Nycomed

Nycomed International Management GmbH

Type	Private
Industry	Pharmaceuticals
Founded	1874
Headquarters	Zürich, Switzerland
Area served	Europe
Key people	H. Björklund (CEO) Toni Weitzberg (Chairman)
Revenue	EUR 3,400 million (2006)
Number of employees	12,400 (2007)
Parent	Takeda Pharmaceutical
Website	www.nycomed.com

Nycomed is a Norwegian pharmaceutical company. Nycomed was acquired by Takeda Pharmaceutical in September 2011. Production is 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 (2006) and the group had 12,000 employees. The Nycomed company annually awards a prize totaling 20,000 euros to four excellent junior scientists at the University of Konstanz. Also, the award promotes the concept of scientific exchange and networking of its winners.

The company was started in Norway in 1874, as an agent of foreign pharmaceutical products. The founder was pharmacist Morten Nyegaard, and co-owner was Theodor Haslund. Nyegaard backed out in 1901, and Theodor Haslund was co-owner with Emil Steen until 1906. Fredrik L. Christensen was then Steen's partner until 1913, when Steen became sole owner. Steen was behind the transformation of the company from a wholesaling company to a manufacturer of pharmaceutical products. After his death, his widow Laura Steen took over the company; in 1921 their son Fredrik Steen took over. The company soon merged with Koren & Gedde, owned since 1919 by Sverre Blix. Blix became co-owner with Fredrik Steen.

The company name was Nyegaard & Co. from 1890 until 1986 when it was changed to Nycomed. In 1913 it started producing generic drugs, among these Globoid (copy of Aspirin). In 1969, the revolutionary radiocontrast agent Amipaque was discovered, starting a long process of internationalisation. The next generation product Omnipaque made the company highly successful. In 1986, Nycomed was purchased by the power company Hafslund. In 1994, the diagnostic division of US based Sterling Winthrop was acquired. Then, in 1996, the therapeutics division Nycomed Pharma was demerged whilst the diagnostic division Nycomed Imaging was merged with the British company Amersham plc. In 1999, the therapeutics company was established under the name Nycomed as an independent company. In 2007, Nycomed took over the much larger German pharmaceutical company, Altana Pharma. This acquisition made Nycomed one of the world's 25 largest pharmaceutical companies. In 2007 Nycomed acquired American company Bradley Pharmaceuticals. The closing deal was completed on February 21, 2008, and Bradley Pharmaceuticals became an integral part of Nycomed.