King Pharmaceuticals
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Type | Public (NYSE: KG) |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1994 |
| Headquarters | Bristol, Tennessee, USA |
| Key people | Brian Markison, CEO Joseph Squicciarino, CFO Eric J. Bruce, CTO |
| Industry | Pharmaceutical company, health care |
| Products | Pharmaceuticals |
| Revenue | $1.6 billion USD (2008) |
| Operating income | $-219 million USD (2008) |
| Net income | $-333 million USD (2008) |
| Employees | 3,381 |
| Website | www.kingpharm.com |
King Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: KG), the world's 39th largest pharmaceutical company, is based in Bristol, Tennessee.[1][2][3] King produces a wide range of pharmaceuticals, including Altace for heart attack prevention, Levoxyl for hypothyroidism, Sonata, a sleeping aid, and Skelaxin, a muscle relaxant. King Pharmaceuticals currently operates manufacturing facilities in Bristol, Tennessee, Rochester, Michigan, St. Louis, Missouri, St. Petersburg, Florida, and Middleton, Wisconsin, and they employ approximately 2700 people including a sales force of over 1000 individuals.
King's wholly owned subsidiaries are Monarch Pharmaceuticals, Inc., King Pharmaceutical Research and Development, Inc., Meridian Medical Technologies Inc., Parkdale Pharmaceuticals, Inc., King Pharmaceuticals of Nevada, Inc., and Monarch Pharmaceuticals Ireland Limited.
[edit] Company history
King Pharmaceuticals was founded in 1993 by John M. Gregory.[4] In January 1994, King acquired a former Beecham plant in Bristol, Tennessee. The 500,000-square-foot (46,000 m2) facility was purchased for $1.18 million from RSR Pharmaceutical, who had been using it after Beecham merged with SmithKline. King initially manufactured drugs for other pharmaceutical companies, but soon established a strategy of acquiring branded prescription drugs, which have a much higher gross margin than contract manufactured drugs. From 1994 to 1998, King obtained about twenty smaller branded drugs and then went public in June 1998.
In late December 1998, King Pharmaceuticals (d.b.a. Monarch Pharmaceuticals, Inc.) purchased the U.S. marketing and distribution rights of the company's most successful drug, Altace, for $362.5 million from the U.S. subsidiary of Hoechst AG, Hoechst Marion Roussel of Kansas City.[5] As a result of increasing the number of sales representatives and the findings of the Heart Outcomes Prevention Evaluation (HOPE), Altace sales sky rocketed. Using profits from Altace, King continued to add product lines, the most significant purchases being Levoxyl, Thrombin, and Cytomel in 2000. Also in 2000, seeing fewer opportunities to obtain branded drugs, the company acquired an R&D company based in North Carolina. In 2002, King purchased a maker of auto-injectors, Meridian Medical Technologies.
In 2002, John Gregory stepped down as CEO, and his brother Jefferson Gregory took over. Then in 2004, Jeff Gregory stepped down as well after the SEC began investigations into King’s Medicaid billing practices.[6] The board named Brian Markison to replace him. Soon after, in July 2004, a deal was made for Mylan Laboratories to acquire King for $4 billion.[7] Investors, most notably Carl Icahn, were very critical of the merger, saying that Mylan was overpaying for King. The next year the deal was called off.
In 2008 King Pharmaceuticals acquired Alpharma Pharmaceuticals to expand into the pain treatment market. From the acquisition, King gained the patents on the pain management drugs, Flector and Embeda.[8]
[edit] References
- ^ Untitled Document
- ^ http://www.kingpharm.com/fast_facts.asp
- ^ Pharmaceutical Executive - 2006 Top 50 Pharmaceutical Companies
- ^ King Pharmaceuticals, Inc. - Company History
- ^ http://archive.twst.com/notes/articles/jab202.html "King Pharmaceuticals CEO focuses on patented products".
- ^ TheStreet.com : King Pharmaceuticals CEO to Step Down | Robert Steyer | KG
- ^ Free Preview - WSJ.com
- ^ King Pharmaceuticals Acquires Alpharma
