Zeneca (officially Zeneca Group PLC) was a British multinational

pharmaceutical Medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal product, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy ( pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the ...

company headquartered in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, United Kingdom. It was formed in June 1993 by the

demerger A demerger is a form of corporate restructuring in which the entity's business operations are segregated into one or more components. It is the converse of a Mergers and acquisitions, merger or acquisition. A demerger can take place through a cor ...

of the pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals businesses of

Imperial Chemical Industries Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) was a British Chemical industry, chemical company. It was, for much of its history, the largest manufacturer in Britain. Its headquarters were at Millbank in London. ICI was listed on the London Stock Exchange ...

into a separate company listed on the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

. In 1999, Zeneca and the

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

-based pharmaceutical company Astra AB merged to form AstraZeneca plc. Zeneca's largest therapeutic area was

oncology Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with the study, treatment, diagnosis, and prevention of cancer. A medical professional who practices oncology is an ''oncologist''. The name's Etymology, etymological origin is the Greek word ὄγ ...

, in which its key products included Casodex, Nolvadex and Zoladex. Other key products included heart drug Tenormin.

Name

"Zeneca" was an invented name created by the branding consultancy Interbrand. Interbrand had been instructed to find a name which began with a letter from either the top or bottom of the alphabet and was phonetically memorable, of no more than three syllables and did not have an offensive meaning in any language.

History

In December 1994, Zeneca agreed the acquisition of 50% of Salick Health Care, an operator of cancer care centres in the United States, in a transaction which valued Salick at US$440 million. Zeneca announced the sale of its textile colours business to the German group

BASF BASF SE (), an initialism of its original name , is a European Multinational corporation, multinational company and the List of largest chemical producers, largest chemical producer in the world. Its headquarters are located in Ludwigshafen, Ge ...

in May 1996. Zeneca announced it would purchase the remaining 50% of Salick Health Care that it did not already own on 28 March 28, 1997. In December 1997, Zeneca acquired the US fungicide operations of Ishihara Sangyo Kaisha, along with the international distribution rights to four recently developed fungicides, herbicides and pest control products, for US$500 million. In May 1998, Zeneca announced that Tom McKillop, then the head of its drugs division, would succeed Sir David Barnes as chief executive, with Barnes becoming non-executive chairman of the company. In November 1998, Zeneca announced that it would sell its Zeneca Specialties division, including its biocides, industrial colours, life science molecules, performance and intermediate chemicals and resins activities. On 11 December 1998, Zeneca and Astra AB announced a £48 billion merger. In February 1999, it was reported that Zeneca would sue the US

Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respo ...

over its decision to allow Gensia Sicor to produce a generic version of its anaesthetic Diprivan. The merger between Zeneca and Astra AB was completed in April 1999, forming AstraZeneca plc.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zeneca AstraZeneca Defunct companies based in London Pharmaceutical companies established in 1993 British companies established in 1993 Multinational companies headquartered in England Pesticides in the United Kingdom Pharmaceutical companies of the United Kingdom Pharmaceutical companies disestablished in 1999 British companies disestablished in 1999 Corporate spin-offs

Name

History

See also

References