Dr Frederik Paulsen Sr (born Friedrich Paulsen; 31 July 1909, in

Dagebüll Dagebüll () ( Mooring North Frisian: ''Doogebel''; da, Dagebøl) is a municipality located at the west coast of Schleswig-Holstein in the Nordfriesland district, Germany. Today's Dagebüll was created in 1978 as a merger of the municipalities ...

– 1997 in

Alkersum Alkersum ( Fering: ''Aalkersem'', da, Alkersum) is a municipality in the Nordfriesland district, in Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany. Geography Alkersum is situated in the center of the island in the geestland of Föhr. History First settle ...

) was a medical doctor and the founder of

Ferring Pharmaceuticals Ferring Pharmaceuticals is a Swiss multinational biopharmaceutical company specialising in areas such as reproductive health, maternal health, gastroenterology and urology. Ferring has been developing treatments for mothers and babies for over 50 ...

. Friedrich Paulsen was born in the tiny port hamlet of Dagebüll on the North Frisian coast. Both his parents originated from the neighbouring island of

Föhr Föhr ( ''Fering'' North Frisian: ''Feer''; da, Før) is one of the North Frisian Islands on the German coast of the North Sea. It is part of the Nordfriesland district in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein. Föhr is the second-largest ...

. In 1933 during his studies in

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland pe ...

, Paulsen suffered harassment and threats from

National Socialists Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Naz ...

due to his political beliefs. Therefore, he fled to

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal popula ...

, Sweden via

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS) ...

in Switzerland to avoid his internment at a

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simp ...

. In Sweden, whose citizen he became in 1941, he laid the foundation for the establishment of FERRING (1950) by his research on

hormone A hormone (from the Greek participle , "setting in motion") is a class of signaling molecules in multicellular organisms that are sent to distant organs by complex biological processes to regulate physiology and behavior. Hormones are required ...

s and their synthentical production. He was one of the first people to synthesize the human hormones

oxytocin Oxytocin (Oxt or OT) is a peptide hormone and neuropeptide normally produced in the hypothalamus and released by the posterior pituitary. It plays a role in social bonding, reproduction, childbirth, and the period after childbirth. Oxytoci ...

and

vasopressin Human vasopressin, also called antidiuretic hormone (ADH), arginine vasopressin (AVP) or argipressin, is a hormone synthesized from the AVP gene as a peptide prohormone in neurons in the hypothalamus, and is converted to AVP. It then ...

. Upon accepting the Swedish citizenship he changed his given name Friedrich to ''Frederik''. He and his wife Eva had six children. After his withdrawal from the company's management he died in 1997 at the age of 87 in Alkersum on Föhr. His youngest son,

Frederik Paulsen Jr Frederik Paulsen is a Swedish billionaire businessman and non-executive chairman of Ferring Pharmaceuticals. Biography Early life Frederik Dag Arfst Paulsen was born on 30 October 1950 in Stockholm, Sweden, as a Swedish citizen. His father ...

, is the current chairman of Ferring Pharmaceuticals.

References

Ferring Pharmaceuticals biography
* 1909 births 1997 deaths Businesspeople in the pharmaceutical industry Swedish pharmacists 20th-century Swedish businesspeople North Frisians Swedish people of Frisian descent Swedish people of German descent German Frisians {{Sweden-business-bio-stub