EC set to clear Novartis and AstraZeneca merger


24 July 2000



EC set to clear Novartis and AstraZeneca merger



By FWi Staff


BIOTECHNOLOGY giants Novartis and AstraZeneca are expected to get the go ahead to merge their agrochemical businesses on Wednesday (26 July).


The European Commission looks set to clear the deal after the companies agreed to dispose of some of their agrochemical lines, reports the Financial Times.


EU officials were worried that the new company, called Syngenta, would be dominant in fungicide markets for cereals and sugar beet and herbicides for maize.


But in June AstraZeneca said it would sell its maize herbicides business, and Novartis said it would dispose of Flint fungicides.

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