The former Hoechst AG and today's
Industriepark Höchst
Hoechst AG was a German
chemicals
then life-sciences company that became Aventis after its merger with Rhône-Poulenc S.A. in 1999, and now
Sanofi-Aventis after 2004. It
has been called "The pharmacy of the world" for its important role
in the world's drug market.
History
Building and operating licence for the
chemical plant Meister, Lucius & Co. by the administration of
the Duchy of Nassau in 1862
The
company was founded in 1863 as "Teerfarbenfabrik Meister, Lucius
& Co." in Höchst
, near Frankfurt
and changed its name some years later to
"Teerfarbenfabrik Meister Lucius & Brüning". In 1880 it
became a stock company "Farbwerke vorm. Meister Lucius &
Brüning AG". For the international market the name was simplified
to "Farbwerke Hoechst AG". Until 1925 the Hoechst AG was
independent. In 1916, the Hoechst AG was one of the co-founders of
IG Farben, a pressure group of Germany's
chemicals industry to gain industrial power during and after World
War I. In 1925 the IG Farben turned from a pressure group into the
well-known conglomerate.
World War II - Various Hoechst
facilities were bombed during the
Oil Campaign of World War
II
1951 - Hoechst AG was re-founded on
December 7 in Frankfurt when IG Farben was split
into its founder companies. The original capitalization of the
company was 100,000
Deutsche Mark. By
1953 Hoechst had acquired parts of
Knapsack-Griesheim, Kalle AG, Behring Werke,
Wacker Chemie and Ruhr Chemie, among
others.
1969 - Hoechst acquired
Cassella.
1987 - Hoechst acquired the American chemical
company
Celanese and formed a new Hoechst
subsidiary in the US, Hoechst Celanese.
1994 - The U.S.
National Right to Life
Committee announced a U.S. boycott of all Hoechst
pharmaceutical products including
Altace.
1994 (September 17) - Pharmacists For Life
International joins the international boycott, "...against the
American subsidiary of Hoechst, AG Hoechst-Roussel,
Hoechst-Celanese, its generic subsidiary Coply Pharmaceuticals and
the agricultural Hoechst subsidiary" while asking U.S. consumers to
"focus on key Hoechst drugs which have the most economic impact
rather than taking an across-the-board shotgun approach" and
specifically listing
Altace as a boycott list
item.
1995 - Hoechst merges with
Marion Merrell Dow of Kansas City,
Missouri forming U.S. subsidiary Hoechst Marion Roussel (HMR).
Altace was bringing in under $90 million in
revenues for Hoechst and Hoechst had stopped promoting Altace
within the United States.
1995 - The
King
Pharmaceuticals President Jefferson "Jeff" Gregory first begins
negotiations with Hoechst to acquire U.S. distribution rights to
Altace.
1997 - Hoechst underwent a realignment wherein
its various businesses were transferred to independent companies,
including
Nutrinova and
Clariant.
1997 (April 2) - The anti-abortion group
Concerned Women For
America announces at a National Right To Life Committee press
briefing at the National Press Club that the anti-
RU486 boycott against the U.S. subsidiaries of Hoechst
AG & Roussel Uclaf by the NRTLC "...will be more narrowly
focused onto the HMR prescription drugs Allegra, Cardizem, Seldane,
Claforan, Lasix, DiaBeta, and Nicoderm" - and Altace is
auspiciously no longer included by Concerned Women For Americas as
a boycotted Hoechst Marion Roussel product.
1998 (December 18) - The
King Pharmaceuticals wholly owned
subsidiary
Monarch
Pharmaceuticals, Inc. acquires ownership of U.S. distribution
rights to
Altace and other Hoechst products
from Hoechst AG subsidiary Hoechst Marion Roussel of Kansas City,
Missouri.
1999 (December 7) - Hoechst and Rhone-Poulenc
Settle Federal Trade Commission charges that merger would violate
U.S. antitrust laws;
1999 -
Aventis was
formed when Hoechst AG merged with
Rhône-Poulenc S.A.
The merged company was
headquartered in Strasbourg
, Eastern France
. As
part of the merger, the company demerged many of its industrial
businesses into Celanese, which became an independent company
again.
Today, Hoechst as a company has been completely absorbed into the
French company
Sanofi-Aventis.
References
-
http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/ProLife.News/1994/pln-0419.txt
- Forbes.com - Magazine Article
- Concerned Women for America - Boycott of New Drug
'Allegra' Aimed at Protecting Women & Children From Dangers of
RU-486
- http://www.custservices.com/news.asp?up=8
- Notes
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