Who says France isn't doing its part in the war on terror? After all, Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin just struck a mighty blow against al-Qaida. He has deployed the rhetorical and financial heft of the French government to support a hostile takeover bid in the pharmaceutical industry.
Get that? He's using the government to support a hostile takeover of French pharmaceutical firm Aventis. It seems that another French drug company, Sanofi-Synthelabo, made an unwanted bid to buy Aventis, so Aventis went looking for a partner more to their liking: Novartis.
The problem here is the fact that Novartis is Swiss.
Enter [French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre] Raffarin, alarmed at the prospect of a Swiss invasion. Last week, he said a Sanofi-Aventis merger would be crucial to the French "national interest." He suggested that the nation's ability to access vaccines in the case of a bioterror attack would be hindered were Aventis to fall into foreign hands—you know, the dangerous, shifty hands of the Swiss. Meanwhile, a unit of the bank CDC-Ixis, which is majority-owned by the French government, has agreed to help back Sanofi's bid for Aventis.
Yes, France is playing an important role in the War on Terrorism.
