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Merck KGaA is a German multinational chemical, pharmaceutical and life sciences company headquartered in Darmstadt, with around 40,000 employees in around 70 countries. Merck was founded in 1668 and is the world's oldest operating chemical and pharmaceutical company.〔(''Das älteste Chemieunternehmen der Welt.'' ) In: ''Manager Magazin'' 21 September 2006〕〔M. Richter and I. Gomez: (''Zum Verwechseln gleich.'' ) In: ''Financial Time Deutschland'' 21 January 2010 〕 Merck operates mainly in Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania and Latin America. It has major research and development centres in Darmstadt, Boston, Tokyo and Beijing. Merck pioneered the commercial manufacture of morphine in the 19th century. Merck was privately owned until going public in 1995. However, the Merck family still controls a majority 70.3% of the company's shares. The American pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. was established as a subsidiary of Merck in 1891, but became an independent company in 1917, known as MSD outside of North America. The original Merck of Darmstadt holds the rights to the name Merck in all countries except the U.S. and Canada, where it is known as EMD. == History == The roots of Merck reach back into the 17th Century. In 1668, Friedrich Jacob Merck, an apothecary, assumed ownership of the ''Engel-Apotheke'' ("Angel Pharmacy") in Darmstadt, Germany. In 1816, Emanuel Merck took over the pharmacy. Thanks to his scientific education he was successful in isolating and characterizing alkaloids in the pharmacy laboratory. He began the manufacture of these substances "in bulk" in 1827, touting them as a "Cabinet of Pharmaceutical and Chemical Innovations". He and his successors gradually built up a chemical-pharmaceutical factory that produced — in addition to raw materials for pharmaceutical preparations — a multitude of other chemicals and (from 1890) medicines.〔Merck KGaA (Editor): ''„Was der Mensch thun kann...“ – Ein Streifzug durch die Geschichte des pharmazeutisch-chemischen Unternehmens Merck.'' September 2003〕 In 1891, Georg(e) Merck established himself in the United States and set up ''Merck & Co.'' in New York. Merck & Co. was confiscated following the First World War.〔(''Report of the alien property custodian on the chemical industry.'' ) In: ''Ind Eng Chem'' 11, 1919, p. 364. 〕 and set up as an independent company in the United States. Today, the US company, which operates as Merck Sharp and Dohme (MSD) outside the U.S. and Canada, has about 86,000 employees (December 2011) in 120 countries. It is one of the top 5 pharmaceutical companies worldwide, larger than its German ancestor, which employs around 40,700 people in 67 countries (December 2011). While Merck in Darmstadt is the legal successor of the original Merck and retains the rights to the name "Merck" in all countries except the U.S. and Canada, it is sometimes known as the "German Merck" or "Merck Darmstadt" in North America. The company was formerly also referred to as "E. Merck" (Emanuel Merck). Merck Korea received the "Leading Investor Award" at the 5th Korea-EU Industrial Cooperation Day in 2011. On March 13, 2006, Merck announced a takeover bid for Schering AG, the world's largest producer of oral contraceptives. On March 23, 2006, Bayer AG made a supported offer for Schering and Merck decided to drop out of the bidding for the company.〔(''Schering rät zur Annahme der Bayer-Offerte.'' ) In: ''Manager Magazin Online'' 19 April 2006〕 Schering is not to be confused with Schering-Plough which was once part of Schering AG but was acquired by Merck & Co. in 2009. In September 2006 the company announced a takeover bid of $13.2 billion for Serono SA, Switzerland's largest biotech firm. The deal included a buy-out of the Bertarelli family's 64.5% stake in Serono to be followed by a public tender offer for the remaining shares starting in November 2006.〔(''Serono-Übernahme – Mercks Milliardendeal.'' ) In: ''manager magazin'' 21 September 2006〕 The combined company has an R&D budget of approximately $1.1 billion and sales of approximately $4.6 billion. Its approximately $2 billion in sales of biologics would make it 7th among pharmaceutical/biotech companies. The new entity, Merck Serono, began operations in 2007. In 2010 Merck took over Billerica (MA) based Millipore Corporation for EUR 5.3 billion (US$ 7.2 billion).〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=STOCKS NEWS US-Merck KGaA to buy Millipore for $6 bln )〕〔(Merck KGaA and Millipore Announce Transaction )〕 It is now a division of Merck's business unit ''chemicals'' - Merck Millipore. With the acquisition of Millipore, Merck is consolidating its US holdings and shutting down the Gibbstown facility and warehouse. Gibbstown operations will be transferred to the new Philadelphia office and Millipore headquarters. In December 2013, the company bought AZ Electronic Materials SA (AZEM) for about $2.6 billion in cash to increase its offering of specialty chemicals to the electronics industry.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Merck KGaA to Buy Chemical Maker AZ for $2.6 Billion )〕 In September 2014 Merck halted the clinical development of two drug candidates in development with Oxygen Biotherapeutics. One drug candidate suffered a lack of success in patient recruitment, with its MUC1 antigen-specific cancer immunotherapy drug, tecemotide (L-BLP25), missing its Phase I/II endpoint of increasing overall survival in patients with Stage III non-small cell lung cancer.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Merck KGaA, Oxygen Suspend Development of Drug Candidates )〕 Later in September it was announced that the company would acquire Sigma-Aldrich for . In November 2014, Merck and Pfizer agreed a deal for the latter to sell the former sharing rights to develop an experimental immunotherapy drug for a fee of $850 million.〔(Pfizer dampens Astra bid hopes with German Merck cancer deal ). Reuters, 17 November 2014〕 In October 2015, Merck revealed it would return the rights of the Kuvan drug to BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc.. The drug is effective in the treatment of the rare genetic disorder PKU, however Merck is moving away from genetics into cancer treatment, immunology and neurology.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url= http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/01/us-merck-biomarin-pharma-reversal-idUSKCN0RV3SY20151001 )〕 In October 2015, it was announced that Karl-Ludwig Kley, CEO of Merck since April 2007, would retire in April 2016, and be succeeded by Stefan Oschmann, who has been a member of the executive board since 2011. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Merck KGaA」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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