Merck history

This book would not have been possible without the assistance of various institutions and individuals. The editors wish to express their appreciation to the following for providing the financial support necessary for the publication of this volume Division of History of Chemistry, American Chemical Society Merck and Company Smith Kline Corporation Dexter Chemical Corporation and Warner-Lambert Company. Thanks are also due to more people than we can acknowledge here, but we would at least like to single out the following individuals for their special efforts on behalf of this project Natalie Foster, Secretary-Treasurer, ACS Division of the History of Chemistry and Suzanne Roethel and Antoinette Drexler, ACS Books Department. 

Subsequently, a second, closely related molecule—lovastatin—was discovered by scientists at Merck in the United States in another fungal fermentation broth and by Sankyo in Japan. Lovastatin, marketed as Mevacor in the United States, proved both safe and efficacious for the intended nse and was the first statin to be approved for human use. Several others, some mentioned above, followed. The history of discovery and development of HMGR inhibitors has been pnUed together by Jonathan Tobert, who led the lovastatin and simvastatin clinical development effort at Merck. ... 

MDMA s history dates to the early years of the 20th century when researchers at the German pharmaceutical company Merck discovered the compound and a number of related amphetamine analogs, including 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA) and 3,4-methyl-enedioxy-N-ethylamphetamine (MDEA). Merck s research began as an attempt to discover a substance that could be used as a vasoconstrictor, a substance that causes a narrowing of blood vessels and can be used to reduce bleeding. 

In the early days of the chemical industry, manufacturers were reluctant to set up laboratories, but towards the end of the nineteenth century firms started to build laboratories both for analysis and research.280281 Analysis also played a role in the development of the laboratory in the early pharmaceutical industry.282 The history and development of the analytical and quality control laboratories at the Merck company in Darmstadt has been examined.283 The changing role of the chemist in the British alkali industry has also been investigated.284,285... 

This article owes much to help from archivists at the California Institute of Technology, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Merck, the National Archives and Records Administration, Princeton University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Pennsylvania. The author is grateful to them for their assistance, to the Dibner Institute for the History of Science for a visiting fellowship in autumn 1998, to the National Science Foundation for grant SBR-9729131, which... 

But the pressure succeeded. As the company s official history of Crixivan describes those days, It was difficult, indeed, not to be affected by demands that Merck assist patients in the United States and other countries who. . . faced imminent death.In the summer of 1995, nine months before getting final FDA approval, Merck agreed to provide Crixivan on an expanded access basis to 1,400 people in the United States and 750 in other countries. 

Along with the hominess comes an inevitable sense of history. George W. Merck had his headquarters in the brick building at the end of the entrance drive, with the three... 

Possehl, Ingunn, Modem by Tradition The History of the Chemical-Pharmaceutical Factory, E. Merck Darmstadt. 

Capsule histories of Merck and Pfizer, with hnancial information, are found in Hoover s Handbook of American Companies Profiles of Major U.S. Companies (Austin, TX Reference Press, 1995), pp. 600-601, 690-691. 

For an overview of Merck, see Thomas Derdak, ed.. International Directory of Company Histories, vol. 1 (Chicago St. James Press, 1988), pp. 650-652. Much more detail is provided in two papers by Louis Galambos and Jeffrey L. Sturchio, Transnational Investment The Merck Experience, 1891-1925, in Hans Pohl, Transnational Investment from the 19th Century to the Present (Stuttgart Verlag,... 

Beers MH, Berkow R, eds. History and physical examination. In Merck Manual of Geriatrics, 3d ed. Whitehouse Station, NJ, Merck, 2000 24-40. 

HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors drew more attention in 1985, as Dr. Michael S. Brown and Dr. Joseph S. Goldstein of the University of Texas won the Nobel prize for medicine for their work on LDL receptors. By November 14, 1986, Merck had finished its clinical and long-term animal studies and sent its new drug application (NDA) to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Lovastatin, with a IND/NDA classification of 1A, was approved within 9 months, bringing its total review time (from IND to NDA approval) to 1,204 days, making it one of the most rapidly approved drugs in the history of the FDA. 

Another potential use for these drugs was to prevent the formation of adenomatous polyps in patients with a history of colorectal adenomas. Rofecoxib and celecoxib were both tested in this disease. It was the results of this test that prompted Merck to withdraw their drug from the market since this study clearly established the increased risk of cardiovascular events when rofecoxib is used. The results were sufficiently strong to have the safety monitoring board reevaluate the data for a similar trial with celecoxib. On the basis of these data the study with celecoxib was also terminated. Interestingly, another study in which celecoxib was used to prevent polyp formation resulted in no increase in cardiovascular events. The only difference between the two studies was that in the latter case celecoxib was given once a day whereas in the prior study celecoxib was administered at the same dose but twice a day. How this difference in treatment schedules affected the toxic outcomes is unknown at the present time. 

To shed light on the nature of at least one modification of solid SiO, structural investigations by a combination of spectroscopic methods (T. Wieder et al.) as well as reactivity studies (U. Schubert et al.) were recently performed on samples with a well-defined thermal history and clearly specified macroscopic properties, i.e. with the eommercially available Patinal (Merck KGaA, Darmstadt particle size < 0.044 mm). Thus, all experiments of the two groups discussed in the remainder of this article refer to Patinal. 

Peter Spitz, Petrochemicals The Rise of an Industry (New York John Wiley Sons, 1988), p. 514. V. M. Walsh, J. F. Townsend, B. G. Achilladelis and C. Freeman, Trends in invention and innovation in the chemical industry, reached similar conclusions about the importance of demand and feedstocks (see page 5.20). By contrast, Achilladelis played down the importance of feedstocks in his thesis see Process Innovation in the Chemical Industry, p. 245. The Krauch family form an impressive dynasty. Carl Heinrich s grandfather, also called Carl, was a pharmacist and production manager at Merck (Darmstadt). See Heine Verstand Shicksal, p. 98, and H. Benniga, A History of Lactic Acid Manufacture (Dordrecht Kluwer, 1990), pp. 129-134, 153. 

Accident Case History 603, Manufacturing Chemists Association (reported in part in Reference 2). Fleck, E., Merck, Sharp Dobme Company memo, Rahway, NJ, May 11, 1960. 

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