Pharmacia
Encyclopedia
Pharmacia was a pharmaceutical
and biotechnological
company in Sweden
.
, Sweden by pharmacist Gustav Felix Grönfeldt at the Elgen Pharmacy. The company is named after the Greek word φαρμακεία, transliterated pharmakeia, which means 'sorcery'. In the company's early days, much of its profits were derived from the "miracle medicine" Phospho-Energon
.
During World War II
, Swedish chemist Björn Ingelman (who worked for Arne Tiselius
at Uppsala university
) researched various uses for the polysaccharide
dextran
. Together with the medical researcher Anders Grönwall, he discovered that dextran could be used as a replacement for blood plasma
in blood transfusions, for which there could be a large need in wartime. Pharmacia, which then was still a small company, was contacted in 1943 and its CEO Elis Göth was very interested. The product Macrodex, a dextran solution, was launched four years later.
Dextran-based products were to play a significant role in the further expansion of Pharmacia. In 1951, the company moved to Uppsala
, Sweden, to get closer to the scientists with whom they cooperated, and Ingelman became its head of research. In 1959, Pharmacia pioneered gel filtration with its Sephadex
products. These were also based on dextran and discoveries in Tiselius' department, this time by Jerker Porath
and Per Flodin. In 1967 Pharmacia Fine Chemicals was established in Uppsala. In 1986 Pharmacia Fine Chemicals acquired LKB-produkter AB and changed name to Pharmacia Biotech. Pharmacia Biotech expanded there role in the 'biotech revolution' through its acquisition of PL Laboratories from Pabst Brewery offering a line of recombinant DNA specialty research chemicals. Sold to private interests in the 1990s, Pharmacia was first merged with "Kabi Vitrum" to form Kabi Pharmacia with headquarters in Uppsala. Kabi was later excluded. Then the company merged with the American
pharmaceutical company Upjohn
in 1995 and moved its headquarters to London
.
In 1997 the Uppsala based biotechnology division Pharmacia Biotech merged with Amersham
Life Science (U.K.) and took the name Amersham Pharmacia Biotech. The Pharmacia name was later dropped when Pharmacia & Upjohn sold its share of the company to Amersham plc
. The company changed its name to Amersham Biosciences in 2001. In 2004 Amersham Biosciences was acquired by GE Healthcare
. The Life sciences division of GE Healthcare still has its headquarters in Uppsala.
In 1999, the nutrition division was sold to Fresenius. The merged company "Pharmacia & Upjohn
" merged with the American bioindustry and medical company Monsanto Company in 2000. The resulting conglomerate took the name of "Pharmacia Corp.". The agricultural chemical division under the name Monsanto was sold in 2002, keeping the original pharmaceutical division from Searle. In July 2002, Pharmacia was bought by Pfizer
. In 2004, the Uppsala based allergy-diagnostic division of legacy Pharmacia was sold off as Pharmacia Diagnostics. On January 16, 2006, Pharmacia Diagnostics announced that its name was changed to Phadia
, which has ended the use of the Pharmacia trademark. Later in 2004, the Uppsala-based ophtalmology division was sold to AMO
. The remains of Pharmacia in Uppsala was sold to the Indian company Kemwell in 2006. The remains of the Stockholm based part of Pharmacia was partly spun off to Biovitrum
in 2001, which sold off its plasma products division to Octapharma
in 2002. The rest was moved to Belgium in 2008. The company's facilities in Strängnäs
Sweden are presently being expanded for the production of Genotropin
, a growth hormone.
Pharmacia was one of Uppsala's largest employers outside the private sector, with over 4000 employees in the Uppsala region in 1996. However, the biotechnological know-how remaining in the wake of Pharmacia, as well as the presence of biotechnology research and education at Uppsala University
, led to a larger number of people being employed in the sector in 2005 compared to 2002 when the merger with Pfizer took place. Many small and medium spin-offs from Pharmacia have granted future employment to many.
Pharmaceutical company
The pharmaceutical industry develops, produces, and markets drugs licensed for use as medications. Pharmaceutical companies are allowed to deal in generic and/or brand medications and medical devices...
and biotechnological
Biotechnology
Biotechnology is a field of applied biology that involves the use of living organisms and bioprocesses in engineering, technology, medicine and other fields requiring bioproducts. Biotechnology also utilizes these products for manufacturing purpose...
company in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
.
History
Pharmacia was founded in 1911 in StockholmStockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
, Sweden by pharmacist Gustav Felix Grönfeldt at the Elgen Pharmacy. The company is named after the Greek word φαρμακεία, transliterated pharmakeia, which means 'sorcery'. In the company's early days, much of its profits were derived from the "miracle medicine" Phospho-Energon
Phospho-Energon
Phospho-Energon, often just called Energon, was a 'miracle medicine' produced and distributed in Sweden. Through the sales of Phospho-Energon, the emerging Swedish pharmaceutical company A.B. Pharmacia was able to establish itself on the market...
.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Swedish chemist Björn Ingelman (who worked for Arne Tiselius
Arne Tiselius
Arne Wilhelm Kaurin Tiselius was a Swedish biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1948.- Biography:Tiselius was born in Stockholm...
at Uppsala university
Uppsala University
Uppsala University is a research university in Uppsala, Sweden, and is the oldest university in Scandinavia, founded in 1477. It consistently ranks among the best universities in Northern Europe in international rankings and is generally considered one of the most prestigious institutions of...
) researched various uses for the polysaccharide
Polysaccharide
Polysaccharides are long carbohydrate molecules, of repeated monomer units joined together by glycosidic bonds. They range in structure from linear to highly branched. Polysaccharides are often quite heterogeneous, containing slight modifications of the repeating unit. Depending on the structure,...
dextran
Dextran
Dextran is a complex, branched glucan composed of chains of varying lengths...
. Together with the medical researcher Anders Grönwall, he discovered that dextran could be used as a replacement for blood plasma
Blood plasma
Blood plasma is the straw-colored liquid component of blood in which the blood cells in whole blood are normally suspended. It makes up about 55% of the total blood volume. It is the intravascular fluid part of extracellular fluid...
in blood transfusions, for which there could be a large need in wartime. Pharmacia, which then was still a small company, was contacted in 1943 and its CEO Elis Göth was very interested. The product Macrodex, a dextran solution, was launched four years later.
Dextran-based products were to play a significant role in the further expansion of Pharmacia. In 1951, the company moved to Uppsala
Uppsala
- Economy :Today Uppsala is well established in medical research and recognized for its leading position in biotechnology.*Abbott Medical Optics *GE Healthcare*Pfizer *Phadia, an offshoot of Pharmacia*Fresenius*Q-Med...
, Sweden, to get closer to the scientists with whom they cooperated, and Ingelman became its head of research. In 1959, Pharmacia pioneered gel filtration with its Sephadex
Sephadex
Sephadex is a trademark for cross-linked dextran gel used for gel filtration. It was launched by Pharmacia in 1959, after development work by Jerker Porath and Per Flodin. The name is derived from separation Pharmacia dextran. It is normally manufactured in a bead form and most commonly used for...
products. These were also based on dextran and discoveries in Tiselius' department, this time by Jerker Porath
Jerker Porath
Jerker Porath, born 23 October 1921 in Sala, is a Swedish biochemist who has invented several separation methods for biomolecules.Porath studied at Uppsala University and initially did research in organic chemistry under Arne Fredga, where he got his licentiate degree...
and Per Flodin. In 1967 Pharmacia Fine Chemicals was established in Uppsala. In 1986 Pharmacia Fine Chemicals acquired LKB-produkter AB and changed name to Pharmacia Biotech. Pharmacia Biotech expanded there role in the 'biotech revolution' through its acquisition of PL Laboratories from Pabst Brewery offering a line of recombinant DNA specialty research chemicals. Sold to private interests in the 1990s, Pharmacia was first merged with "Kabi Vitrum" to form Kabi Pharmacia with headquarters in Uppsala. Kabi was later excluded. Then the company merged with the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
pharmaceutical company Upjohn
Upjohn
The Upjohn Company was a pharmaceutical manufacturing firm founded in 1886 in Kalamazoo, Michigan by Dr. William E. Upjohn, an 1875 graduate of the University of Michigan medical school. The company was originally formed to make friable pills, which were specifically designed to be easily digested...
in 1995 and moved its headquarters to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
In 1997 the Uppsala based biotechnology division Pharmacia Biotech merged with Amersham
Amersham plc
Amersham plc was a UK pharmaceutical company, specializing in medical diagnostics and life science products. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but was purchased by General Electric; it is now part of GE Healthcare.-History:The company had...
Life Science (U.K.) and took the name Amersham Pharmacia Biotech. The Pharmacia name was later dropped when Pharmacia & Upjohn sold its share of the company to Amersham plc
Amersham plc
Amersham plc was a UK pharmaceutical company, specializing in medical diagnostics and life science products. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but was purchased by General Electric; it is now part of GE Healthcare.-History:The company had...
. The company changed its name to Amersham Biosciences in 2001. In 2004 Amersham Biosciences was acquired by GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare is a division of GE Technology Infrastructure, which is itself a division of General Electric . It employs more than 46,000 people worldwide and is headquartered in Little Chalfont, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom. GE Healthcare is the first GE business segment to be headquartered...
. The Life sciences division of GE Healthcare still has its headquarters in Uppsala.
In 1999, the nutrition division was sold to Fresenius. The merged company "Pharmacia & Upjohn
Upjohn
The Upjohn Company was a pharmaceutical manufacturing firm founded in 1886 in Kalamazoo, Michigan by Dr. William E. Upjohn, an 1875 graduate of the University of Michigan medical school. The company was originally formed to make friable pills, which were specifically designed to be easily digested...
" merged with the American bioindustry and medical company Monsanto Company in 2000. The resulting conglomerate took the name of "Pharmacia Corp.". The agricultural chemical division under the name Monsanto was sold in 2002, keeping the original pharmaceutical division from Searle. In July 2002, Pharmacia was bought by Pfizer
Pfizer
Pfizer, Inc. is an American multinational pharmaceutical corporation. The company is based in New York City, New York with its research headquarters in Groton, Connecticut, United States...
. In 2004, the Uppsala based allergy-diagnostic division of legacy Pharmacia was sold off as Pharmacia Diagnostics. On January 16, 2006, Pharmacia Diagnostics announced that its name was changed to Phadia
Phadia
Phadia develops, manufactures and markets blood test systems to support the clinical diagnosis and monitoring of allergy, asthma and autoimmune diseases. The company is headquartered in Uppsala, Sweden...
, which has ended the use of the Pharmacia trademark. Later in 2004, the Uppsala-based ophtalmology division was sold to AMO
Advanced Medical Optics
Abbott Medical Optics Inc. earlier known as Advanced Medical Optics, Inc. is a global medical supply company. Products in the ophthalmic surgical line include intraocular lenses, laser vision correction systems, phacoemulsification systems, viscoelastics, microkeratomes and related products used...
. The remains of Pharmacia in Uppsala was sold to the Indian company Kemwell in 2006. The remains of the Stockholm based part of Pharmacia was partly spun off to Biovitrum
Biovitrum
Swedish Orphan Biovitrum is a Swedish pharmaceutical company, based in Stockholm, Sweden, with a product portfolio consisting of some 60 orphan and specialty pharmaceuticals.- History :...
in 2001, which sold off its plasma products division to Octapharma
Octapharma
Octapharma AG is the largest privately owned plasma product manufacturer in the world. It is headquartered in Lachen, Switzerland.Octapharma’s core business is the development, production and sale of high quality human proteins derived from blood plasma or recombinant technologies...
in 2002. The rest was moved to Belgium in 2008. The company's facilities in Strängnäs
Strängnäs
Strängnäs is a locality and the seat of Strängnäs Municipality, Södermanland County, Sweden with 12,296 inhabitants in 2005. It is located by Lake Mälaren and is the episcopal see of the Diocese of Strängnäs, a former Roman Catholic and present Lutheran Diocese, with the Strängnäs Cathedral, built...
Sweden are presently being expanded for the production of Genotropin
Growth hormone
Growth hormone is a peptide hormone that stimulates growth, cell reproduction and regeneration in humans and other animals. Growth hormone is a 191-amino acid, single-chain polypeptide that is synthesized, stored, and secreted by the somatotroph cells within the lateral wings of the anterior...
, a growth hormone.
Pharmacia was one of Uppsala's largest employers outside the private sector, with over 4000 employees in the Uppsala region in 1996. However, the biotechnological know-how remaining in the wake of Pharmacia, as well as the presence of biotechnology research and education at Uppsala University
Uppsala University
Uppsala University is a research university in Uppsala, Sweden, and is the oldest university in Scandinavia, founded in 1477. It consistently ranks among the best universities in Northern Europe in international rankings and is generally considered one of the most prestigious institutions of...
, led to a larger number of people being employed in the sector in 2005 compared to 2002 when the merger with Pfizer took place. Many small and medium spin-offs from Pharmacia have granted future employment to many.