Upjohn Company Pfizer-Pharmacia

Both Celebrex and Bextra were developed by Searle, which was subsequently purchased by Monsanto. Monsanto later merged with Pharmacia and Upjohn, and the resultant company later merged with Pfizer. 23 University of Rochester v. G.D. Searle Co., 249 F.2d 216 (W.D. N.Y. 2003). The District Court also held the claims to be invalid due to lack of enablement, an issue we will discuss further later in this chapter. 

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. 

There has been and will continue to be iimovative reconstruction of the pharmaceutical industry with, for example, cross-licensing of products and expertise. Sandoz collaborated with Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) in oncology. Other companies have a more acquisitive outlook. Pfizer bought Warner-Lambert for its cholesterol-lowering Lipitor, and Pharmacia merged with UpJohn-Searle for its COX-2 inhibitor. Pfizer then acquired Pharmacia-UpJohn-Searle to become the world s largest pharmaceutical company. 

And there are opportunities for Biotech. The consolidation within the industry has reduced the number of companies investigating particular diseases or conditions. For example, in cardiovascular disease there are now only three to four truly major players Merck, Astra-Zeneca, Pfizer, and Novartis. In 1991 there were seven companies making antibiotics now there are three, dominated by Pfizer and Abbott. The R D programs of the acquired can be dropped. Pharmacia merged with UpJohn-Searle mostly for its COX-2 inhibitor (Celebrex) it dropped much of the rest of the research programs. Pharmacia is now part of Pfizer, and much of Pharmacia s research portfolio has been similarly dropped. 

Source FDA website, www.fda.gov/orphan/designat/list.htm. Note that approvals originally granted to companies later merged with the current top 10 pharma companies, such as orphan drug approvals to Pharmacia Upjohn, now part of Pfizer, were not counted in this percentage. 

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