Glaxo, firm

French firms, Rhc ne-Poulenc and, to a lesser extent, Roussel-Uclaf. Smaller amounts are produced in Japan by Nippon Petrochemical, in Hungary by Medimpex-Richter, and by minor producers in several other countries. Barber manufacturers, particularly Merck (U.S.) and Glaxo (U.K.), have exited the market. Although estimates vary, it appears that ca 10,000 kg/yr of vitamin is produced (1). 

Second, the vaccine industry is small and unstable. It basically consists of four major pharmaceutical firms many smaller, older vaccine manufacturers and a number of biotech firms. In 2001, the dominant vaccine manufacturers in the U.S. market were Merck, Aventis Pasteur, Glaxo, and Wyeth-Ayerst (now Wyeth). Annual vaccine sales for these four firms are in the 1 billion range for each of the first three companies and around 500 million for Wyeth. Recent reports, such as those on the shortage of influenza vaccine, indicate that these firms confront a number of problems in vaccine production. A number of smaller firms hold FDA licenses for vaccines based on technology from earlier eras and face disincentives, including prohibitively high capital costs, to upgrade production capabilities to... 

Within the pharmaceutical industry itself, the wish of each company s management to see its firm reach what is considered a critical size remained a constant feature as the century came to an end and the new millennium began. It led to new national and transnational mergers. In France, Sanofi (Elf Aquitaine) merged with Synthelabo (L Oreal) and Laboratoires Pierre Fabre with BioMerieux. Elsewhere the Swedish Astra and the British Zeneca combined their operations Pharmacia-Upjohn took control of Monsanto and two giant firms, Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham, announced their intention to combine their activities, which would lead to a group with a turnover of 25 billion, exceeded only by Pfizer after its acquisition of Warner Lambert. 

Source WiULam Breckon, The Drug Makers (London Eyre Methnen, 1972), p. 29. Breckon provides two tables for the top seUing companies, in 1962 and again in 1967. The first indndes Allen and Hanbury, which Glaxo acquired in 1958. In this table I ve added that firm s totals to that of Glaxo. May and Baker (no. 10) had become a subsidiary of Rhone-Poulenc. 

Due to colonial or other links, some of the MNCs, for example GlaxoSmithKline (Glaxo as the firm then was known), had offices in some African countries. But as the MNCs started focusing more on the larger and more lucrative developed country markets, the African markets, especially in small countries, became less and less important for them and they started closing down their offices. Of course, their products were still available, but these imports were managed by their agents - local importers/distributors. 

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