of L' Oréal and Total, which supported the acquisition strategy. In addition, the French government had welcomed the proposed merger to create in this way a European champion.

The German government remained neutral in order not to jeopardize possible future acquisitions of French companies by German.

Criticism

The Black Markenfirmen criticized that Aventis Financiers unethical drug trials. In addition, the suspected bribery and tax evasion.

• Pharmaceutical companies
• Former company (France)
• Frankfurt-Höchst