The History of American Home Products :: American Home Products Corporation Essays

The History of American Home ProductsAmerican Home Products Corporation (AHP) was founded in 1926 and has a history of continuous acquisitions of smaller companies that made proprietary medicines. In 1931, AHP purchased John Wyeth & Brother, Inc. from Harvard University. Another important acquisition was that of Canadas Ayerst Laboratories in 1943. Ayerst was a large pharmaceutical company that had introduced Premarin, the military personnels first conjugated estrogen crossroad, and now the intimately wide prescribed product in the United States (ahp.com). In March of 1982, Sherwood medical checkup was acquired, enabling AHP to capture a share of the developing medical devices grocery. In 1984, Whitehall, an original member of AHP, started to market ibuprofen in the United States that was sell under the trademark Advil. Lawyer John Stafford became CEO in 1986 and short after he supervised the acquisition of Bristol-Meyers animal wellness division and assimilated the new busin ess into Fort block, now Fort Dodge Animal Health. In 1989, AHP bought A.H. Robins along with its popular consumer products, including Chap Stick, Dimetapp, and Robitussin. AHP and American calcium-cyanamide merged in 1994 in a deal valued at $9.6 billion. AHP introduced many new products in 1996, including Redux and Pondimin (Phen-Phen), two weight-reduction drugs. These drugs were later pulled from the market because of links to serious health problems and lawsuits soon followed. When 1998 mega-merger plans with SmithKline Beecham and Monsanto collapsed, AHP settled for the acquisition of new-made Jersey based Solgar Vitamin and Herb Company for $425 million. Its clear to put one across that AHPs history is comprised of acquisitions in the desire to be the ultimate drawing card of the pharmaceutical industry. MarketingAmerican Home Products has a suprisingly vast legions of products. From womens health foreboding products to agricultural goods to animal health care products , AHP covers a variety of pharmaceutical needs. Wyeth-Ayersts research, products, and educational initiatives benefit millions of women. Premarin, the most widely prescribed medication in the United States, is a post-menopausal product that gained AHP notoriety when it was introduced in 1996. Wyeth-Ayerst also introduced Alesse in 1997, a low-dose oral prophylactic device formulation that has become very popular in the birth harbor field. Wyeth-Ayerst also focused its research on cardiovascular therapies and mental health products. Its cardiovascular research concentrates on medication for diseases such as cardiac cardiac arrhythmia and hypertension. Their anti-arrhythmia franchise leads the U.S. market, reflecting Wyeth-Ayersts and AHPs recognition of life-threatening ventricular arrhythmia (Tardiff 114).