Drug Maker Gives Up Abortion Pill Rights

Threatened by boycotts from American anti-abortion groups, the European pharmaceutical giant Hoechst on Tuesday unloaded its remaining rights to the abortion pill RU-486.

The company gave the rights to one of the drug’s creators, Dr. Edouard Sakiz, who plans to form a smaller company that will be less vulnerable to consumer pressure.

The move was a further attempt by the French drug company Roussel-Uclaf - a Hoechst subsidiary - to distance itself from the controversial drug. Just two years ago, in the face of boycotts, it ceded U.S. rights to RU-486 to The Population Council, a New York-based nonprofit group.

In the United States, RU-486 is expected to received full approval and begin distribution by the year’s end.