Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 211 / Thursday, November 1, 2007 / Notices 61885 

be owned 60 percent by Owens Corning 

and 40 percent by Saint Gobain. In 

response to antitrust concerns, the 

parties restructured the transaction and 

entered into an acquisition agreement 

whereby Owens Corning will acquire 

Saint Gobain’s glass fiber 

reinforcements and composite fabric 

business assets worldwide with several 

important exclusions. Owens Corning 

will not acquire Saint Gobain’s glass 

fiber reinforcements assets located in 

the United States. Additionally, certain 

assets located in Europe will be divested 

pursuant to an agreement entered into 

between the parties and the European 

Commission. However, under the 

proposed acquisition, Owens Corning 

will still acquire Saint Gobain’s assets 

used in the design, manufacture, and 

sale of CFM, a unique glass fiber 

reinforcement product. Saint Gobain 

competes in CFM in the United States 

using CFM produced at its facility in 

Besana, Italy. The proposed Consent 

Agreement and Decision and Order are 

designed to address competition 

concerns in the CFM market. 

The Decision and Order calls for 

divestiture of Owens Corning’s CFM 

Business to AGY Holding Company 

(‘‘AGY’’), or another Commissionapproved buyer in the event that AGY 

is determined not to be acceptable. The 

Consent Agreement, if finally accepted 

by the Commission, would settle 

charges that the proposed acquisition 

may substantially lessen competition in 

the market for CFM. The Commission 

has reason to believe that Respondent’s 

proposed acquisition would violate 

Section 7 of the Clayton Act, as 

amended, 15 U.S.C. § 18, and Section 5 

of the Federal Trade Commission Act, as 

amended, 15 U.S.C. § 45. 

II. The Proposed Complaint 

According to the Commission’s 

proposed complaint, the relevant 

product market in which to analyze the 

effects of Saint Gobain’s sale of assets to 

Owens Corning is the market for the 

development, manufacture, and sale of 

CFM and related technology. CFM is an 

input in the production of non-electrical 

laminate, marine parts and accessories, 

and other products where its strength 

and other desirable characteristics make 

it the most cost effective material to use. 

The relevant product is used to increase 

mechanical performance, such as 

stiffness and strength, as well as 

chemical resistance. The relevant 

geographic market is North America, 

including imports. 

The proposed complaint alleges that 

the market for CFM is highly 

concentrated and that Saint Gobain and 

Owens Corning have been the primary 

competitors in these markets for many 

years. According to the proposed 

complaint, Owens Corning and Saint 

Gobain account for more than 90 

percent of the CFM sold in North 

America. The only other substantial 

supplier is PPG Industries, a firm that 

accounted for less than 10 percent of the 

CFM sold in the United States last year. 

The proposed complaint alleges that 

the proposed acquisition would reduce 

competition by eliminating direct 

competition between these two 

companies. The proposed complaint 

further alleges that entry into the 

relevant market would not be timely, 

likely, or sufficient to deter or offset the 

proposed joint venture’s adverse 

competitive effects. 

III. Terms of the Proposed Order 

Under the proposed Decision and 

Order, Owens Corning will divest its 

CFM business to AGY within ten (10) 

days after acquiring certain worldwide 

glass fiber reinforcements and 

composite fabric assets from Saint 

Gobain. AGY, based in Aiken, South 

Carolina, develops, manufactures, and 

markets a wide range of glass fiber yarns 

and reinforcement materials. As an 

existing participant in the glass fiber 

reinforcement business, AGY is wellpositioned to compete effectively in the 

CFM business. 

The proposed Decision and Order 

requires Owens Corning to divest its 

Huntingdon Facility that produces CFM. 

In addition, Owens Corning is required 

to divest the Marbles Furnace located in 

Anderson, South Carolina, that 

currently supplies the Huntingdon 

Facility with essential glass fiber 

marbles used in the production of CFM 

at Huntingdon. Also, Owens Corning is 

required to grant AGY two licenses. The 

first license is to Owens Corning 

intellectual property, wherever located, 

related to the production, marketing, 

and distribution of CFM. The second 

license is to Owens Corning furnace 

technology used in the Owens Corning 

Guelph and Owens Corning Battice 

facilities related to CFM. The purpose of 

the divestiture and licensing is to give 

AGY all assets and know-how necessary 

for the production and sale CFM 

products. 

The proposed Decision and Order also 

allows for the parties to enter into 

transition agreements for the short term 

provision of services, including an 

agreement for the supply of the raw 

materials for the production of Marbles. 

Moreover, the proposed Decision and 

Order precludes Owens Corning and 

Saint Gobain from entering into any 

agreement that would impair the value 

of the assets retained by Saint Gobain. 

The proposed Decision and Order 

contains a provision requiring prior 

notice for the acquisition of certain CFM 

assets. 

IV. Opportunity for Public Comment 

The proposed Decision and Order has 

been placed on the public record for 

thirty (30) days to receive comments by 

interested persons. Comments received 

during this period will become part of 

the public record. After thirty (30) days, 

the Commission will review the Consent 

Agreement and comments received and 

decide whether to withdraw its 

agreement or make final the Consent 

Agreement’s proposed Order. 

The purpose of this analysis is to 

facilitate public comment on the 

proposed Decision and Order. This 

analysis is not intended to constitute an 

official interpretation of the Consent 

Agreement and the proposed Decision 

and Order. By direction of the 

Commission. 

Donald S. Clark, 

Secretary. 

[FR Doc. E7–21509 Filed 10–31–07: 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6750–01–S 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

National Committee on Vital and Health 

Statistics: Conference Call 

Pursuant to the Federal Advisory 

Committee Act, the Department of 

Health and Human Services (HHS) 

announces the following advisory 

committee conference call. 

Name: National Committee on Vital 

and Health Statistics (NCVHS), Ad Hoc 

Workgroup on Secondary Uses of Health 

Data. 

Time and Date: October 31, 2007, 2 

p.m.–5 p.m. EST. 

Place: Conference Call, Toll Free—1–

888–324–2603, Leader’s Name—Cynthia 

Sidney, Pass code—NCVHS. For 

security reasons, the pass code above 

and the leader’s name will be required 

to join the call. 

Status: Open. 

Purpose: The purpose of the 

conference call is to provide an 

opportunity for public comment on a 

‘‘pre-decisional draft’’ of the NCVHS 

report: Enhanced Protections for Uses of 

Health Data: A Framework for 

‘‘Secondary Uses’’ of Electronically 

Collected and Transmitted Health Data. 

The draft report may be found at 

http://www.ncvhs.hhs.gov/. 

Contact Person For More Information: 

Substantive program information as 

well as summaries of meetings and a 

mstockstill on PROD1PC66 with NOTICES

61886 Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 211 / Thursday, November 1, 2007 / Notices 

roster of committee members may be 

obtained from Debbie M. Jackson, 

Senior Program Analyst, National 

Center for Health Statistics, Centers for 

Disease Control and Prevention, 3311 

Toledo Road, Room 2339, Hyattsville, 

MD 20782, (301) 458–4614, 

djackson@cdc.gov; or Marjorie S. 

Greenberg, Executive Secretary, NCVHS, 

National Center for Health Statistics, 

Centers for Disease Control and 

Prevention, 3311 Toledo Road, Room 

2402, Hyattsville, Maryland 20782, 

telephone (301) 458–4245. Information 

also is available on the NCVHS home 

page of the HHS Web site http:// 

www.ncvhs.hhs.gov/. 

Should you require reasonable 

accommodation, please contact the CDC 

Office of Equal Employment 

Opportunity on (301) 458–4EEO (4336) 

as soon as possible. 

Dated: October 22, 2007. 

James Scanlon, 

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Science and 

Data Policy, Office of the Assistant Secretary 

for Planning and Evaluation. 

[FR Doc. 07–5434 Filed 10–31–07; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4151–04–M 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Notice of Availability of Draft Guidance 

on Allocating and Targeting Pandemic 

Influenza Vaccine 

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, Health 

and Human Services. 

ACTION: Notice of availability. 

SUMMARY: The Department of Health and 

Human Services (HHS) and the 

Department of Homeland Security 

(DHS) are seeking public comment on 

the draft Guidance on Allocating and 

Targeting Pandemic Influenza Vaccine. 

The draft Guidance is now available on 

the HHS Web site. 

DATES: Submit comments on or before 

December 31, 2007. 

Instructions for Submitting 

Comments: Electronic responses are 

preferred and may be addressed to 

Panfluvaccine@hhs.gov. Written 

responses should be addressed to U.S. 

Department of Health and Human 

Services, Room 434E, 200 Independence 

Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20201, 

Attention: Pandemic Influenza Vaccine 

Prioritization Guidance Comments. A 

copy of the Notice and the full text of 

the draft Guidance are also available on 

the PandemicFlu.Gov Web site at 

http://www.pandemicflu.gov/vaccine/ 

prioritization.html and at http:// 

www.aspe.hhs.gov/panflu/ 

vaccinepriorities.html. Please follow 

instructions for submitting responses. 

The submission of comments in 

response to this notice should not 

exceed 25 pages, not including 

appendices and supplemental 

documents. Any information you 

submit will be made public. 

Consequently, do not send proprietary, 

commercial, financial, business 

confidential, trade secret, or personal 

information that you do not wish to be 

made public. 

Public Access: Responses to this 

notice will be available to the public in 

the HHS Public Reading Room, 200 

Independence Avenue, SW., 

Washington, DC 20201. Please call (202) 

690–7453 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 

arrange access. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: HuiHsing Wong, M.D., Office of the 

Assistant Secretary for Planning and 

Evaluation, (202) 205–0519. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Influenza 

viruses have threatened the health of 

animal and human populations for 

centuries. A pandemic occurs when a 

novel strain of influenza virus emerges 

that has the ability to infect and be 

passed between humans. Because 

humans have little immunity to the new 

virus, a worldwide epidemic, or 

pandemic, can ensue. 

Three human influenza pandemics 

occurred in the 20th century. In the 

U.S., each pandemic led to illness in 

approximately 30 percent of the 

population and death in between 2 in 

100 and 2 in 1000 of those infected. It 

is projected that a modern pandemic, 

absent effective control measures, could 

result in the death of 200,000 to 2 

million people in the U.S. alone. 

A critical part of the United States 

Government (USG) strategy to control 

the spread of a pandemic and reduce its 

health and societal impact is through 

the use of vaccines. The USG is working 

toward a goal of expanding domestic 

influenza surge capacity to produce 

pandemic influenza vaccines for the 

entire population within six months of 

a pandemic declaration. However, at the 

beginning of a pandemic, the limited 

supply of existing pandemic influenza 

vaccines will require that their 

distribution and administration be 

prioritized. 

Accordingly, the Homeland Security 

Council Implementation Plan for the 

National Strategy for Pandemic 

Influenza required the Department of 

Health and Human Services (HHS) in 

coordination with the Department of 

Homeland Security (DHS) to convene a 

federal interagency working group to 

draft a guidance to assist State and local 

governments, communities, tribal and 

territorial governments, and the private 

sector in planning an effective and 

consistent pandemic response. The USG 

embarked on a rigorous and 

collaborative process to seek input from 

all interested parties in developing a 

strategy to emerge from a pandemic 

with minimal levels of illness, death, 

and disruption to our society and 

economy. 

The draft Guidance on Allocating and 

Targeting Pandemic Influenza Vaccine 

outlines the USG’s goal of targeting the 

early production of pandemic vaccines 

to reduce the impact on health and 

minimize disruption to society and the 

economy and describes the scientific 

and ethical framework for how this 

guidance was developed. As part of the 

guidance, a tiered prioritization for 

vaccines in severe pandemics is being 

proposed with the following objectives 

considered to be the most important: (1) 

Protect those who are essential to the 

pandemic response and provide care for 

persons who are ill; (2) protect those 

who maintain essential community 

services; (3) protecting children; and (4) 

protect workers who are at greater risk 

of infection as a result of their job. 

Protecting those who maintain 

homeland and national security was 

also considered a significant Federal 

objective. The ultimate goal of 

pandemic vaccination is to provide 

vaccines to all persons in the United 

States who choose to be vaccinated by 

6 months after the declaration of a 

pandemic. 

With this notice, the USG requests 

comment from the public and interested 

stakeholders on the draft Guidance on 

Allocating and Targeting Pandemic 

Influenza Vaccine. 

Specifically, the USG invites 

comments on the following: 

The framework for establishing 

pandemic influenza vaccine priorities, 

including the—

(1) approach for defining: 

a. Target groups, 

b. The clusters of target groups in the 

categories, 

c. The levels within categories, 

d. The tiers across categories. 

(2) The extent to which the 

prioritization guidance addresses the 

stated program objectives. 

(3) The extent to which the guidance 

is likely to lead to fair and ethical 

allocation and targeting of pandemic 

influenza vaccine across the population. 

The text of the draft guidance is 

available in html and pdf formats 

through the PandemicFlu.Gov Web site 

at http://www.pandemicflu.gov/vaccine/ 

prioritization.html and the HHS Web 

site at http://www.aspe.hhs.gov/panflu/ 

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