Pharma companies that sold infected Factor VIII blood products to the UK.
Armour / Revlon
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Armour & Company begins in our story being owned by Greyhound Lines which is most notably known for its Coach / Bus services in the USA. However during 1977/1978 it was sold to Revlon, yes, that company you might suspect has only ever made beauty products , actually has connections to Factor VIII.
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Revlon had a good run with Armour and their main-stay Factor VIII product, which was aptly named "Factorate".
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Revlon remained in control of Armour from 1978 until around 1987 (Their attempts to sell the company began in the mid -1980's, shortly after Haemophiliacs began to become aware they were infected with HIV).
Revlon sold Armour to a company called Rorer Pharmaceutical for almost $700 Million.
After Pantry Pride's takeover of Revlon on 5th November 1985, Armour was sold to Rorer Group Inc and the deal closed for around $700 Million on 7th January 1986.
In 1990, French chemical and pharmaceutical company Rhône-Poulenc acquired Rorer in a deal worth more than $3 Billion.
In 1999, Rhône-Poulenc and Hoechst AG combined to create Aventis, which then merged with Sanofi-Synthélabo in 2004 to become Sanofi-Aventis, the world's third-largest drug maker. By 2011, the company simplified its name to just Sanofi.
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The Krever Commission, an Inquiry into blood product contamination in Canada concluded that Armour had suppressed research showing that its heat-treating process did not effectively kill HIV.
In 1996 Armour was merged with German company Behringwerke, the new alliance was named "Centeon". It was 3 years later in 1999 that the entity known as Centeon changed its name to Aventis Behring following a merger of the parent companies, Rorer and Hoechst AG, which merged to become known as Aventis.
Sometime in 2004, an Australian-rooted company called CSL acquired Aventis Behring for almost 1 Billion Dollars. The organisation today is known as CSL Behring.
Baxter / Travenol / Hyland
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In 1949 Baxter created Travenol Laboratories, a pharmaceutical arm of the company and it also acquired Hyland Laboratories in 1952, both of which would go on to be involved in the Factor business.
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Baxter manufactured and sold a Factor VIII product called Hemofil.
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In 1996 Baxter acquired a former competitor in the business, Immuno AG, for in the region of $715,000,000.
In 2015 Baxter "spun-off" it's Haemophilia treatment business into a new company called Baxalta and this was shortly followed by a mega sell-off in 2016 to Shire PLC for some $32 Billion.
In January 2019, just eight months after their offer was accepted, Japanese company Takeda bought Shire, a global biotech firm, for $62 billion, marking Japan's biggest overseas purchase and one of the biggest in the pharmaceutical industry this century.
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Bayer / Cutter / Miles
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Factor VIII manufacturer Cutter Laboratories was original owned by Miles, both of which would eventually be taken over by Bayer.
In 1974 Bayer acquired Cutter Laboratories and 4 years later in 1978 they acquired Miles Labs.
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Bayer manufactured and sold a Factor VIII product called Koate. It also manufactured and sold a Factor IX product called Konyne.
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In 1995 a raft of legal action was underway by those harmed by Factor VIII products in the United States and it was around this time that Bayer dropped the "Miles" name as a brand.
A company called Talecris was established in 2005 by Cerberus Capital Management and Ampersand, which bought out Bayer's plasma business and assets for 590 Million Dollars, however, it is important to note that Bayer retained it's recombinant Factor VIII "Kogenate" product which was not included in the sale and Bayer remain active in the Haemophilia treatment market to this day.
5 Years after taking over Aventis Behring, CSL attempted to buy-out Talecris in 2009 for in the region of $3.1 billion, The deal however was cut down by the FTC who deemed the situation illegal.
It would turn out to be Spanish pharmaceutical company Grifols who would ultimately land the deal, and in 2011, a year after announcing the $3.4 Billion Dollar takeover, Grifols completed its acquisition of Talecris.
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BPL / Blood Products Laboratory
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The BPL (Blood Products Laboratory) was and still is based in Elstree, UK and was the site at which the majority of "home-made" Factor VIII was made. Today BPL has changed it's name slightly to stand for Bio-Products Laboratory.
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BPL’s Factor VIII batch numbers during the 1970s and 1980s typically began with “HL”, “HLA” or “HLB”. It is unclear what the abbreviations stood for.
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It was in 1950 that BPL first began in the business of processing human plasma and was established by the Medical Research Council (MRC) as part of the Lister Institute.
In 2013 the Department of Health sold 80% of it's stake in BPL to an investment company called Bain Capital for approximately £230 Million.
In 2016 it was completley sold off to a commercial company based in China called the Creat Group for £820 Million.
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Immuno
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Immuno AG was a pharmaceutical company founded in 1960 by scientists Dr. Otto Schwarz and Dr. Hans Eibl. With headquarters in Vienna, Austria Immuno AG sold its products around the globe.
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Immuno AG manufactured a Factor VIII blood product called Kryobulin. Some Kryobulin was made from volunteer austrian plasma donors, and some was made from paid donors in the US.
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Healthcare giant Baxter purchased Immuno AG in 1996 for some $715 million.
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Abbott / Alpha
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A UK licence was granted to Abbott Laboratories for Profilate in 1975 under authorisation number PL 00037/0071.
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In 1978 Abbott sold its scientific products division to Alpha Therapeutic. Alpha was a subsidiary of the Japanese pharmacetuical company, Green Cross.
Green Cross merged with Yoshitomi Pharmaceutical Industries in April 1998, and was renamed Welfide Corporation in April 2000. Welfide then combined with Mitsubishi-Tokyo Pharmaceutical to become Mitsubishi Pharma Corporation in October 2001.
In December 2002, Mitsubishi Pharma sold some Alpha assets to Baxter, and in July 2003, it sold the rest, including its Los Angeles plasma plant, to Spanish company Grifols.
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