Formerly | The Radiochemical Centre at Amersham The Radiochemical Centre Ltd Amersham International plc |
---|---|
Company type | Private |
Industry | Health care |
Founded | 1946 |
Defunct | 2003 |
Fate | Acquired by GE Healthcare |
Headquarters | , |
Parent | GE HealthCare |
Website | www |
Amersham plc was a manufacturer of radiopharmaceutical products, to be used in diagnostic and therapeutic nuclear medicine procedures. The company became GE Healthcare following a takeover in 2003, which was based at the original site in Amersham, Buckinghamshire until 2016, when the headquarters moved to Chicago. [1]
Chilcote House in Little Chalfont near Amersham was first used for extraction of radium from radium concentrates in 1940, under Walter Patrick Grove. Over the next four years over 500 kilograms of radium bromide was produced, to be used to make luminous dials and instruments. [2] In 1946 the facility was taken over by the Ministry of Supply and it became known as the "national centre for the processing and distribution of radium, radon and artificial radioactive substances for scientific, medical and industrial purposes". [3] With a new focus on healthcare and industrial applications, the site was expanded, and by 1949 when the name changed to "The Radiochemical Centre (TRC), Amersham", the production included radium gas capsules for cancer treatment and carbon-14. The following year it became an outstation of the Atomic Energy Research Establishment (UKAERA) at Harwell, processing materials produced in its reactors. [2] [4]
By the 1960s, TRC had over 1,000 catalogue items, using over 100 isotopes and exporting to 60 countries. A cyclotron was installed, the first for medical isotope production. [3] With the restructuring of the UKAERA in 1971, TRC became a limited company. [5] By this time TRC had several international subsidiaries for example Amersham Buchler GmbH & Co. KG a Joint Venture with the Quinine Factory Buchler GmbH in Braunschweig (West-Germany). In 1976 work began on a second production site in Cardiff.
The Radiochemical Centre Limited became Amersham International Limited in 1981 and was the first company to be privatised by the Thatcher Government [2] in 1982 under the new name Amersham International plc. [4] It was the first privatisation in which the government sold 100% of its shares in a company. The offer was 24.6 times subscribed, meaning the share price rose from 142p per share to 188p per share by closing on the first day. [6] The government retained a special share, allowing the veto of any outsourcing attempts, until it was redeemed in 1988.
In the early 1990s, the in-vitro diagnostic assay business was divested to a joint venture with Eastman Kodak called Amerlite Diagnostics Ltd, this was later wholly acquired by Eastman Kodak and renamed Kodak Clinical Diagnostics Ltd. This business was sold by Kodak to Johnson & Johnson and became known as Johnson & Johnson Clinical Diagnostics Ltd. The business is now called Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics Ltd.
In 1997 Pharmacia Biotech (Sweden), then owned by Pharmacia & Upjohn, was fused with Amersham Life Science and renamed Amersham Pharmacia Biotech. [7] The Pharmacia name of this subsidiary was later dropped when Pharmacia & Upjohn sold its share of the company to Amersham plc, and changed its name to Amersham Biosciences in 2001.
In 1997, Amersham merged with Nycomed (Norway) [7] to form Nycomed Amersham plc. In 1999, the Nycomed Pharma subsidiary was sold to Nordic Capital, [8] and in 2001 Nycomed Amersham plc was renamed to Amersham plc. [9]
In 2004, Amersham was acquired by the American firm General Electric (GE) and incorporated into the GE Healthcare business segment. [10]
In 2005 the Royal Society of Chemistry named the former Amersham Laboratories, known as the Grove Centre under GE, as an historic chemical landmark for its "achievements in the fields of industrial and medical applications" over the past six decades. [11] [12]
GE Healthcare has a UK office in Chalfont St. Giles, near Amersham.
In 2018 part of the company's 30- acre (12 ha ) Cardiff site was sold for redevelopment as operations consolidated into a smaller area. [13]
Amersham's former business segments became GE Healthcare Medical Diagnostics and GE Healthcare Life Sciences. In 2020 GE Healthcare Life Sciences was acquired by Danaher Corporation and renamed Cytiva. [14]
Pharmacia was a pharmaceutical and biotechnological company in Sweden that merged with the American pharmaceutical company Upjohn in 1995.
Amersham is a market town and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England, in the Chiltern Hills, 27 miles (43 km) northwest of central London, 15 miles (24 km) south-east of Aylesbury and 9 miles (14 km) north-east of High Wycombe. Amersham is part of the London commuter belt.
GE HealthCare Technologies, Inc. is an American multinational medical technology company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It was spun-off from General Electric on January 4, 2023, with GE retaining 6.7%. As of 2017, it is a manufacturer and distributor of diagnostic imaging agents and radiopharmaceuticals for imaging modalities used in medical imaging procedures. It offers dyes used in magnetic-resonance-imaging procedures; manufactures medical diagnostic equipment, including CT image machines; MRI, X-ray; ultrasound; cath labs; mammogram; Nuclear Medicine Cameras; and develops health technology for medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, disease research, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing. It was incorporated in 1994 and operates in more than 100 countries.
Pharmacia & Upjohn was a global pharmaceutical company formed by the merger of Sweden-based Pharmacia AB and the American company Upjohn in 1995. Today the remainder of the company is owned by Pfizer. In 1997, Pharmacia & Upjohn sold several brands to Johnson & Johnson, including Motrin and Cortaid.
Tolbutamide is a first-generation potassium channel blocker, sulfonylurea oral hypoglycemic medication. This drug may be used in the management of type 2 diabetes if diet alone is not effective. Tolbutamide stimulates the secretion of insulin by the pancreas.
Biacore was a life science products company based in Sweden. In June 2006 Biacore was sold for $390 million and became a product brand under GE Healthcare life Sciences, which became Cytiva in April 2020.
Danaher Corporation is an American global conglomerate founded in 1984 by brothers Steven and Mitchell Rales. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the company designs, manufactures, and markets medical, industrial, and commercial products and services. Danaher was among the first companies in North America to adopt Kaizen principles, a Japanese lean manufacturing philosophy of continuous improvement and efficiency. The company held $78.5 billion in assets as of 2024.
IMS Health was an American company that provided information, services and technology for the healthcare industry. IMS stood for Intercontinental Medical Statistics. It was the largest vendor of U.S. physician prescribing data. IMS Health was founded in 1954 by Bill Frohlich and David Dubow with Arthur Sackler having a hidden ownership stake. In 2010, IMS Health was taken private by TPG Capital, CPP Investment Board and Leonard Green & Partners. The company went public on April 4, 2014, and began trading on the NYSE under the symbol IMS. IMS Health was headquartered in Danbury, Connecticut.
Sterling Drug was an American based global pharmaceutical company. It was also known as Sterling Winthrop, Inc., after the merger with Winthrop-Stearns Inc. which itself resulted from the merger of Winthrop Chemical Company Inc. and Frederick Stearns & Company. It was formerly known as Sterling Winthrop Pharmaceuticals.
Hikma Pharmaceuticals plc is a British multinational pharmaceutical company with headquarters in London, UK that manufactures non-branded generic and in-licensed pharmaceutical products. It was founded by Samih Darwazah in Amman, Jordan in 1978. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
Ioflupane (123I) is the international nonproprietary name (INN) of a cocaine analogue which is a neuro-imaging radiopharmaceutical drug, used in nuclear medicine for the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease and the differential diagnosis of Parkinson's disease over other disorders presenting similar symptoms. During the DaT scan procedure it is injected into a patient and viewed with a gamma camera in order to acquire SPECT images of the brain with particular respect to the striatum, a subcortical region of the basal ganglia. The drug is sold under the brand name Datscan and is manufactured by GE Healthcare, formerly Amersham plc.
Whatman plc is a Cytiva brand specialising in laboratory filtration products and separation technologies.
SeHCAT is a drug used in a clinical test to diagnose bile acid malabsorption.
Carousel Buses Limited, trading as Carousel Buses, is a bus company based in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. Originally an independent company, it is a subsidiary of the Go-Ahead Group. It is grouped together with Oxford Bus Company and Thames Travel, both of Oxfordshire, and with Pulham's Coaches of Gloucestershire, with the fleets of each operator regularly interchanged.
Nycomed is a Swiss pharmaceutical company. Nycomed was acquired by Takeda Pharmaceuticals in September 2011. Production was located in Norway, Denmark, Poland, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Estonia, India, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. Head office is located in Zürich, Switzerland. Total revenue was €3,400 million in 2006 and the group had 12,000 employees then. The company awarded an annual prize totaling 20,000 euros to four excellent junior scientists at the University of Konstanz. Also, the award promoted the concept of scientific exchange and networking of its winners.
EKF Diagnostics is a publicly listed Healthcare company founded 1990 in Barleben, Germany and currently headquartered in Cardiff, Wales, UK.
ICON plc is an Irish headquartered multinational healthcare intelligence and clinical research organisation that provides consulting, clinical development and commercialisation services for the pharmaceutical industry. The company is listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange in the United States, and As of June 2023 had approximately 41,160 employees in 108 locations spread across 53 countries.
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