Whose Aventis?
April 2000

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Contents
Why Aventis?
Farm-scale trials, role in GM, strategy for GM crops, greenwash, dealing with regulators
What Aventis?
Aventis merger, UK operations, corporate structure and commercial activities, Aventis CropScience key products, financial details countries of operations
More Aventis?
GMO crimes, other eco-crimes, activism against Aventis, attitude to activists
Whose Aventis?
Who else and Aventis?GM partnerships, Other partnerships, other contractors, lobbying, PR, lawyers,
Where Aventis?
GM-related work, Aventis -owned sites, farm trial sites
Who Aventis?
Senior staff working on GM, PR slimers, directors

Company Ownership
Aventis CropSciences is the agrochemical division of Aventis SA, which owns 76% of the company. The other 24% is owned by Schering AG, a German pharmaceutical company.[104]

Schering AG:
Schering currently owns 24% of Aventis CropScience. No relation to the US-based Schering-Plough, Schering AG is a Berlin-based pharmaceuticals corporation, with annual sales of £2.1 billion. Many of the company's products involve fertility treatment and the care of pregnant women - its portfolio includes X-ray, ultrasound, oral contraceptives, homone replacement medication and drugs to combat disabling diseases[106]. Its best-selling drugs in 1998 include Betaferon, a treatment for multiple sclerosis, and its magnetic resonance imaging preparation Magnevist.

In 1991, in Peru, Schering promoted its drug Dopergin (lysuride), which inhibits breast milk production, with an advertisement showing five slim women. According to Health Action International, the implicit message was that to have a slim figure women should stop breast-feeding, bearing little regard to reality or to the health benefits that come from breast-feeding[107].

In 1992 Schering Agrochemicals appeared on Greenpeace's Humber & Wash dirty companies list. It was legally allowed to discharge 87 million gallons of chemical waste every year but still broke the law 22 times in 1991 by exceeding its pollution limits. Data also showed that the company discharged 24 chemicals without a permit, including 16 listed as dangerous by the Paris Commission [108].

Over half of Schering's shareholders are based in Germany, but the largest foreign-held proportion are actually in the UK. The largest single Schering investor (with 10% of equity) is the Allianz Group (insurance), also based in Germany but with a significant presence in the UK[109].

Schering (various company listings) The Brow, Burgess Hill, West Sussex, RH15 9NE Tel:01444 232323 / 247761

There is also a non-trading company called Schering Limited registered at Aventis' Hauxton site [110] http://www.schering.de
Allianz companies based in the UK:

AGF Insurance Limited, London Underwriting Centre (L.U.C.), Suite 2, 2nd Floor - 3 Minster Court, London EC3R 7DD, Phone: 0171 617 4500

Allianz Cornhill International, 27 Leadenhall Street, London EC3A 1AA, Phone: 0171 488 1882

Aventis shareholders
The list below is of the 4 largest shareholders of Aventis SA. For more on Aventis shareholders and GM finance generally, see the Corporate Watch briefing 'Cash crops and bull markets? - the finance behind GM crops' [105]

GALLUS (PETROCHEMICAL RESOURCES HOLDING BV PAYS BA) 13.88%
Holding company owned by KPC International NV, Netherlands Antilles (Kuwait Petroleum, the state-owned oil company).

UK contact:
Kuwait Petroleum International Ltd. 80 New Bond St, London, W1Y 9DA, Phone: 0171 491 4000

WELLINGTON USA 5%
Holding company, USA.

UK contact:
Wellington Underwriting Holdings Ltd. 2 Minster Court, Mincing Lane, London, EC3R 7FB. Telephone: 0171 - 929 2811

SALARIES DE LA STE RHONE POULENC 3.8%
Top management of Rhone Poulenc

FRANKLIN RESOURCES INC USA 2.89%
Investment company, USA.
British subsidiaries: Templeton Global Investors Ltd, Templeton Investment Management Ltd.

UK contact:
Templeton Investment Management Ltd. St Michaels Place, George Yard , Moorgate / Fenchurch. London EC3V 9DH. Phone: 0171 208 7000
Who else and Aventis?

Links with other companies

GM partnerships:
Aventis CropScience and the Institute of Arable Crops Research, Rothamsted have established an industrial- academic laboratory in plant science called the 'Labo Mixte'. It aims to focus on understanding fundamental processes involved in the uptake, transport and compartmentalisation of chemicals in plants. The laboratory is based at Ongar. [111].

IACR Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden, Hertfordshire. AL5 2HQ. Tel 01582 712610 http://www.iacr.bbsrc.ac.uk/iacr/tiacrhome.html

Agrinomics LLC, based in the US, is 50/50 joint venture between Aventis CropScience and Agritope. The company conducts a research, development and commercialization program in the field of plantfunctional genomics [112]. Agrinomics has a multi-year research agreement with Seeds company Vilmorin Clause et Cie and Israel's Hazera. The partners will invest $7.5m over five years in identifying plant genes resistant to viruses and parasites [113]

Agrinomics LLC
16160 Upper Boones Ferry Road , Portland, Oregon 97224-7744 USA. Tel (001) 503.670.7702 Fax (001) 503.670.7703 http://www.agrinomics.com/

Aventis and Stichting Dienst Landbouwkundig Onderzoek (DLO) have a 'Research Alliance Framework' in plant functional genomics. CPRO (Center for Plant Breeding and Reproductive Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands) and PGS (Plant Genetic Systems) represent DLO and Aventis respectively. The alliance focuses on the functional analysis of genes in several important plant species. The Research director of CPRO, Dr Arjen J van Tunen explained "This research will enable the development of high added value traits such as pest- and disease resistance, salt and drought tolerance, food quality, nutritional value and consumer health promotion.'' [114]

DLO
Bornsesteeg 53, NL-6708 PD Wageningen, Netherlands / P.O. Box 59 .NL-6700 AB, Wageningen, Netherlands. Tel: (0031) 317 47 40 00 Fax: (0031) 317 42 40 60 E-mail: infodesk@co.dlo.nl http://www.dlo.nl/

Aventis is a partner of Gene Logic, with whom it works in a strategic alliance to discover genes for developing crop protection products [115].

Gene Logic
708 Quince Orchard Road , Gaithersburg, MD 20878, USA. Phone: (001) 301 987 1700 Fax: (001) 301 987 1701 Contact Person: Mark Gessler Email: mgessler@genelogic.com www.genelogic.com

EnviroLogix Inc. has a licensing agreement with Aventis CropSciences to develop, manufacture and distribute tests for the detection of certain traits in GM seeds, plants and crops. The agreement allows EnviroLogix access to Aventis' BAR, PAT and Cry9C proteins and/or antibodies. The BAR and PAT proteins are produced in herbicide resistant LibertyLink GM plants and Cry9C is a protein produced in plants expressing the insect resistance StarLink trait. EnviroLogix is a supplier of immunoassay-based Color test kits for detecting transgenic traits for the food, feed and seed industries. [116]

EnviroLogix products are distributed in countries outside the United States by independent dealers.
In the UK this company is Crop Enhancement Systems Ltd.

Crop Enhancement Systems Ltd.
Eco-tech Centre, Castle Acre Road, Swaffham, Norfolk PE37 7HT

Contact Dr. Murree Groom, Tel: 01760 726 120 Fax: 01760 726 121 Email: cropenhancement-ecos@groom.fsbusiness.co.uk http://www.envirologix.com/contact.html
Other partnerships
Aventis CropScience has a 25% stake in Novance, a company specialising in the research and development and marketing of vegetable oils and proteins for use in industry. Aventis said it had acquired the stake because it wanted to be a "major player" in "vegetable production applications in both the food and non-food sectors" [117]. Novance is based in Compiegne, 70 kms north of Paris, France.

Aventis CropScience and Lonza have a partnership which is to include a new herbicide. The product will be manufactured at Lonza's expanded facility in Visp (Switzerland). The partners are currently in negotiations regarding a further product [118]. Lonza is to continue to make the sulfonylurea active ingredients for herbicides for Aventis CropScience that it made for AgrEvo. Lonza is to use a new phosgenation plant on its site at Viege to make a new sulfonylurea herbicide [119]

Lonza UK Ltd
Imperial House, Lypiatt Road, Cheltenham, Glos. GL50 2QJ, Phone 01242 51 32 11. Fax 01242 22 22 94 E-mail: contact.uk@lonza.com www.lonza.com/s
Other contractors:
BioFocus plc designs and supplies compounds for Aventis Cropscience's R&D programmes. The company has taken over the former AgrEvo site at Chesterford Park, Cambridge. BioFocus has its headquarters and laboratories in Sittingbourne, Kent.
[120]

BioFocus plc, Sittingbourne Research Centre, Sittingbourne, Kent
Chief Executive UK Dr. David Stone. Tel 01795-412300 Fax 01795-471123 email : info@biofocus.co.uk www.biofocus.co.uk

Molecular Simulations Inc (MSI) a "long-term partner", supplied molecular modelling software for AgrEvo's agrochemical research at Frankfurt and Chesterford Park. MSI is subsidiary of Pharmacopeia Inc, and has lots of agrochemical work. European headquarters are at Cambridge. [121]. We are not certain that this contract has continued with Aventis CropScience.

Molecular Simulations Ltd. 240/250 The Quorum Barnwell Road. Cambridge, CB5 8RE . Tel: 01223 413300 http://www.msi.com/

Network Design Consultants, based in Cambridge , had a major contract for marketing of AgrEvo's crop production products. Ann O'Brien is contact at Network. [122] We are not certain that this contract has continued with Aventis CropScience.

Network Design Consultant. 11a Covent Garden, Cambridge Tel: 01223 355611121

Consulting (specialist IT and Business Consultancy) has worked for AgrEvo [123].

121 Consulting , Holly Grange, Holly Lane , Balsall Common , Coventry. CV7 7EB tel: 0121 717 2121 http://www.121consulting.co.uk/

GPT Communication Systems Ltd (based in Luton, employing 1400) provided communication systems in four of AgrEvo's UK offices [124]. We are not certain that this contract has continued with Aventis CropScience.

GPT Communications Systems Ltd. Turnells Mill Lane, Wellingborough. NN8 2RB Tel: 01933 225000
Lobbying
Aventis is a member of various lobbying organisations, including EuropaBio, Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), the British Agrochemicals Association and the Chemical Industries Association. These are all trade associations whose principal aim is to help their members maximise their profits. They do this by lobbying governments and international policy making bodies such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO), doing public relations for their industry and by supplying business information.

EuropaBio, Avenue de l'Armée 6, 1040 Brussels, Belgium. Tel : 0032 2 735 0313 http://www.europa-bio.be

Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), 1625 K Street, NW, Suite 1100, Washington, DC 20006 tel:
202-857-0244

British Agrochemicals Association, 4 Lincoln Court, Lincoln Road, Peterborough. PE1 2RP. Tel: 01733 349225 http://www.baa.org.uk

Chemical Industries Association, Kings Buildings , Smith Square, London SW1P 3JJ. Tel. 0171 834 3399. http://www.cia.org.uk
Public relations
Along with Dow AgroSciences, Monsanto and Novartis Seeds, Aventis CropScience sponsors CropGen, an industry initiative which "will make the case for crop biotechnology and help achieve a more balanced debate about genetically modified (GM) crops in the UK." Its PR says: “CropGen comprises an independent panel of scientists and specialists on agriculture, plantscience, microbiology, ecology and consumer affairs. Its aim is to provide information for the public, interest groups and the media.” [125]

A CropGen release states that it "... will make the case for crop biotechnology, not the biotechnology industry." CropGen also makes the rather unlikely claim that its panel of scientists will be independent, pointing out that the companies have signed an undertaking that they cannot veto any of the scientific positions taken by the panel.

Three of CropGen's 'independent' panel members, Dr Nigel Halford, Dr Peter Lutman and Dr Guy Poppy, work for the Institute of Arable Crops Research (IACR)[126]. IACR are part of the research consortium which has contracts worth £3.3 million with the Government to conduct ecological monitoring of the farm-scale trials [127]. It also has a research partnership with none other than Aventis CropScience as well as partnerships with AstraZeneca, Novartis and DuPont [128]. In total CropGen is investing £500,000 in this year’s campaign [129].

All communications for CropGen are being handled by Countrywide Porter Novelli (CPN). CPN's work includes manning phone lines for members of the public who have questions, overseeing the launch the CropGen web site (www.cropgen.org), and distributing literature [129].

CropGen information line 0845 602 1793 (local rate) during normal office hours. http://www.cropgen.org/

Countrywide Porter Novelli, Bowater House East 68 Knightsbridge, London. SW1X 7LH Tel: 0207584 0122 http://www.countrywidepn.co.uk/

CPN also has offices in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Leeds and Banbury (Oxon)

AgrEvo Deutschland has used Shandwick for public relations consultancy - a firm whose other clients include Shell Oils and the Meat and Livestock Commission [130].

Shandwick International, Aldermary House, 15 Queen Street, London EC4N 1TX Tel: 0171-950 2000
Lawyers
Hammond Suddards was being used by AgrEvo to obtain injunctions against protesters.

Hammond Suddards, 7 Devonshire Square, Cutlers Gardens, London EC2M 4YH. Tel: 0171 655 1000

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