Solvay’s 1.2 billion euro acquisition of French company, Fournier, has been cleared by the European Commission, which said that the move would “not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area or any substantial part of it.”

Solvay – a Belgian company specialising in chemicals, plastics and pharmaceuticals – agreed to buy the privately-owned French pharmaceutical firm that focuses on products targeting lipid disorders, metabolic and cardiovascular diseases, earlier this year [[24/03/05a]]. The terms of the transaction were finalised last week [[13/07/05c]].

The EC says that its examination showed that the companies’ activities were largely complementary and that they faced competition from various other European players, including those areas where their businesses overlapped.