US panel blocks Sanofi's weight-loss drug
Frankfurt: A US panel blocked Sanofi Aventis new weight-loss pill as it had been linked to suicides. The decision led to company's shares registering their biggest drop in more than three years wiping out more than $7 billion in market value.

Sanofi Aventis' shares closed down €4.26, or 6.3 per cent, at €63, or $83.85, in Paris on Thursday, its biggest one-day drop since April 26, 2004.

Sanofi Aventis, based in Paris, did not get a single vote on Wednesday in favor of its drug, Zimulti, from a US Food and Drug Administration panel, which found that patients' weight loss did not justify danger of the psychiatric or neurological dangers.

Zimulti, sold as Acomplia in Europe, seemed unlikely to win the US agency's backing after three patients committed suicide during medical tests. Analysts said additional clinical trials on safety might delay U.S. sales until at least 2009, dealing a blow to the company, whose profit fell in the first quarter. Acomplia had sales of €31 million, or $41.3 million, last year.
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Areva bids for UraMin
London: French nuclear plants maker Areva SA on Friday said it had made a $2.5 billion friendly cash offer for UraMin Inc, a Canadian uranium prospector.

UraMin is engaged in exploration work for uranium in Namibia, the Central African Republic and South Africa.

Areva is planning to expand its activities in the uranium market in which it already holds a 23 per cent share in sales. The move also follows surging uranium prices because of supply disruptions, production shortfalls and rising demand.

Areva's current production of uranium is 6,000 tons a year, which the company plans to double by 2011-2012 through existing projects such as those in Niger and Canada and through the increase in production of its operations in Kazakhstan.
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