OTHER NEWS - June 28, 1996

Roche to Buy P&G;’s 50% Stake in Firms’ Joint Venture: Roche Holding, a Swiss drugs and chemicals company, said it will buy Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble Co.’s 50% stake in the companies’ U.S. over-the-counter medication joint venture. Roche said the acquisition, subject to U.S. government approval, would give it full ownership of the Aleve pain reliever and the Femstat 3 vaginal yeast infection brands. Aleve had sales of more than $125 million last year, a Roche executive said, and Femstat was introduced in the U.S. in March. P&G; would continue to provide sales and marketing services for the brands for up to one year while Roche examines “a number of alternatives for our future OTC business in the U.S.A.,” said Franz Humer, Roche’s pharmaceuticals chief.