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ST. LOUIS POST-OISPATCH ST. LOUIS/FRIDAY _____ FRIDAY, MAY 15, 1992 3A Activist Alleges Cheap Buyout Of E. St. Louis Land By Roy Malone they thought the suit had been withdrawn. Of the Post-Dispatch Staff Their attorney has not stayed in contact No Poor black people in the Rush City area of health studies of the residents have ever been East SL Louis are victims of "an unscrupulous done by governmental agencies, Jones said. buyout" by secret land purchasers who have One resident Inez Gavin, said the real estate bought up 60 percent of the property, the Rev. agents kept asking her who was willing to sell, Buck Jones said Thursday. "But not one time has anyone from the plants "It's the rich exploiting the poor," Jones said been to us to tell us about buying us out" at a news conference before meeting with Another homeowner, Anna Slaughter, about 30 residents at the Gospel Feast Pente asked: "How long do we have? I'm going to costal Church in Rush City. stay where I am until the good "It's in a land trust so you Lord takes me. I'd rather be here can't identify the owner." than anyplace I know." Fewer than 200 people live In The Rev. James F. Hall, pastor the area, which in the 1960s had of the church, said: "They want more than 1,000, residents said. to get Rush City out of the way Jones urged them to join to and use the land for develop , gether and demand a fair price ment But they don't want to give or "a house for a house." us a fair price___ We should not "What's wrong with giving let the real estate people pick us people a fair chance?" Jones off one by one." said. Jones added: "I want to see Jones said the buyout began you get what you deserve and not about five years ago when the be treated like the American In chemical firms at Sauget decid dians, kicked off your property. ed they needed a buffer area "You dared to exercise your because residents were com right to breathe clean air," Jones plaining of breathing problems from chemical emissions and spills. Dozens of residents were treated at hospitals after some of the emissions. he buyout of Rush City is a case of the rich said. "You filed a suit so they declared war. They're fighting you with corporate lawyers, po litical power, planners and tech nicians. There have been a lot of A study by Project HOPE, a community group based in East SL Louis and headed by Jones, says the average price paid for and powerful exploiting the poor and casualties -- displaced lives, families uprooted, dreams turned into nightmares. Sixty percent of the land in Rush City homes was $4,000, but some have been bought for as low as $2,000, Jones said. Most of the offers are from a elderly. 99 BUCK JONES, East St. Louis activist_______ has been stolen." Jones said he had heard that Monsanto Co. had been involved in the buyout But a spokesman real estate firm in St Louis for the company, Kevin CahiU, County that puts the property into a land trust said: "It's not Monsanto. We haven't bought Jones said. The real estate firm will not identi any property there." fy the true buyers, he said. Cahill said formation of,,a coalition of firms "The buyout of Rush City is a case of the rich to buy the Rush City property was discussed and powerful exploiting the poor and elderly. several years ago, "but that coalition never It's disgraceful," Jones told the residents. came together." He said other manufacturers Many of the residents said their neighbors in the Sauget area might be buying property. had sold for low prices because they feared Project HOPE has tried to help the Rush the noxious gases, had to pay high taxes and City residents who over the years have been could not see their children wanting to live in subjected to noxious fumes from nearby the area. chemical firms in Sauget Jones said more A suit was filed several years ago on behalf than 80 emergency responses had been made of the residents. But some said Thursday that in the last four years. UL DSW 135613 STLCOPCB4035591 ^ |0553S BT:T * 05/14-12:03 f^ OotJ A -cyKiiacp) Halcion Ruling Monday May Not Change Weak Outlook For Upjohn By Phillip E. Nalbone Dow Jones Staff Reporter NEW YORK -DJ- Analysts say a favorable Food and Drug Administration committee review of Halcion won't do anything to change Upjohn Co.'s weak fundamental outlook over the next couple of years. They say Upjohn's problems over that period wi11 include-new - competition in the sleeping medications market, a lackluster new product portfolio and patent expirations on at least three key drugs, including Halcion. Most analysts expect the Kalamazoo, Mich.-based company's earnings this year and next year to grow at about half the rate of the pharmaceutical industry average, and most are forecasting earnings declines in 1994 and 1995. The primary objective behind Upjohn's request for the FDA committee review, says Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. analyst Gordon D. Platt, ''is to salvage what they can of the Halcion business before the patent expiration'' next October. ''Realistically, they're not going to restore sales growth for - Halcion,'' he says. ''They Just want to preserve what sales they can.'' Sales are likely to plunge after the patent expires, he says, as lower-cost generic versions of the drug become avallable. Also next October, the patent expires on Upjohn's anti-anxiety drug Xanax. In May of 1994, the patent expires on Micronase, an oral anti-diabetes drug. And the patent status of the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug Ansaid is also up in the airijthe patent is set to expire in February of next year, but Upjohn has applied to Congress for a two-year extension under the terms of the Waxwan-Hatch Act. The net result of all four patent expirations, according to PaineWebber analyst Ronald Nordmann, would be that ''over the next two years, products that represent one-third of (the company's) worldwide sales and one-half of worldwide earnings come off patent and are subject to generic competition.'' Ira Loss, an analyst at the Washington Analysis Corp. unit of County NatWest Securities USA, thinks the FDA review will be something of a Phyrric victory for Upjohn. . ''Despite whatever congressional critics Might say, the FDA has been very much on top of the Halcion issue for many years - long before Europe caught on to the problem, ' * Loss says. ''Consequently, there's not likely to be anything brought to light clinically that will change the marketing status of the drug. But in a lot of ways, this whole decision is probably academic because of the lost business due to the negative publicity and the appearance of at least one major competitor'? to Halcion. . ( corit inued ) OSW 135614 STLCOPCB4035592