HMR TRYING NEW TACTICS
TO FIGHT PRO-LIFE
CONSUMER BOYCOTT OF ALLEGRA

Hoechst Marion Roussel (HMR), the international drug conglomerate whose French arm developed the abortion pill back in the 1980s and was responsible for its introduction into the United States, has recently taken the unprecedented measure of enlisting health plans in its efforts to promote products featured in a nationwide pro-life consumer boycott.

NRLC, along with several of its pro-life allies, launched a consumer boycott of the American subsidiaries of Roussel Uclaf and its German parent company, Hoechst A.G., shortly after they allegedly donated the U.S. rights for RU 486 to the Population Council in 1994. Since that time, Hoechst and Roussel have acquired Kansas City-based drug manufacturer Marion Merrel Dow to form Hoechst Marion Roussel.

In April 1997, NRLC and its pro-life allies decided to focus their consumer boycott on Allegra, the new non-sedating antihistamine that HMR was launching to try and take over the lucrative allergy drug market in the U.S. In full-page advertisements, NRLC asked, "What's wrong with Allegra? The company it keeps," and informed American citizens of the connections between the company making Allegra and the French firm which originally developed and made the abortion pill. Those ads encouraged people troubled by this connection to ask their doctors whether other non-sedating antihistamines such as Claritin or Hismanal might work for them.

The reaction of HMR was immediate, announcing within a week it was shutting down production of the abortion pill and transferring the rights to a former executive of Roussel, Edouard Sakiz, now heading a new company, Exelgyn. Roussel did indicate, however, that it would continue to manufacture RU 486 until Sakiz could get his own corporation up and running. Sakiz is now said to have a supply to last him through the end of the year, but it is unclear what will happen after that point and whether or not Roussel will resume production.

In the U.S., however, HMR has recently taken the unprecedented step of trying to induce allergy patients to change their medications by paying their health care plans to suggest a switch. In a letter obtained by NRLC, a health care plan enrollee is informed by her plan that it is aware that she has recently used Claritin, one of the antihistamine alternatives mentioned in NRLC's ads. The letter from the health care plan medical director suggests that Allegra and Allegra-D, both made by Hoechst Marion Roussel, "may be appropriate alternatives" and informs the enrollee that it has notified her doctor about Allegra and Allegra-D and their relative cost to the health care plan. Enclosed is a $10 refund coupon to be used if her doctor prescribes Allegra. At the bottom of the letter, it states that " Hoechst Marion Roussel has provided an unrestricted grant to support this educational program."