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...

At the end of the Brexit transition period, the UK will be charting its own course through the often choppy seas of medicines regulation. While it plans to retain the existing EU rules that have been transposed into domestic legislation, it also wants the freedom to tailor its regulations in areas like clinical trials, advanced therapies and product labeling.