Sanofi-Aventis is a multinational pharmaceutical corporation that has its headquarters in Paris, France. It is said to be the fourth largest company in the world according to prescription sales. It specializes in the marketing, manufacturing, as well as the research and development of pharmaceutical products made for sale, particularly in the prescription market. Aside from this, Sanofi also develops medication for the over-the-counter market.

The company covers seven primary therapeutic fields: oncology, internal medicine, cardiovascular, diabetes, thrombosis, central nervous system and vaccines. Sanofi-Aventis is the biggest distributor of vaccines by means of its subsidiary company Sanofi Pasteur. Moreover, it serves as a full member of the EFPIA, or the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations.

Sanofi-Aventis was established just five years ago, in 2004, when Sanofi-Synthelabo completed the acquisition of Aventis. Earlier that year, Sanofi-Synthelabo offered a takeover bid that was worth €47.8 billion for Aventis. At first, Aventis did not agree to the bid since it felt the bid had inferior value based on Sanofi-Synthelabo’s share value. It took about three months to get Aventis convinced when Sanofi-Synthelabo finally released a friendly bid of €54.5 billion replacing the previous bid that was rejected. Aside from the two companies playing their roles, the French government also contributed to the acquisition; it was responsible for encouraging Sanofi-Synthelabo to increase its bid for Aventis following the news that the Swiss pharmaceutical business, Novartis, was also in the running.

Pharmaceutical drugs developed by Sanofi-Synthelabo are:

• Depakine and Depakote – treats epilepsy
• Actonel – treats Paget’s disease and osteoporosis
• Menactra – treats meningitis
• Xatral – treats benign prostatic hyperplasia
• Lovenox/Clexane – treats thrombosis
• Iscover/Plavix – treats patients with atherothrombosis
• Nasacort and Allegra/Telfast – treatment for allergic rhinitis
• Lantus – treats patients diagnosed with diabetes
• Eloxatin – treatment for colorectal cancer
• Taxorete – for lung, prostate and breast cancer