Pharmacia was a

pharmaceutical A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field and re ...

and

biotechnological Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used ...

company in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

that merged with the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

pharmaceutical company

Upjohn The Upjohn Company was a pharmaceutical manufacturing firm founded in 1886 in Hastings, Michigan, by Dr. William E. Upjohn who was an 1875 graduate of the University of Michigan medical school. The company was originally formed to make ''friabl ...

in 1995.

History

Pharmacia company was founded in 1911 in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

, 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, often just called Energon, was a "miracle medicine" produced and distributed in Sweden. Through the sales of Phospho-Energon, the emerging Swedish pharmaceutical company Pharmacia (founded in 1911 out of the ''Elgen'' pharmacy in ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Swedish chemist Björn Ingelman (who worked for

Arne Tiselius Arne Wilhelm Kaurin Tiselius (10 August 1902 – 29 October 1971) was a Swedish biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1948 "for his research on electrophoresis and adsorption analysis, especially for his discoveries concerning ...

Uppsala university Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in opera ...

) researched various uses for the polysaccharide

dextran Dextran is a complex branched glucan ( polysaccharide derived from the condensation of glucose), originally derived from wine. IUPAC defines dextrans as "Branched poly-α-d-glucosides of microbial origin having glycosidic bonds predominantly C-1 ...

. Together with the medical researcher Anders Grönwall, he discovered that dextran could be used as a replacement for

blood plasma Blood plasma is a light amber-colored liquid component of blood in which blood cells are absent, but contains proteins and other constituents of whole blood in suspension. It makes up about 55% of the body's total blood volume. It is the intra ...

blood transfusions Blood transfusion is the process of transferring blood products into a person's circulation intravenously. Transfusions are used for various medical conditions to replace lost components of the blood. Early transfusions used whole blood, but mod ...

, 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 (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inha ...

, Sweden, to get closer to the scientists with whom they cooperated, and Ingelman became its head of research. In 1959, Pharmacia pioneered

gel filtration Size-exclusion chromatography (SEC), also known as molecular sieve chromatography, is a chromatographic method in which molecules in solution are separated by their size, and in some cases molecular weight. It is usually applied to large molecul ...

with its

Sephadex Sephadex is a 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 bea ...

products. These were also based on dextran and discoveries in Tiselius' department, this time by

Jerker Porath Jerker Porath, (23 October 1921 – 21 January 2016) was a Swedish biochemist who invented several separation methods for biomolecules. He was born in Sala.

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 their 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. In 1993, Kabi Pharmacia bought

Farmitalia Farmitalia was an Italian pharmaceutical company best known for its parallel discovery with Rhone-Poulenc of daunorubicin and subsequent discovery of doxorubicin. Farmitalia had been founded in 1935 as a joint venture by Rhone-Poulenc and Monte ...

, an Italian company that had developed

doxorubicin Doxorubicin, sold under the brand name Adriamycin among others, is a chemotherapy medication used to treat cancer. This includes breast cancer, bladder cancer, Kaposi's sarcoma, lymphoma, and acute lymphocytic leukemia. It is often used toge ...

, a chemotherapeutic.Staff
News: Farmitalia bought by Kabi Pharmacia
. Ann Oncol (1993) 4 (5): 345. In 1995 the company merged with the

pharmaceutical company

, becoming known as

Pharmacia & Upjohn Pharmacia & Upjohn was a global pharmaceutical company formed by the merger of Sweden-based Pharmacia AB and the American company Upjohn in 1995. Today the remainder of the company is owned by Pfizer. In 1997, Pharmacia & Upjohn sold several bra ...

and moved its headquarters to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. In 1998, the company was divided into two business area. The pharmaceutical business became Pharmacia & Upjohn. The scientific instruments groups which sold chromatography resin, purification equipment, molecular biology reagents and electrophoresis products was purchased by

Amersham Amersham ( ) is a market town and civil parish within the unitary authority of Buckinghamshire, England, in the Chiltern Hills, northwest of central London, from Aylesbury and from High Wycombe. Amersham is part of the London commuter belt. ...

in 1998 and was named Amersham Pharmacia Biotech. They later changed the name to Amersham Biosciences and ran their radiochemical and reagents business along with the highly profitable chromatography business. The Pharmacia Logo Drop remained as a highly recognized brand. Amersham Biosciences was sold to GE Healthcare in April 1998 to become GE Healthcare Life Sciences. From 1 April 2020, GE Healthcare Life Sciences has been renamed in Cytiva, following the sale of GE Healthcare Life Sciences from

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...

Danaher Corporation Danaher Corporation is an American globally diversified conglomerate with its headquarters in Washington, D.C. The company designs, manufactures, and markets professional, medical, industrial, and commercial products and services. The company's ...

in a $21.4 billion acquisition.

Overview

The following is an illustration of the company's mergers, acquisitions,

spin-offs Spin-off may refer to: *Spin-off (media), a media work derived from an existing work *Corporate spin-off, a type of corporate action that forms a new company or entity * Government spin-off, civilian goods which are the result of military or gov ...

and historical predecessors:

References

External links

Cytiva
{{Authority control Pharmaceutical companies of Sweden Biotechnology companies of Sweden Defunct companies of Sweden Pfizer Pharmaceutical companies established in 1911 Pharmaceutical companies disestablished in 2002 Life sciences industry Biotechnology companies disestablished in 2002 Uppsala Swedish companies established in 1911 Swedish companies disestablished in 2002