The German group BAYER has announced the sale of BAYER CLASSICS FRANCE, its generic medicines business in France, to its Israeli counterpart TEVA for an undisclosed amount. Its French subsidiary made a turnover in the sector of 43 million euro in 2001 and employs a staff of some one hundred. BAYER has already sold off its generic medicines businesses in Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom. Furthermore, BAYER has announced that it intends trebling its activities in Mexico by early 2003 and make of its factory in Lerma, near Mexico City, its foremost production site for aspirin, the group's flagship medicine.. Presently, this plant produces 550 million pills a year. In all, investments of some $140 million are scheduled between 2001 and 2004 for BAYER structures in Mexico.