Marion Merrell Dow
| Industry | Pharmaceutical |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1950 (Marion Laboratories) 1989 (Marion Merrell Dow) |
| Defunct | 1996 |
| Fate | Acquired by Hoechst AG to create Hoechst Marion Roussel |
| Successor | Sanofi |
| Headquarters | Kansas City, Missouri |
Marion Merrell Dow and its predecessor Marion Laboratories was a U.S. pharmaceutical company based in Kansas City, Missouri, from 1950 until 1996.
The company specialized in bringing to market drugs that had been discovered but unmarketed by other companies including
The company operating out of its headquarters at 9300 Ward Parkway was a springboard for its founder
History
Richardson-Merrell
The company traces its roots back to 1828 when William S. Merrell opened the Western Market Drug Store at Sixth Street and Western Row (now Central Avenue) in downtown
In the 1930s, it merged with a company started by Lunsford Richardson to become Richardson-Merrell. Richardson's most notable product was Vicks VapoRub.
In 1958, Richardson-Merrell acquired the English company Milton Antiseptic Ltd.[3]
A team at
Thalidomide
One of Richardson-Merrell's best-known incidents revolved around its efforts to introduce
Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals
The former Richardson-Merrell became Richardson-Vicks, Inc. In 1985, Richardson-Vicks was acquired by Procter & Gamble.
U.S. Supreme Court cases
In the U.S., Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals was a named party in at least two major
- Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc. v. Thompson, 478 U.S. 804 (1986), involving original jurisdiction
- expert testimony established by the Federal Rules of Evidenceto the admission of scientific evidence at trials conducted in federal courts
Marion Merrell Dow
In 1989 Dow Chemical acquired 67 percent interest of Marion Laboratories, which was renamed Marion Merrell Dow. Among the products Merrell Dow brought that would be shortly marketed were
At the time Marion Laboratories was outperforming all other drug company stocks by 2½ times.[11] Marion had the highest sales and the highest profit per employee of any company traded on the New York Stock Exchange.[citation needed] Dow's initial offer was $38 a share in cash, or $2.2 billion, for the 39 percent of Marion's 150 million shares with an option to raise the stake to 67 percent by 1992. The offer made 300 of Marion's employees millionaires. The deal created the fifth largest drug company in the United States in terms of sales.
Although controlled by Dow the new company continued to trade on Marion Laboratories' old New York Stock Exchange ticker symbol "MKC."
Marion Laboratories
Ewing Kauffman, a former pharmaceutical salesman in Kansas City, Missouri started the company in 1950 in the basement of his Kansas City home by selling calcium supplements made from crushed oyster shells which he made in his home and starting with $5,000 in capital. Kauffman later said he used his middle name for the company to avoid the impression that it was a one-person operation.[1]
As the company expanded, Kauffman offered employees
Rather than researching products, the company adopted a policy of buying existing products and reformulating them for market.[citation needed]
In 1964 it formally incorporated as Marion Laboratories, Inc.[12]
In the 1980s it marketed
Hoechst Marion Roussel
In 1995
Hoechst's new pharmaceutical company became
Sanofi
Hoechst in turn later became part of the pharmaceutical and lab
Sanofi has sold off the original Marion Labs Kansas City plant at 10236 Marion Park Drive with
References
- ^ a b c d Marion Merrell Dow, Inc., International Directory of Company Histories, Vol. 9. St. James Press, 1994 (reprinted on fundinguniverse.com)
- ISBN 1-57860-191-6
- ^ Michigan Business Reports, Issue 57: p. 161
- ^ PMID 9111183.
- ^ Allen, R.E., Palopoli, F.P., Schumann, E.L. and Van Campen, M.G. Jr. (1959) U.S. Patent No. 2,914,563, Nov. 24, 1959.
- US Food and Drug Administration. 2009-06-18. Retrieved 27 July 2009.
- PMID 11444245. Archived from the originalon 13 January 2008. Retrieved 27 July 2009.
- ^ Thalidomide - medic8.com - Retrieved August 25, 2008
- ^ a b Lee, Patrick (18 July 1989). "Dow Chemical to Get Control of Marion Labs: $5-Billion-Plus Deal Is an Effort to Diversify". Los Angeles Times.
- ISSN 0362-4331.
- St. Petersburg Times. Archived from the originalon January 31, 2013. Retrieved June 18, 2009.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4008-3624-6.
- ^ Hoechst agrees to acquire Marion Merrell Dow - Corporate Growth Weekly - May 15, 1995
- ^ "Hoechst AG to Buy Marion Merrell Dow / Acquisition worth over $7 billion". San Francisco Chronicle. Reuters. May 5, 1995.
- ^ Arturo Bris and Christos Cabolis, Corporate Governance Convergence Through Cross-Border Mergers The Case of Aventis, Chapter 4 in Corporate Governance and Regulatory Impact on Mergers and Acquisitions: Research and Analysis on Activity Worldwide Since 1990. Eds Greg N. Gregoriou, Luc Renneboog. Academic Press, 26 July 2007
- ^ Timmons, Heather; Bennhold, Katrin (27 April 2004). "France Helped Broker the Aventis-Sanofi Deal". The New York Times.
- ^ "Cerner Corporation-South Campus, Bldg #I". Emporis GMBH. Archived from the original on October 24, 2012. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
These are the names and the order of the ownership since Ewing Kauffman's business interests were dispersed following his death: Marion Laboratories became Marion Merrill Dow, which was sold to Hoechst Marion Roussel and finally, the present arrangement. Cerner Corporation, with world headquarters in North Kansas City, Mo., is purchasing this campus to keep up with its rapid growth to serve an international list of clientele. Aventis will abandon the campus by the end of 2006, following its worldwide reorganization.
- ^ Collison, Kevin (28 August 2009). "Sanofi-Aventis to close plant, eliminate 370 jobs". KansasCity.com. The Kansas City Star. Archived from the original on September 1, 2009. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
Sanofi-Aventis is closing its Kansas City manufacturing plant after failing to find a satisfactory buyer for the operation, which employs 370 people. The decision to shutter the 33-year-old plant, which manufactures solid-dose oral medications including Allegra, marks the end of an era. It was the last to have been operated by Marion Laboratories, the pharmaceutical empire established by Ewing Kauffman. Aventis, later Sanofi-Aventis, has owned it since 2000. "There were a number of criteria involved in deciding to close, but ultimately, it was a lack of growth in demand for the products made in Kansas City," said Jack Cox, a spokesman for the French firm.