Firm Blocks Abortion Pill, FDA Chief Says
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WASHINGTON — FDA Commissioner David A. Kessler accused a German drug company Thursday of blocking its French subsidiary from seeking to market the abortion pill RU-486 in the United States.
Kessler said the problem was not with the French company, Roussel-Uclaf, but its parent, Hoechst AG, and chairman, Wolfgang Hilger.
Kessler, who met with Roussel-Uclaf’s president in February, said: “My understanding is Roussel certainly is willing to bring this drug to this country. It’s the German parent.”
“Prof. Hilger is the one. . . . That’s where the problem is,” Kessler told a group of health reporters.
A call to a spokesman at Hoechst AG headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, was not answered.
Andrea Stine, a spokeswoman for Hoechst Celanese Corp. and Hoechst-Roussel Pharmaceuticals in Somerville, N.J., said they were not involved in making or marketing the drug, and she could not speak for the parent German company.
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