John M. Gregory (businessman)

John M. Gregory is a former CEO of King Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and resides in Bristol, Tennessee. In addition to having started up King Pharmaceuticals back in 1993, Gregory has started up several other notable business ventures including SJ Strategic Investments (a privately held investment firm) and Leitner Pharmaceuticals. Gregory has also made major investment outside of the pharmaceutical industry, such as his investments within the privately held United Coal Company located in southwest Virginia and Adams Golf with U.S. corporate offices in Texas. Most recently, Gregory along with other family members began Gregory Pharmaceutical Holdings Inc which include pharmaceutical contract manufacturing company, UPM Pharmaceuticals, and NFI Consumer Products which includes the Blue-Emu brand of products.

On October 29, 1991, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office awarded the German pharmaceuticals company Hoechst Ag with the publication of U.S. patent US5061722 A Hypotensive agents; e.g. ramipril. Altace is the copyright trade name for ramipril.

During 1994, the U.S. National Right to Life Committee announced an anti-RU-486 boycott, targeting all Hoechst pharmaceutical products including Altace. By September 17, the pro-life organization Pharmacists For Life International joined the NRLC anti-RU-486 boycott "...against the American subsidiary of Hoechst, AG Hoechst-Roussel, Hoechst-Celanese, its generic subsidiary Copley Pharmaceuticals and the agricultural Hoechst subsidiary" while asking U.S. consumers to "...focus on key Hoechst drugs which have the most economic impact rather than taking an across-the-board shotgun approach" and specifically targeting Altace as a boycott list item.

Hoechst merged with Marion Merrill Dow of Kansas City, Missouri in 1995, forming the Hoechst U.S. pharmaceutical subsidiary Hoechst Marion Roussel (HMR). Altace was bringing in under $90 million in U.S. revenues for HMR and Hoechst had stopped promoting Altace within the United States., and King Pharmaceuticals President Jefferson "Jeff" Gregory also began negotiations in 1995 with Hoechst to acquire U.S. distribution rights to Altace.

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