French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi-Aventis said on Wednesday that US competition authorities had not raised any objections to its hostile bid for US biotechnology group and rare disease specialist Genzyme.
Sanofi-Aventis said that the waiting period as part of the antitrust approval process had expired.
A clear passage before anti-trust officials was a key condition of the 69-dollar-per-share offer which it launched for Genzyme on October 4.
Genzyme's management, spurned the bid in late August, saying the 18.5-billion-dollar (13.5-billion-euro) offer by Sanofi-Aventis undervalued the company.
Genzyme's management has refused to name a price that it would consider reasonable to open talks, and has refused to open its books.
The release of Genzyme's quarterly results on Wednesday were expected to shed light on the company's production difficulties and open the way to an adjustment of the offer.
Sanofi-Aventis's bid offer expires on December 10.
(c) 2010 AFP
