Schering-Plough
Schering-Plough Corporation was an American pharmaceutical company. It was originally the U.S. subsidiary of the German company Schering AG, which was founded in 1851 by Ernst Christian Friedrich Schering. As a result of nationalization, it became an independent company. In 1971, the Schering Corporation merged with Plough, Inc. (founded by Memphis-based entrepreneur Abe Plough in 1908[1]) to form Schering-Plough. On November 4, 2009 Merck & Co. merged with Schering-Plough with the new company taking the name of Merck & Co.
Company type
1971 (by merger with Plough, Inc.)
November 2009
Merged with Merck & Co.
Fred Hassan
Final CEO & Chairman
US$18.502 billion (2008)
US$1.903 billion (2008)
Schering-Plough manufactured several pharmaceutical drugs, the most well-known of which were the allergy drugs Claritin and Clarinex, an anti-cholesterol drug Vytorin, and a brain tumor drug Temodar. These are now available from Merck & Co.[2]
Schering-Plough also owned and operated the major foot care brand name Dr. Scholl's and the skin care line Coppertone. These also became a part of the new company.[3]
As of June 2005, Schering-Plough had 1.4% market share in the U.S., placing it seventeenth in the top twenty pharmaceutical corporations by sales compiled by IMS Health.
Schering-Plough was a full member of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA),[4] a membership which is also maintained by the new Merck & Co.[5]
History[edit]
Pharmaceuticals and consumer products[edit]
Schering was founded in 1851 by Ernst Christian Friedrich Schering as Schering AG in Germany.
Plough, Incorporated was founded by the Memphis, 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, and Coppertone skin care products. Plough also had a broadcasting division, operating radio stations in Atlanta, Georgia (WPLO-AM & FM); Baltimore, Maryland (WCAO-AM & FM); Boston, Massachusetts (WCOP-AM & FM); Chicago, Illinois (WJJD-AM & FM); and Memphis, Tennessee (WMPS-AM & FM).[6]
Following the entry of the United States into World War II in 1941, U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt ordered Schering 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.
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 in Summit, New Jersey from Novartis.
On March 12, 2007, Schering-Plough Corp. purchased Organon BioSciences, the drug unit of Netherlands-based Akzo 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.
On November 4, 2009 Schering-Plough merged with Merck & Co. and through a reverse merger, Merck became a subsidiary of Schering-Plough, which renamed itself Merck.[10][11][12][13]
Exercise drug[edit]
Schering-Plough also received much publicity for a drug AICAR which mimics the effects of exercise, having especially potent effects when used alongside another drug GW1516 developed by GlaxoSmithKline.
Collaborative research[edit]
In addition to internal research and development activities Schering-Plough was also involved in publicly funded collaborative research projects, with other industrial and academic partners. One example in non-clinical safety assessment was the InnoMed PredTox.[29][30]
Controversy[edit]
In 2004, Schering-Plough was accused of marketing gimmicks and payoffs to doctors for prescribing the company's pharmaceutical products.[31]
Schering-Plough entered a consent 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]