Roussel Uclaf
 Former headquarters of Roussel-Uclaf,
35 Boulevard des Invalides, 7th arrondissement of Paris |
|
| Public (Société anonyme) | |
| Industry | Pharmaceutical |
| Fate | Acquired |
| Successor | Hoechst AG (Hoechst Marion Roussel) |
| Founded |
Paris, France (1911) Institut de Sérothérapie Hémopoïétique ISH (1920) Usines Chimiques des Laboratoires Français UCLAF (1928) Société Française de la Pénicilline SOFRAPEN (1947) (Roussel-Uclaf, S.A. incorporated 1961) |
| Founder | Gaston Roussel |
| Defunct | September 30, 1997 |
| Headquarters |
Paris, France (1911–1995) Romainville, France (1995–1997) |
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Area served
|
Worldwide |
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Key people
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Gaston Roussel (CEO, 1911–1947) Jean-Claude Roussel (CEO, 1961–1972) Jacques Machizaud (CEO, 1974–1981) Édouard Sakiz (CEO, 1981–1993) Ernst-Günter Afting (CEO, 1994–1995) Jean-Pierre Godard (CEO, 1995–1997) |
| Products | Hemostyl (erythropoietin, horse serum) Rubiazol (carboxysulfamidochrysoidine) Rythmodan (disopyramide) Decis (deltamethrin) Surgam (tiaprofenic acid) Claforan (cefotaxime sodium) Mifegyne (mifepristone, RU-486) Anandron (nilutamide) |
| Revenue |
 US$ 3.01 billion (1996)
|
|
US$ 340 million(1996)
|
|
|
Number of employees
|
15,673 worldwide (1992) 8,409 in France (1992) 6,533 in France (1996) |
Roussel Uclaf S.A. was a French pharmaceutical company and one of several predecessor companies of today's Sanofi.
It was the second largest French pharmaceutical company before it was acquired by Hoechst AG of Frankfurt, Germany in 1997, with pharmaceutical operations combined into the Hoechst Marion Roussel (HMR) division in the United States. Roussel Uclaf's agrochemical operations had been transferred to Hoechst Schering AgrEvo GmbH in 1994.
HMR subsequently merged in 1999 with Rhône-Poulenc to form Aventis, which then merged in 2004 with Sanofi-Synthélabo to form Sanofi-Aventis, which was since renamed Sanofi. Hoechst Schering AgrEvo merged in 1999 with Rhône-Poulenc's agrochemical division to form Aventis CropScience, which was acquired by Bayer AG in 2002 and combined with Bayer's agrochemical division to form Bayer CropScience.
In April 1980, as part of a formal research project at Roussel-Uclaf for the development of glucocorticoid receptor antagonists, chemist Georges Teutsch synthesized mifepristone (RU-38486, the 38,486th compound synthesized by Roussel-Uclaf from 1949 to 1980; shortened to RU-486); which was discovered to also be a progesterone receptor antagonist. In October 1981, endocrinologist Étienne-Émile Baulieu, a consultant to Roussel-Uclaf, arranged tests of its use for medical abortion in eleven women in Switzerland by gynecologist Walter Herrmann at the University of Geneva's Cantonal Hospital, with successful results announced on April 19, 1982. On October 9, 1987, following worldwide clinical trials in 20,000 women of mifepristone with a prostaglandin analogue (initially sulprostone or gemeprost, later misoprostol) for medical abortion, Roussel-Uclaf sought approval in France for their use for medical abortion, with approval announced on September 23, 1988.
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