Zeneca Group
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| Public limited company | |
| Industry | Pharmaceutical |
| Fate | Merged with Astra AB |
| Successor | AstraZeneca |
| Founded | 1993 |
| Defunct | 1999 |
| Headquarters | London, UK |
| Products | Pharmaceutical products |
Zeneca (officially Zeneca Group PLC) was a British multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It was formed in June 1993 by the demerger of the pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals businesses of Imperial Chemical Industries into a separate company listed on the .
In 1999 Zeneca and the Sweden-based pharmaceutical company Astra AB merged to form AstraZeneca plc.
Zeneca's largest therapeutic area was oncology, in which its key products included Casodex, Nolvadex and Zoladex. Other key products included the heart drug Tenormin.
"Zeneca" was an invented name created by the branding consultancy Interbrand. Interbrand had been instructed to find a name which began with a letter from either the top or bottom of the alphabet and was phonetically memorable, of no more than three syllables and did not have an offensive meaning in any language.
In December 1994, Zeneca agreed the acquisition of 50 percent of Salick Health Care, an operator of cancer care centres in the United States, in a transaction which valued Salick at US$440 million. Zeneca announced the sale of its textile colours business to the German group BASF in May 1996. Zeneca exercised its right to acquire the 50 percent of Salick Health Care that it did not already own in March 1997. In December 1997, Zeneca acquired the US fungicide operations of Ishihara Sangyo Kaisha, together with the international distribution rights to four recently developed fungicides, herbicides and pest control products, for US$500 million.
In May 1998, Zeneca announced that Tom McKillop, then the head of its drugs division, would succeed Sir David Barnes as chief executive, with Barnes becoming non-executive chairman of the company. In November 1998, Zeneca announced that it was planning to sell its Zeneca Specialties division, including its biocides, industrial colours, lifescience molecules, performance and intermediate chemicals and resins activities. Zeneca and Astra AB announced a £48 billion merger in December 1998. In February 1999, it was reported that Zeneca would be suing the US Food and Drug Administration in respect of its decision to allow Gensia Sicor to produce a generic version of its anaesthetic Diprivan. The merger between Zeneca and Astra AB was completed in April 1999, forming AstraZeneca plc.
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