Pharmacia

Pharmacia was founded in 1911 in Stockholm, Sweden. The pharmaceutical company moved to Uppsala, Sweden in 1951. In 1967 Pharmacia Fine Chemicals was established in Uppsala. In 1986 Pharmacia Fine Chemicals acquired LKB-produkter AB and changed name to Pharmacia Biotech. Sold to private interests in the 1990s, Pharmacia was first merged with "Kabi Vitrum" to form Kabi Pharmacia with headquarters in Uppsala. Kabi was later excluded. Then the company merged with the American pharmaceutical company Upjohn in 1995 and moved its headquarters to London.

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In 1997 the Uppsala based biotechnology division Pharmacia Biotech merged with Amersham Life Science (U.K.) and took the name Amersham Pharmacia Biotech. The Pharmacia name was later dropped when Pharmacia & Upjohn sold its share of the company to Amersham plc. The company changed its name to Amersham Biosciences in 2001. In 2004 Amersham Biosciences was acquired by GE Healthcare. The Life sciences division of GE Healthcare still has its headquarters in Uppsala.

The merged company "Pharmacia & Upjohn" merged with the American bioindustry and medical company Monsanto. The resulting conglomerate took the name of "Pharmacia Corp." and spun off its agricultural chemical division under the name Monsanto. In 2003 Pharmacia was bought by Pfizer, Inc., and the name Pharmacia was dropped. In 2004, the Uppsala based allergy-diagnostic division of legacy Pharmacia was sold off as Pharmacia Diagnostics. On January 16, 2006, Pharmacia Diagnostics announced that its name was changed to Phadia, which has ended the use of the Pharmacia trademark. The remains of Pharmacia in Uppsala within Pfizer was sold to the Indian company Kemwell in 2006. The remains of the Stockholm based part of Pharmacia has be sold to Octapharma and Biovitrum and the rest is to be shutdown during 2008. The company's facilities in Strängnäs Sweden are presently being expanded for the production of Genotropin, a growth hormone.

Pharmacia was one of Uppsala's largest employers outside the public sector, with over 4000 employees in the Uppsala region in 1996.^[1] However, the biotechnological know-how remaining in the wake of Pharmacia, as well as the presence of biotechnology research and education at Uppsala University, led to a larger number of people being employed in the sector in 2005 compared to 2002 when the merger with Upjohn took place.^[2] Many small spinoffs from Pharmacia, such as the biotech/pharmaceutical facility manufacturer Pharmadule has granted future employment to many.

References

1. ^ Fridh, Ann-Charlotte. 2003. The Exit of Pharmacia and Regional Growth. Paper provided by The Ratio Institute in its series Ratio Working Papers, no 22. Available: ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/ratioi/0022.html
2. ^ Interview with the then Minister of Industry and Trade, Thomas Östros, in Le Monde, translated and published in European Tribune on November 29, 2005.