French drug giant Sanofi-Aventis publicly launched its $18.5 billion cash bid for American biotech firm Genzyme Corp. today, the Associated Press reports.

It's a move that follows months of rumored interest and failed attempts to bring Genzyme's management to the table.

Under terms of the proposed acquisition, Genzyme shareholders would receive $69 per share, representing a 38 percent premium over Genzyme's closing stock price of $49.86 on July 1. That's the day before speculation began to swirl that Sanofi was looking to buy an American drugmaker, possibly Genzyme, in a bid to help replace revenue being lost to worsening generic competition.

Sanofi-Aventis is taking the bid public after what it calls “several unsuccessful attempts” to engage Genzyme's management in talks. While it prefers to work with the board instead of taking the offer directly to shareholders, CEO Christopher A. Viehbacher said on a conference call this morning that “we are also prepared to consider all alternatives to complete this transaction.”

Chris Viehbacher's shopping list could include targets with Triangle operations.

The CEO of French drug maker Sanofi-Aventis is reportedly working on a major acquisition in the United States. Viehbacher, who previously was GlaxoSmithKline's top executive in Research Triangle Park, briefed his current company's board last week about a proposed transaction, according to Bloomberg News and other published reports.

Among the rumored takeover candidates: Biogen Idec, which employs about 850 people at its RTP manufacturing campus, and Hospira, which has more than 300 workers at a Clayton plant. Other potential targets include Allergan and Genzyme.

A global drug maker has donated $2 million to the N.C. Cancer Hospital.

The gift comes from sanofi-aventis, a Paris-based drug manufacturer that has long funded cancer-related initiatives at UNC Chapel Hill. The N.C. Cancer Hospital is a new facility on the UNC-CH campus, a massive expansion of its clinical cancer operations. The $2 million will go into the hospital's endowment, to be used for new clinical programs, research and patient and family support services.

With the donation, the hospital's endowment is worth nearly $4 million. Generally, universities spend about 5 percent of their endowments each year, which means the sanofi-aventis donation will provide about $100,000 a year.

While endowment donations are often used to pay for facilities expansion, the new, $207 million cancer hospital was funded by the state. Thus, its endowment will be used solely for research and support programs.

"At a time of financial stress when other states are pulling back on health care, North Carolina is stepping up, and so is private industry," said UNC-CH Chancellor Holden Thorp Monday during a brief ribbon-cutting ceremony at the hospital.

A high-tech conference room at the hospital is being renamed for the drug company.

For more on the donation, click here.

Chris Viehbacher's hunt for health-care acquisition targets snared a big trophy.

The CEO of French drug maker Sanofi-Aventis announced this morning that he's spending about $1.9 billion to buy Chattem, the Chattanooga, Tenn.-based maker of Gold Bond powder, Icy Hot pain relief ointment and other consumer products.

Viehbacher, who previously was GlaxoSmithKline's top executive in Research Triangle Park, said in September he expected Sanofi would have "more shopping on the horizon."

Viehbacher was in Chapel Hill this morning to announce that Paris-based Sanofi is giving $2 million to support cancer research at the N.C. Cancer Hospital on the campus of UNC-Chapel Hill. A high-tech conference room at the hospital is being renamed for the drug company.

So what's Chris Viehbacher, who quit as GlaxoSmithKline's top executive in Research Triangle Park earlier this year, up to these days?

Sounds like the same strategy of his former GSK counterparts: seeking acquisitions of promising vaccines, biotechnology drugs and other new medicines.

Viehbacher, who is now CEO of Paris-based Sanofi-Aventis, told Bloomberg News that "there will be more shopping on the horizon." Sanofi has already spent $9 billion this year buying health-care companies and products to boost revenue and bolster its pipeline of new products.

A synthetic form of insulin has been linked to an increased risk of cancer, studies in Europe indicate, but doctors caution that the findings are preliminary and may not hold up under greater scrutiny.

The drug, which goes by the brand name Lantus and is marketed by Sanofi-Aventis, provides a once-daily injection of artificial insulin.

For many diabetes patients who depend on insulin to regulate blood sugar, the once-a-day therapy has been hailed as a benefit over other drugs that require more frequent injections.

But studies in Europe are casting a pall over the treatment. An analysis of data from 127,000 insulin patients in Germany found an increased risk of colon cancer among those who used Lantus, particularly among patients who took a higher dose of the drug.

A second, smaller study in Sweden found a similar increased risk for breast cancer, but two other studies found no statistically signficant link between the diabetes drug and cancer. The findings are published in the journal Diabetologia (http://www.diabetologia-journal.org)

Dr. John Buse, director of the Diabetes Care Center at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine and past president of the American Diabetes Association, said insulin-dependent patients should not panic about the suggested link.

"Don't stop taking insulin," Buse said. "If it makes you nervous, talk to your doctor about switching to a different kind of insulin."

Buse said most patients have nothing to fear from taking Lantus, but he said patients who have had cancer, and those who have a family history of the disease, might consider switching to another form of insulin.

Buse said more research is needed before a definitive link can be made between Lantus and cancer. He said the European studies may have been biased to include patients who were screened more actively for cancers.

A long-term study in the United States is currently underway that may be able to confirm or disprove the cancer link. That study is not expected to be complete for years, however.