DSM acquires Roche's vitamins, carotenoids and fine chemicals business for roughly $2.09 bil. (€1=$1.07), firms say Feb. 10. The original $2.24 bil. price tag agreed upon in September was lowered due to the "continued slow-down of the world's economies and the weakening" of the U.S. dollar versus the Swiss Franc, "which both had a negative impact on the vitamin business performance compared to earlier forecasts," firms say (1"The Tan Sheet" Sept. 9, 2002, p. 6). DSM will pay Roche roughly $1.99 bil. in cash and $107.4 mil. in DSM stock. Roche will take an impairment charge of $1.2 bil. in its 2002 results and will increase its provisions for liabilities relating to vitamin price-fixing charges. The transaction is slated to close in Spring pending approval by antitrust authorities...

Given its ever-growing role as a critical component of the global biopharma industry, you can’t afford not to be up to speed on Asia. This selection of recent insights from our experienced on-the-ground team will help.

Use of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in cosmetic products appears to be declining, based on voluntary industry registrations with the US Food and Drug Administration. In any event, NGOs are gunning for PFAS' elimination, and the FDA says available data have yet to give a complete safety picture for PFAS used intentionally in cosmetics or present as impurities.