Pharmacia

Pharmacia was a pharmaceutical company in Sweden.

History

Pharmacia was founded in 1911 in Stockholm, Sweden. The company moved to Uppsala, Sweden in 1951. In 1967 Pharmacia Fine Chemicals was established in Uppsala. In 1986 Pharmacia Fine Chemicals acquired LKB-produkter AB and changed name to Pharmacia Biotech. 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 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 2003, Pharmacia is 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, wihch sold off it's 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 public sector, with over 4000 employees in the Uppsala region in 1996. [Fridh, Ann-Charlotte. 2003. The Exit of Pharmacia and Regional Growth. Paper provided by The Ratio Institute in its series "Ratio Working Papers", no 22. Available: [http://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/ratioi/0022.html ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/ratioi/0022.html] ] 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 Upjohn took place. [ [http://www.eurotrib.com/story/2005/11/26/21135/437 Interview with the then Minister of Industry and Trade] , Thomas Östros, in Le Monde, translated and published in European Tribune on November 29, 2005.] Many small and medium spin-offs from Pharmacia has granted future employment to many.

External links

* [http://www.gelifesciences.com/ GE Healthcare Life sciences]

References