Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. has filed a document in DelawareChancery Court that Cetus Corp. and Chiron Corp. on Thursdaysaid will permit their merger to proceed.

Eastman Kodak Co. filed suit in August seeking to enjoin thesale of Cetus' polymerase chain reaction technology to Roche for$300 million as part of the Cetus-Chiron deal.

On Monday the court denied Kodak's motion for a preliminaryinjunction on the sale on the condition that Roche agree to bebound by the decision of a pending arbitration between Cetusand Kodak over rights to the technology.

In a document filed Thursday, Roche stated that it had"structured its acquisition of Cetus' PCR intellectual propertyrights so that Roche's acquired rights will be subject to Kodak'srights," and that it "agrees to abide by the decision(s) of thearbitrators in that regard, provided only that Kodak does notobject to Roche's participation in the arbitration proceedings asan interested party."

Cetus shareholders are scheduled to vote on the merger on Dec.10.

Cetus also announced Thursday that its Proleukin interleukin-2has received marketing approval in the United Kingdom for thetreatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma. This was the tenthapproval by a European Community nation. Proleukin will bemarketed by Cetus' EuroCetus subsidiary.

Cetus shares (NASDAQ:CTUS) rose 38 cents to $18.75. Chiron(NASDAQ:CHIR) gained 50 cents to $62.63. Both companies arebased in Emeryville, Calif.

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