Salix Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is an American specialty pharmaceutical company based in

Bridgewater, New Jersey Bridgewater Township is a township in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. The township is both a regional commercial hub for Central New Jersey (home to Bridgewater Commons and different corporate headquarters) and is a bedroom suburb ...

. It is the largest

gastroenterology Gastroenterology (from the Greek gastḗr- “belly”, -énteron “intestine”, and -logía "study of") is the branch of medicine focused on the digestive system and its disorders. The digestive system consists of the gastrointestinal tract ...

-focused pharmaceutical company in the world. Salix develops prescription drugs and medical devices that prevent and treat various

gastrointestinal disorders Gastrointestinal diseases (abbrev. GI diseases or GI illnesses) refer to diseases involving the gastrointestinal tract, namely the oesophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine and rectum, and the accessory organs of digestion, the live ...

History

Salix was founded in 1989 in Sunnyvale, California by Randy W. Hamilton and Lorin K. Johnson. From 1992 to 2001, the company was headquartered in

Palo Alto Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was es ...

before relocating to its current headquartered in Raleigh. In 2003, the company survived a

hostile takeover In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in contrast to t ...

bid from Canadian pharmaceutical company Axcan Pharma Inc, now named Aptalis.Salix Pharmaceuticals Board Unanimously Recommends Rejection of Axcan's Revised Offer. ''

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'', May 27, 2003. In 2004, Salix acquired InKine Pharmaceutical Company, Inc. and its product OsmoPrep for $190M. In 2011, Salix acquired Oceana Therapeutics and its products Deflux and Solesta for $300M. In 2013, Salix acquired Santarus and its products Uceris (oral), Zegerid, Glumetza, Cycloset and Ruconest for $2.6B. Total sales of Salix products in 2014 were $1.1 billion. In 2010, Salix Pharmaceuticals signed a strategic global agreement with Photocure for Lumacan. Lumacan is a photodynamic colorectal diagnostic intended to significantly improve the detection of precancerous and cancerous lesions in the colon through

fluorescence Fluorescence is the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or other electromagnetic radiation. It is a form of luminescence. In most cases, the emitted light has a longer wavelength, and therefore a lower photon energy, tha ...

diagnosis Diagnosis is the identification of the nature and cause of a certain phenomenon. Diagnosis is used in many different disciplines, with variations in the use of logic, analytics, and experience, to determine " cause and effect". In systems engin ...

. In addition to the development of Lumacan for colorectal cancer, Salix holds the exclusive right to explore and develop products for additional indications involving the diagnosis of gastrointestinal

dysplasia Dysplasia is any of various types of abnormal growth or development of cells (microscopic scale) or organs ( macroscopic scale), and the abnormal histology or anatomical structure(s) resulting from such growth. Dysplasias on a mainly microscopi ...

and

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

In February 2015,

Valeant Pharmaceuticals Bausch Health Companies Inc. (formerly Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc.) is a Canadian multinational specialty pharmaceutical company based in Laval, Quebec, Canada. It develops, manufactures and markets pharmaceutical products and ...

announced it would acquire Salix for $14.5 billion, creating the world leader in gastrointestinal drugs. The deal was completed on April 1, 2015. On the final day of trading, Salix shares traded for $172.81, giving it a market capitalization of $10.9 billion.

References

External links

Official website
{{Pharmaceutical companies of the United States Pharmaceutical companies established in 1989 1989 establishments in California Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq Pharmaceutical companies of the United States 2015 mergers and acquisitions Pharmaceutical companies based in New Jersey Companies based in Somerset County, New Jersey Bridgewater Township, New Jersey