Adm Informer Heads New Company

The former Archer Daniels Midland Co. executive who turned government informant in an investigation of possible price-fixing by leading grain processors has been picked to lead a new biotechnology company.

Mark E. Whitacre will be chief executive officer of a Chicago-based company, tentatively called Future Health Technologies Co., the Wall Street Journal quoted the fired ADM executive as saying in its Monday editions.

Whitacre did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment. There is no listing in the Chicago area for Future Health Technologies.

The company, which will be publicly traded beginning in 1996, is seeking patents for its medical products, Whitacre said.

Whitacre was formerly head of Decatur-based ADM’s BioProducts Division, which specialized in lysine production, a muscle-growth chemical used as a feed supplement.