 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Pharmaceuticals |
| Founded | 1971 (by merger with Plough, Inc.) |
| Defunct | November 2009; 16 years ago (2009-11) |
| Fate | Merged withMerck & Co. |
| Headquarters | Kenilworth, New Jersey |
Key people | Fred Hassan Final CEO & Chairman |
| Revenue | US$18.502 billion (2008) |
| US$1.903 billion (2008) | |
| Parent | Merck & Co. |
Schering-Plough Corporation was an American pharmaceutical company. It was originally the U.S.subsidiary of the German companySchering AG, which was founded in 1851 byErnst Christian Friedrich Schering. As a result ofnationalization, it became an independent company. In 1971, the Schering Corporation merged with Plough, Inc. (founded by Memphis-based entrepreneurAbe Plough in 1908[1]) to form Schering-Plough. On November 4, 2009Merck & Co. merged with Schering-Plough with the new company taking the name of Merck & Co.
Schering-Plough manufactured several pharmaceuticaldrugs, the most well-known of which were theallergy drugsClaritin andClarinex, an anti-cholesterol drugVytorin, and abrain tumor drugTemodar. These are now available from Merck & Co.[2]
Schering-Plough also owned and operated the major foot care brand nameDr. Scholl's and the skin care lineCoppertone. These also became a part of the new company.[3]
As of June 2005[update], Schering-Plough had 1.4% market share in the U.S., placing it seventeenth in the top twenty pharmaceutical corporations by sales compiled byIMS Health.[citation needed]
Schering-Plough was a full member of theEuropean Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA),[4] a membership which is also maintained by the new Merck & Co.[5]
Schering was founded in 1851 byErnst Christian Friedrich Schering asSchering AG inGermany.[citation needed]
Plough, Incorporated was founded by theMemphis, Tennessee area entrepreneur Abe Plough (1892–1984) in 1908. He borrowed $125 from his father to start the business at age sixteen. As a one-man business, he mixed "Plough's Antiseptic Healing Oil," a "sure cure for any ill of man or beast," and sold it off a horse-drawn buggy.[1]
Plough's acquisitions included St Joseph's Aspirin for children,[1]Maybelline cosmetics, andCoppertone skin care products. Plough also had a broadcasting division, operating radio stations inAtlanta, Georgia (WPLO-AM &FM);Baltimore, Maryland (WCAO-AM &FM);Boston, Massachusetts (WCOP-AM &FM);Chicago, Illinois (WJJD-AM &FM); andMemphis, Tennessee (WMPS-AM &FM).[6]
Following the entry of theUnited States intoWorld War II in 1941, U.S. PresidentFranklin Delano Roosevelt orderedSchering AG's U.S. assets be seized. These became the Schering Corporation. The company was placed under a government administratorship until 1952, when it was released, and its assets sold to the private sector.[citation needed]
In 1957, Schering acquired White Laboratories.[7]
In 1971, the Schering Corporation merged with Plough, Inc. At the time of the merger, Abe Plough became Chairman of the combined company.[8]In 2000, Schering-Plough bought a new campus inSummit, New Jersey fromNovartis.[citation needed]
On March 12, 2007, Schering-Plough Corp. purchasedOrganon BioSciences, the drug unit of Netherlands-basedAkzo Nobel, for $14.4 billion, giving the US pharmaceutical company an array of women's health products and numerous late-stage pipelines of experimental medicines.[9]Organon itself was founded in 1923 by Dr. Saal van Zwanenberg, the president of Zwanenberg's Slachterijen en Fabrieken.[citation needed]
On November 4, 2009 Schering-Plough merged withMerck & Co. and through areverse merger, Merck became a subsidiary of Schering-Plough, which renamed itself Merck.[10][11][12][13]
One of Schering-Plough's plants, inUpper Hutt, New Zealand was the largest single site for the production of veterinaryvaccines in the world.[citation needed] This was primarily becauseNew Zealand's isolation has formed a naturalquarantine, leaving the country free ofrabies,foot and mouth,scrapie,bovine spongiform encephalopathy, and many other livestock diseases. It formerly hadechinococcosis, but this has been eradicated. The site was known locally asCoopers Animal Health, a trademark which originated in the 1850s with a British company,Cooper & Nephews; the Coopers brand name was still in use by Schering-Plough in Australia, but not elsewhere.[14]
As a result of the acquisition of Organon BioSciences, Schering-Plough bolstered its animal health business with theAkzo Nobel subsidiary Intervet, obtained control of the active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturer,Diosynth and gained access to human vaccine production through the subsidiary Nobilon. The three companies comprising Organon BioSciences were Organon, Diosynth, and Intervet.[9] HomeAgain continues to use the Intervet name owned by Merck.
After the merger of Schering-Plough with Merck the animal health division was still known as Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health.[15] A merger of Merial and Intervet/Schering-Plough was planned in 2010 but was abandoned in March 2011.[16] On June 29, 2011, the company announced that the animal health division would now be known asMerck Animal Health in the United States and Canada; it is now calledMSD Animal Health elsewhere in the world.[17]
| Name | Tenure |
|---|---|
| Willibald H. Conzen | 1971 – 1979 |
| Richard J. Bennett | 1979 – January 31, 1982 |
| Robert P. Luciano | February 1, 1982 – December 31, 1995 |
| Richard J. Kogan | January 1, 1996 – April 2003 |
| Fred Hassan | April 2003 – November 3, 2009 |
Schering-Plough also received much publicity for a drugAICAR which mimics the effects of exercise, having especially potent effects when used alongside another drugGW1516 developed byGlaxoSmithKline.[citation needed]
In addition to internal research and development activitiesSchering-Plough was also involved in publicly funded collaborative research projects, with other industrial and academic partners. One example innon-clinical safety assessment was theInnoMed PredTox.[29][30]
In 2004, Schering-Plough was accused of marketing gimmicks and payoffs to doctors for prescribing the company's pharmaceutical products.[31]
Schering-Plough entered aconsent decree with the FDA on March 6, 2002 due to manufacturing issues with its albuterol inhaler. It was ordered to pay $500 million US dollars to the US Treasury.[32]
