Sterling Drug
| Industry | Health care |
|---|---|
| Fate | Acquired by Bayer AG |
| Successor(s) | over the counter drugs-Bayer AG and Sanofi SA (ethical pharmaceuticals) |
| Founded | 1901 |
| Defunct | 1994 |
| Headquarters | 90 Park Avenue New York, NY 10016 |
| Products | Lehn & Fink, Bayer Aspirin, Phillips' |
| Parent | Eastman Kodak (until 1994) |
Sterling Drug was an American global pharmaceutical company, known as Sterling-Winthrop, Inc. after the merger with Winthrop-Stearns Inc. (which itself resulted from the merger of Winthrop Chemical Company Inc. and Frederick Stearns & Company). It was formerly known as Sterling Winthrop Pharmaceuticals, whose primary product lines included diagnostic imaging agents, hormonal products, cardiovascular products, analgesics, antihistamines and muscle relaxants.
Chemical compounds produced by this company are often known by their manufacturing code which consists of the abbreviation WIN (for Winthrop) followed by a number. For example, WIN 18,320 is nalidixic acid, a byproduct of the wartime effort to produce better antimalarials such as chloroquine.[citation needed]
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[edit] History
[edit] 1910s
It was established in 1901 (then called Neuralgyline Co.) in Wheeling, West Virginia, by Albert H. Diebold and William E. Weiss, a pharmacist.[citation needed] At the end of World War I in 1918, Sterling purchased the US assets of a German company presently known as Bayer AG for US $5.3 million. This purchase was directed under the Alien Property Custodian Act. In 1919, it sold its dye division for $2.5 million to the Grasselli Chemical Company (based in Linden, New Jersey), which employed many former Bayer personnel.[1]
[edit] 1920s
A 1920 agreement between Sterling and Bayer AG granted Sterling the rights to the "Bayer" brand to sell aspirin. In return, Bayer was allowed back into its former Latin American markets. In 1922, 50% of Sterling's new holding company, Winthrop, was given to the German Bayer company, while the American Bayer retained the rights to use Bayer brand.[2] In 1923 Sterling purchased a 25% interest in The Centaur Company, the manufacturer of Charles Henry Fletcher's, Fletcher's Castoria (New York Times, Feb 9, 1923, Page 24, Col 1).
[edit] 1940s
In 1940, a cross-contamination from equipment sharing resulted in Winthrop Chemical producing contaminated sulfathiazole tablets contaminated with phenobarbital. Each sulfathiazole tablet was contaminated with about 350mg of phenobarbital. An investigation by US Food and Drug Administration and the findings resulted in actions. The incident was influential to the introduction of Good Manufacturing Practices for drugs.[3]
[edit] 1960s to 1970s
In 1967, Sterling Drug acquired Lehn & Fink, the makers of Lysol, Resolve, Lime-A-Way, and D-Con. In 1974, Sterling opened a manufacturing plant in McPherson, Kansas. The various companies which would eventually acquire Sterling chose to keep the factory open.[citation needed]
[edit] 1980s to 1990s
In 1988, Sterling was acquired by Eastman Kodak for $5.1 billion. In 1993, Eastman Kodak/Sterling Winthrop made a partnership with a French pharmaceutical company Elf Sanofi (now known as Sanofi Aventis). In June 1994, Eastman Kodak sold prescription drug business of its Sterling Winthrop subsidiary to Sanofi for US $1.675 billion and the return of Kodak's minority stake in Sterling Health Europe. [4] A week later, Sanofi sold its diagnostic-imaging a Norwegian comapny Hafslund Nycomed AS for US$450 million. Sanofi acnnounced that it was not interested in diagnostic imaging business.[5][6] [7]
In August 1994, Kodak sold the remainder of Sterling Winthrop, which included non-prescription drug business to a British firm SmithKline Beecham for US $2.925 billion cash.[8]
Bayer was among the bidders on purchase of Sterling Winthrop, however it lost to the British company SmithKline Beecham. Bayer purchased the prescription drug division of Sterling Winthrop in US, Canada and Puerto Rico from SmithKline Beecham in September 1994 for $1 billion. Bayer re-acquired the brand rights to "Bayer Aspirin" name it had lost after World War I. [9]
Spinoffs from the sale of Sterling include Starwin Products, created in 1987 from Sterling’s original branch in Ghana. The Lehn & Fink division was acquired by Reckitt & Colman (now Reckitt Benckiser) at the time of the deal.[citation needed]
[edit] References
- ^ "General Aniline Linden, New Jersey". Retrieved 2007-08-13.
- ^ "Foreigh Trade Strategies of I.G. Farben after World War I" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-08-13.
- ^ Rachel Sheremeta Pepling (June 2005). "Phenobarbital". Chemical and Engineering News 83 (25). Retrieved 2013-05-03.
- ^ "Kodak to Sell Drug Unit for $1.68 Billion". Los Angeles Times. June 24 1994. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
- ^ "Kodak plans to sell two health care products divisions, focus on imaging - Eastman Kodak Co". Health Industry Today. 1994. Retrieved 2007-08-13.
- ^ "health". Los Angeles Times. June 30 1994. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
- ^ "Aspirin". Chemical & Engineering News. Retrieved 2007-08-13.
- ^ "Kodak to Sell Remaining Sterling Winthrop Unit : Drugs: SmithKline Beecham will buy the consumer health products business for $2.925 billion.". Associated Press. Aug 30 1994. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
- ^ OLMOS, DAVID (Sept 14 1994). "German Firm to Reclaim Bayer Aspirin Name : Drugs: It will acquire Sterling Winthrop's over-the-counter business and recover the rights it lost after WWI". LA Times. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
[edit] Further reading
Ambruster, H. W. (1947). Treason’s Peace: German Dyes and American Dupes, The Beechhurst Press, New York.
