Searle Sold To Monsanto

be reapproved by the government for sale in the U. S. and steal some of aspartame's lucrative soft-drink business. And nagging questions about aspartame's safety are a constant worry. Notes Robert W. Kirkpatrick, an analyst for Duff & Phelps Inc.: "You have to wonder whether some new study is going to make the Food & Drug Administration more cautious" about aspartame. ' POLITICAL AMBITIONS. The , y low and sell high. That simple family undoubtedly will receive a premium be~xiom appears to be the driving force cause of aspartame's c~rrent bullish prospects. behind the Searle family's And by selling out at the height of the decision to cash in theirthe 34'1<· interest sweetener's popularity, family may in G. D. Searle & Co., the Skokie (Ill.) core pharcommand a better price for its lackluster maceutic'al andbusiness consumer pharmaceutical thanproducts it would company otherwise founded by their great-greatgrandfather nearly get. To rejuvenate Searle's maturing prescription a century drug line, ago. Rumsfeld has poured more than $500 The Searles' desire diversify their million into R&LJ, built to a $2;') million research holdings, probably by sellingand thejoint-venture compa.ny, center, and struck licensing comes on thewith heelsforeign of a major corporateAs a agreements drugmakers.· restructuring explosive success of the at result, Searleand hasthe three new drug applications company's sVieetener, which the Ffl.-\ andaspartame 11 products in clinical trial. But the together have lifted sales $946 million drugmaker has yet to logtoany profits fromand its boosted the current market value the family's heavy development spending. ]n of fact, stock to $978from million, fromand $212 million competition generic new drugs se\'en and the years Some analysts Searle shares, effectago. of the strong dollarbelieve on its overseas operawhich recently solq at S58. could fetch as much tions cut Searle's prescription drug operating as $75 from a chemical or to pharmaceutical earnings in half last year, $95.8 million. company suitor. That price tag would put themay A recovery in the drug operations acquisition at $3.7 billion-the largestSearle's already be cost in the making, however. nonoil merger inearnings history. Ui\lCOPlJFO~ii'Arsl~. second-quarter more than doubled, to The Searles have timed sale carefully. "] :338.4 million, partlytheir because of higher think the famil~' sales. had decided to do this pharmaceutical But neither thelong Searle ago," R. Phelps, formerly the com-to familysa~'s nor James Rumsfeld is likely to be around pany's general counsel. reason couldadmits be see how it all turns out.One Rumsfeld, Searle's disastrous it was to having politicalperformance ambitions, iswhen rumored to be under direct family management. At theof State a possible successor to Secretary instigation of then-chief DanielReagan C. George Shultz in executi\'e a second UNDER RUMSFELD. OF Searle, thePRESIDENT company \\'ent on a SALES di\'ersification Administration. [g] NUTRASWEET binge with un- ROCKETED TO $336 MILLION I profitable results. Says a former insider: ,.] sweeteners, such as Hoechst's acesulfame, as don't theunder Searles were ever I~' & well think as those development by real Procter comfortable managing theInc. business." Gamble Co. and Pfizer To Many turn things around, the family in 1977that industry watchers believe recruited former Defense Secretary Donald H. a currently banned cyclamates-which sell for Rumsfeld as president. While Rumsfeld's fraction of aspartame's cost-eould massive pruning of operations and staff have improved earnings dllamatically and revitalized Searle's pharmaceutical research and developIllent effort, the company's fortunes now ride most heavilJ.',..on its aspartame sweetener, marketed bnder the brand name N utraSweet. After only two years on the market, sales of the noncaloric sweetening agent rocketed to $336 million and are expected to reach $1 billion next year. "Right now, it's the peak of the market," says David Saks, an independent ester E. of Coleman, the "The acquisition Agrigenetics is soft-spoken likeisa 10health care securities researcher. "There no chemist isis chairman of the Lubrizol year jump forthe us,"who says Coleman.Indeed, competition, price hig-h, demand is purchaseCorp., capsever areadily seriesof moves aimed that atmarket, incredible-if therevolunteers was a seller's exploiting to develop plant the $800biotechnology million specialty-chemical maker is a this is it." varieties that can major new of conservative outfit. the lowprofile By selling out provide now, thea But Searles cansource collect raw materials the chemical company. Lubriproducer of for oil additives is not holding back on aspartame's dazzling potential-yet avoid the as zol's first foray into biotechnology was the farof ashaving biotechnology concerned. Over risks to fulfill it.isThe company's newthe purchase five years ofquietly athreats 25%bought share past however, few years it ago has stakes in owner, could face fromin other Genentech Inc., but sincestartups. then it has narrowed several biotechnology Now it is taking itsasights plant biotechnology the purchase goal of majortoplunge with the $50 with million developing new types of plant oils. "Weasee this of debt-ridden Agrigenetics Corp., Boulder whole area company as a sourcethat of specialty chemicals, (Colo.) specializes in using at biotechnology the same time having a base of to improve crops.

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