Sanofi-Synthélabo, France's second largest pharmaceuticals group, will lose its anti-takeover defence in a year, after its two main shareholders decided to scrap a five-year-old pact.

Total, the oil company, and L'Oréal, the cosmetics group, who between them control a blocking minority in Sanofi-Synthélabo, said this week they would not renew the shareholder pact that they had signed in April 1999, when it expires in December 2004.