Gödecke (company)
Gödecke (also Goedecke ) is a former pharmaceutical company in Germany. Today Gödecke is a sales division of the Pfizer group.
history
The beginnings
On March 3, 1866, Gustav R. Gödecke , the owner of an indigo and color goods shop in Leipzig, founded the Goedecke & Co. company together with his nephew Rudolf A. Gödecke as a commercial business with essential oils and essences . With a view to possible future international business, the spelling with oe was deliberately chosen. The location of the first factory was Mahlmannstrasse 7 in Leipzig.
The fact that the young company enjoyed international success early on is shown by the fact that its products were awarded prizes as early as 1876 at an exhibition to mark the centenary of the American independence celebrations in Philadelphia. In 1880, an additional office and warehouse was built on Mahlmannstrasse in Leipzig .
In the years 1892/93 the company took part in the world exhibition in Chicago , where it received the Columbus Medal as a recognition for the quality of its products .
Entry into the pharmaceutical business
A few years later, the company entered the pharmaceutical business in 1898 when a contract was signed with the Hanoverian pharmacist Wilhelm Ernst on the sole distribution of the hemorrhoidal drug Anusol, registered two years earlier, abroad.
After the founders of the company died, the brothers Rudolf Gödecke and Alexander Gödecke took over the management of the company together with the pharmacist Petow in 1900 and 1901. Petow made important contacts to the Chemisches Institut Dr. Horowitz in Berlin, with whom new pharmaceutical products were jointly developed from 1905. The painkiller Gelonida antineuralgica , which was developed during this period and which disintegrated particularly quickly thanks to a patented process, was very important up to the present day .
In the following years Gödecke took over the international sales of the Horowitz preparations Arhovin, Dysphagin and Probilin in 1909 and from 1912 was also responsible for domestic sales. Since Petow died in the following years (1916) and Rudolf Gödecke became seriously ill, Alexander Gödecke was then solely responsible for the company.
During the First World War , the equipment required for the production of the essential oils was confiscated and could not be procured again. The future direction of the company was directed entirely towards the pharmaceutical sector. Around 1953, Agarol , Anusol , Convallin , Gelonida antineuralgica , Pyrenol , Targesin , Targophagin and Vasoklin were part of the company's product range.
Merger with the Horowitz Institute
Since the links with the Horowitz Institute (now Dr. Horowitz & Schäfer ) had become closer and closer, the legally independent company Gödecke & Co., Chemische Fabrik Aktiengesellschaft, Berlin, was founded in 1922 , whose board members Alexander Gödecke and Arthur Horowitz, later his successor was Eugen Schäffer. In Leipzig, the parent company merged in 1923 with the company Apotheker Carl Weinreben GmbH, Frankfurt, to form Gödecke & Co., Chemische Fabrik und Export AG, Leipzig , where Alexander Gödecke and Carl Weinreben were on the board. The place of business was at Brandvorwerkstrasse 70 in Leipzig.
Sold to Warner Company
Since the company got into difficulties during the global economic crisis and Alexander Gödecke was in poor health, the Berlin branch of the company was sold in 1928 to the American company William W. Warner Company , chaired by Gustavus A. Pfeiffer, and which are expanding their business internationally wanted to. The Leipzig parent company also followed in 1929. Pfeiffer's nephew, Leonhard M. Kluftinger, who brokered the negotiations, became sole director of the company.
Expansion of the company in Germany
In 1930 the Perfumery and Soap Factory Gustav Lohse AG in Berlin-Teltow was taken over by the Warner Company. The two Gödecke companies were merged to form Gödecke & Co. Chemische Fabrik AG with headquarters in Berlin-Charlottenburg. At the instruction of the American company management, other companies belonging to the group were also looked after by Gödecke AG. This included both the branch plants of Lohse AG in Vienna, Warsaw and Gdansk as well as the Substantia companies in Prague, Budapest, Bucharest, Amsterdam, Warsaw, Vienna and Copenhagen. This made Gödecke the largest branch of the Warner group in Europe.
Second World War
During the Second World War , the administration building in Berlin-Charlottenburg was almost completely destroyed, and at the beginning of 1944 important research and production facilities were relocated to the Allgäu . The Teltow plant was also still badly damaged at the end of the war.
In July 1945, in Charlottenburg and in the Teltower plant in Berlin's eastern sector, production began again from remaining stocks. A new branch was built on the site of the former Memmingerberg air base between 1946 and 1952. The Gödecke AG plants in Tegel became state-owned companies of the GDR in 1952 and are therefore lost to the company.
Freiburg im Breisgau plant
In 1954 Leonhard M. Kluftinger died unexpectedly, from 1954 to 1955 Paul von der Stricht, President of Warner-Lambert International, ran the business until Ernst Neuhoff was appointed to the new board in May 1955. When looking for a new location for the company, he chose Freiburg im Breisgau , where there was ample space available. In 1962 Karlheinz Suermondt took over the management board and Ernst Neuhoff switched to the supervisory board. In the same year the foundation stone was laid for the new Freiburg pharmaceuticals plant. In order to meet the shortage of space in Berlin, the Pfeilring-Werke, which previously belonged to Schering AG, were purchased; in June 1962, the Berlin employees moved to the building at Salzufer 16.
concentration
In 1973 the cosmetics business of Gustav Lohse AG and Richard Hudnut GmbH was sold to L'Oreal . Gödecke AG now concentrated entirely on the pharmaceutical business, and the company's headquarters in Freiburg continued to expand. A new high-bay warehouse was built in 1977 and a new administration building in 1978. In March 1986 Bertil Lang became CEO of Gödecke AG and at the same time President of the German Region of the Warner-Lambert Group. In March 1989 he was followed by Karl Bohn, Horst Freisler, Walter Möbus and Theo Schubert in the company's management. In 1992 Bertil Lang took over responsibility for the entire European business of Warner-Lambert, Horst Freisler became CEO of Gödecke AG. Over the years, Günter Schmoll oversaw reporting across Europe.
In 1994, a completely new solids plant was put into operation in Freiburg, which in future will manufacture all of the group's solid pharmaceuticals for the entire European market. The production volume in Freiburg rose to around 2.8 billion tablets annually and Freiburg became the European headquarters for drug development. In 1996, the FDA approved the German plant in Freiburg to manufacture drugs for the American market.
Atorvastatin
In 1997, the Warner-Lambert Group launched the new lipid-lowering drug atorvastatin worldwide . The preparation, known internationally as Lipitor, was marketed in Germany under the name Sortis. The distribution was organized together with the company Pfizer, as this was able to guarantee a significantly larger market coverage worldwide. Sortis developed into the company's main source of sales in the first few months and showed unprecedented sales growth rates.
fusion
In 1999 the Warner-Lambert Group decided to merge with the American pharmaceutical company American Home . Before it could come to a deal, however, the Pfizer company took the initiative and forced the Warner-Lambert group to merge in the form of a hostile takeover.
In 2000 the Warner-Lambert Group was taken over by the Pfizer Group . The merger of the two companies was officially completed on June 19, 2000. Gödecke AG, Parke-Davis GmbH and Warner Lambert Consumer Healthcare came to the Pfizer Group Germany. The previous CEO of the Pfizer Group in Germany, Werner D. Soukup, was appointed CEO of Gödecke AG on June 21, 2000.
From this point on, Gödecke AG no longer acted as an independent company in Germany, but as part of the Pfizer Group.
Commitment in and for science
In 1966, the Gödecke Group donated the Goedecke Research Prize for outstanding achievements in the fields of biology, chemistry, pharmacy, forestry, geosciences, mathematics, medicine and physics. The prize was awarded until 2001. From 2002 to 2009 the award was continued under the name Pfizer Research Award .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Doctor's helper. (Advertisement by Gödecke & Co - Chem. Fabrik AG - Berlin - Memmingen plant) In: Munich Medical Weekly. (JF Lehmanns Verlag) Year 1953, No. 1 (January) 1953, p. CXXXVI.