Syntex

This paper is an account of Syntex, a pharmaceutical research and manufacturing company that offers an intriguing example of the rewards and pitfalls of the international drug industry. Throughout the 50 years of its history, Syntex laid important groundwork for the development of the birth control pill and led the industry in the development of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), culminating in the development of naproxen and anaproxen, the largest-selling NSAIDs in the world. Preferring to promote from within, the company managed to produce consistent research and development successes that kept public focus away from the individuals responsible for these successes. By the late 1980s, the company had become successful enough to be a tempting target for takeover, protected principally by its foreign status and the impending expiration of key patents. When Syntex was finally bought out by the older, larger Hoffman-LaRoche corporation, it had demonstrated the best and worst about the workings of the industry as a whole.

Syntex was founded in Mexico City in 1944, synthesizing progesterone compounds from the roots of vines growing in the Mexican jungle. The name join the concepts of chemical synthesis ("synt") and Mexico ("ex"). The company's first president was Dr. George Rosenkranz, a Hungarian-born chemist. Within its first few years, Syntex had managed to synthesize testosterone, estrogen, and norethindrone, three key hormones, and had begun to market Sy

Related Essays

Management Science .... Syntex Laboratories developed a modified Delphi Techni que, for making decisions related to sales force size and _____ 8C. .... (2508 10 )

Bureaucracies & the FDA .... A short time later, with drug manufacturer Syntex's misleading claims for an antiarthritis drug called Naprosyn, Kessler threatened to seize a $50 million .... (4544 18 )

BREAST VS FORMULA FEEDING Table of Contents I. .... formulas. Infants fed Neo-Mull-Soy, Syntex, which is no longer marked, demonstrated poor weight gain and metabolic alkalosis. Some .... (5485 22 )

in three therapeutic areas: dermatological products, NSAIDs, and oral contraceptives (Barrie, 1977, p. 37). In May of 1982, Richard G. Rogers, 53, was named president and chief operating officer, succeeding Bowers, who remained chairman of the board and chief executive. Rogers had started with the company as advertising manager for a Syntex Laboratories subsidiary in 1964. He became president of that unit in 1973; by 1978, he had been named an executive vice president of the parent company. Under Rogers, the company became one of the first in the San Francisco region to establish an employer-assisted child care center for its workers. Syntex had a long history of family-oriented and liberal leave policies. In its earliest days, in 1947 in Mexico City, Syntex started an on-site daycare center for the children of employees. Syntex continued to introduce new drugs: Cardene (for angina and hypertension), Cytovene (to treat opportunistic eye infections in people with AIDS), Synarel (for endometriosis in women), Toradol (an analgesic alternative to narcotics), Ticlide (to reduce the risk of first or recurrent strokes in high-risk individuals). The company's consistent ability to discover and develop new pharmaceutical pr

Category: Business - S