[7][8] In October 1981, endocrinologist Étienne-Émile Baulieu, a consultant to Roussel-Uclaf, arranged tests of its use for medical abortion in eleven women in Switzerland by gynecologist Walter Herrmann at the University of Geneva's Cantonal Hospital, with successful results announced on April 19, 1982.

[7][11] Two days later, the French government ordered Roussel-Uclaf to distribute mifepristone in the interests of public health.

[7][12] French Health Minister Claude Évin explained that: "I could not permit the abortion debate to deprive women of a product that represents medical progress.

[7] Mifegyne was subsequently approved in Great Britain on July 1, 1991,[13] and in Sweden in September 1992,[14] but until his retirement in late April 1994, Hoechst AG chairman Wolfgang Hilger, a devout Roman Catholic, blocked any further expansion in availability.

[17] On April 8, 1997, after buying the remaining 43.5% of Roussel-Uclaf stock in early 1997,[18] Hoechst AG ($30 billion annual revenue) announced the end of its manufacture and sale of Mifegyne ($3.44 million annual revenue) and the transfer of all rights for medical uses of mifepristone outside of the U.S. to Exelgyn S.A., a new single-product company immune to antiabortion boycotts, whose CEO was former Roussel-Uclaf CEO Édouard Sakiz.