R-P HALTS ALBUMIN PRODUCTION

Rhone-Poulenc SA has said that its Pasteur Merieux Serums & Vaccins unit has decided to suspend production of placental albumin in response to a directive issued by the French Minister of Health to implement additional control procedures relating to the extraction of this product.

Under the new directive, every person from whom blood or placenta is used in albumin production will be systematically questioned about any treatment they may have undergone using growth hormones obtained by extraction and about any family history of neurodegenerative disease, particularly Creutzfeld-Jakob disease. A definite link between the use of these products and transmission of the agent implicated in CJD has not been proven.

Rhone-Poulenc said that Pasteur Merieux has decided, as a precautionary measure, to make full provision in the 1993 fiscal year for the cost of suspending production of placental albumin, a provision which will be less than 100 million French francs ($17 million). For 1994, the company believes that its operating income could be cut by approximately 150 million francs, or by 2%, if production of albumin does not restart.