Wouldn't this be a prelude of things to come???
"Our goal is to bring our already solid DuPont
Pharmaceuticals to critical mass through strategic alliances,"
Holliday said in the statement. "Given the success of our
discussions to date, we expect to be able to conclude one or
more of these alliances by the end of this year."
Investors pushed up DuPont's stock $1.88 to $55.44 in early
trade on the New York Stock Exchange.
DuPont said it will file to launch the "tracking stock" of
its life sciences with the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission late in 1999, and will seek shareholder approval the
following quarter. Tracking stocks are designed to isolate
particular assets within a corporation that may have a
particular value. Pharmaceuticals typically are far more
profitable than chemicals, which for over a century have been
the lifeblood of Wilmington, Del.-based DuPont.
DuPont signaled its determination last summer to become a
major player in life sciences, which includes pharmaceuticals
and agricultural products, when it agreed to buy Merck & Co's
<MRK.N> 50 percent interest in the two companies' DuPont-Merck
joint venture for $2.6 billion. DuPont and Merck continue to
share marketing rights on Sustiva, an AIDS drug that is the
crown jewel of DuPont's pharmaceuticals portfolio.
A published report earlier this month said that DuPont and
life sciences heavyweight Monsanto Co <MTC.N> were in
preliminary merger talks. Both companies had declined comment.
REUTERS
Rtr 11:05 03-10-99
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