G.D. Searle, LLC
G.D. Searle & Company or just Searle was a company focusing on life sciences, specifically pharmaceuticals, agriculture, and animal health. It is now part of Pfizer.[1]
History
Searle was founded in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1888. The founder was Gideon Daniel Searle. In 1908, the company was incorporated in Chicago. In 1941, the company established headquarters in Skokie, Illinois. It was acquired by the Monsanto Company in 1985. Pharmacia Corporation was created in April 2000 through the merger of Pharmacia & Upjohn (itself the result of the merger of Pharmacia and Upjohn) with the Monsanto Company and its G.D. Searle unit.[2] The merged company was based in Peapack, New Jersey. Pfizer acquired Pharmacia in 2003 and retired the Searle name.
Robert B. Shapiro acted as general counsel for the firm from 1979 onwards, where he went on develop Searle's aspartame product under the brand name NutraSweet. He became CEO of its NutraSweet subsidiary in 1982.
G.D. Searle & Company's chairman was William L. Searle until 1985. He was a University of Michigan graduate and Naval reservist, and was an officer in the Army Corps in the early 1950s.[3] Directors of G.D. Searle included Andre M. de Staercke, Reuben Richards, and Arthur Wood.
Donald Rumsfeld served as CEO, and then as President, of Searle between 1977 and 1985. During his tenure at Searle, Rumsfeld downsized the number of employees in the company by 60%. The resulting spike in the company's bottom-line financials earned him awards as the Outstanding Chief Executive Officer in the Pharmaceutical Industry from the Wall Street Transcript (1980) and Financial World (1981). In 1985, he played an instrumental role in the acquisition of G.D. Searle & Company by Monsanto.
In 1993 a team of researchers at Searle Research and Development filed a patent application for celecoxib,[4] which Searle developed and which became the first selective COX-2 inhibitor to be approved by the FDA on Dec 31, 1998.[5] Control of this blockbuster drug was often mentioned as a key reason for Pfizer's acquisition of Pharmacia.[6]
Notable products
The company manufactured prescription drugs and nuclear medicine imaging equipment. Searle is known for its release of Enovid, the first commercial oral contraceptive, in 1960. It is also known for its release of the first bulk laxative, Metamucil, in 1934; Dramamine, for motion sickness; the COX-2 inhibitor Bextra; Ambien for insomnia; and NutraSweet (also known as Aspartame), an artificial sweetener, in 1965. It was released in 1981 by FDA.
In 1996, the FDA removed all restrictions on the use of aspartame, which enabled its use in heated and baked goods. G.D. Searle's patent on aspartame was extended in 1981 and ultimately expired in December 1992.[7]
References
- ^ http://www.pfizer.com/about/history/pfizer_pharmacia.jsp
- ^ "Pharmacia, Monsanto Merger Okd". Chicago Tribune. March 24, 2000.
- ^ William L. Searle obituary The New York Times
- ^ http://www.google.com/patents/US5466823
- ^ http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/nda/98/20998.cfm
- ^ Frank, Robert, and Hensley, Scott (July 16, 2002). "Pfizer to Buy Pharmacia For $60 Billion in Stock". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on December 14, 2013.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Managing Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Technology-based Firms by Michael J. C. Martin