OTHER NEWS - Dec. 12, 1992

NutraSweet’s Monopoly of Aspartame Market to End: NutraSweet Co., which revolutionized the diet industry with its artificial sweetener, will lose its lock on the U.S. aspartame market next week when its patent for the product expires. The company has prepared for competition by cutting prices, slashing production costs and expanding overseas, a spokesman said. NutraSweet generated $954 million in sales for its parent company, St. Louis-based Monsanto Co., in 1991 and $641 million in sales in the first nine months of 1992. Holland Sweetener Co., a joint venture between Japan’s Tosoh Corp. and Dutch Chemical Group, is among those set to begin marketing aspartame in the United States.