Celltech Group plc was a leading

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

-based

biotechnology 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 ...

business based in Slough. It was listed on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...

and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

History

Celltech was founded by Gerard Fairtlough in 1980 with finance from the

National Enterprise Board The National Enterprise Board (NEB) was a United Kingdom government body. It was set up in 1975 by the Labour government of Harold Wilson, to support the government's interventionist approach to industry. In 1981 the Conservative government of Ma ...

. Amongst the work conducted at Celltech was the cloning of the glutamine synthetase (GS) gene in CHO cells leading to the creation of a biotechnology tool still widely used to express recombinant eukaryotic proteins. In 1999 Celltech led consolidation in the UK biosciences market merging with ''Chiroscience plc'', after which it was briefly referred to as ''Celltech Chiroscience,'' and then buying ''Medeva plc''. Then in 2000 it bought ''Cistron'', a US biosciences business. It expanded into Germany in 2001 buying Thiemann, a German biosciences business, and went on to buy Oxford Glycosciences in July 2003 for £102m. Celltech was acquired by UCB, a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

drugmaker, in 2004. Since then it has been known as ''UCB Celltech''.

Operations

The Company was engaged in research and development of therapies for patients with serious diseases. Products included:Businessweek: Celltech Group
* Tussionex for

cough A cough is a sudden expulsion of air through the large breathing passages that can help clear them of fluids, irritants, foreign particles and microbes. As a protective reflex, coughing can be repetitive with the cough reflex following three ph ...

s * Zaroxolyn for resistant edema *

Methylphenidate Methylphenidate, sold under the brand names Ritalin and Concerta among others, is the most widely prescribed central nervous system (CNS) stimulant medication used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and, to a lesser exten ...

for ADHD * Amphetamine for ADHD and

narcolepsy Narcolepsy is a long-term neurological disorder that involves a decreased ability to regulate sleep–wake cycles. Symptoms often include periods of excessive daytime sleepiness and brief involuntary sleep episodes. About 70% of those affect ...

, as 5 mg Dexedrine tablets * Semprex-D, an

antihistamine Antihistamines are drugs which treat allergic rhinitis, common cold, influenza, and other allergies. Typically, people take antihistamines as an inexpensive, generic (not patented) drug that can be bought without a prescription and provid ...

and

decongestant A decongestant, or nasal decongestant, is a type of pharmaceutical drug that is used to relieve nasal congestion in the upper respiratory tract. The active ingredient in most decongestants is either pseudoephedrine or phenylephrine (the latter ...

* Inotuzumab ozogamicin and

gemtuzumab ozogamicin Gemtuzumab ozogamicin, sold under the brand name Mylotarg, is an antibody-drug conjugate (a drug-linked monoclonal antibody) that is used to treat acute myeloid leukemia. The most common grade 3 and higher adverse reactions that occurred during ...

, both through Celltech's collaboration with

Wyeth Wyeth, LLC was an American pharmaceutical company. The company was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1860 as ''John Wyeth and Brother''. It was later known, in the early 1930s, as American Home Products, before being renamed to Wyeth in ...

References

{{Authority control Pharmaceutical companies established in 1980 Companies based in Slough Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange 1980 establishments in England Pharmaceutical companies disestablished in 2004 2004 disestablishments in England

History

Operations

See also

References