- Green Cross (Japan)
Green Cross Corporation (株式会社ミドリ十字; "Kabushiki Gaisha Midori Jūji") was one of the premier pharmaceutical companies in
Japan . The company merged intoYoshitomi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (吉富製薬株式会社) onApril 1 ,1998 , and renamed toWelfide Corporation (ウェルファイド株式会社) onApril 1 ,2000 . Finally Welfide Corp. andMitsubishi-Tokyo Pharmaceutical Inc. (三菱東京製薬株式会社) were merged to formMitsubishi Pharma Corporation (三菱ウェルファーマ株式会社) onOctober 1 ,2001 .Green Cross was founded in 1950 as Japan's first commercial
blood bank and became a diversified international pharmaceutical company producing ethical drugs for delivery or administration by doctors and healthcare workers. Its founders included war criminals such as Kitano Masaji who performed torture and experimentations on humans in the Japanese military's notoriousUnit 731 duringWorld War II .Its products were extensively used in the treatments of a wide range of ailments. As well as supplying whole blood for transfusions, Green Cross was also active in developing blood derivative products such as coagulation factors, immunoglobulin and albumin. In the mid 1960s, it expanded into the non-plasma sector. Cardiovascular agents, coagulation/fibrinolytic agents, immunological agents, anti-inflammatory agents, albumin-based agents, blood plasma components and parenteral nutrition accounted for 71% of fiscal 1998 unconsolidated revenues; wholesale of diagnostic reagents, 14% and other, 15%. Unconsolidated revenues accounted for 59.5% of fiscal 1998 consolidated revenues. The company had eleven consolidated subsidiaries, three each in the
United States and Japan, and one each inGermany , theUnited Kingdom ,Barbados ,China andHong Kong . Overseas sales accounted for 41.9% of fiscal 1998 consolidated revenues.In the late 1980s, Green Cross and Takeshi Abe were at the center of a scandal in which up to 2,000 Japanese contracted
HIV through the distribution and use of blood products which were known to be unsafe.ee also
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HIV-tainted blood scandal (Japan)
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