Pharmaceutical Industry and E. Merck Ag

Historical background of the business Today Merck & Co, Inc. is one of the most recognizable companies in the pharmaceutical industry. When asked about Merck, most people think that it is and always has been a US company. However, the company’s history can be traced all the way back to the 1600’s where it was started in Darmstadt, Germany. Friedrich Jacob Merck purchased a local store in 1668 where he prepared and sold medicines. The store was called “At the sign of the Angels” and would remain in the Merck family for many generations (Merck & co., 2000). In 1827, Heinrich Emmanuel Merck and renamed E. MERCK AG transformed the store into a drug manufacturer. The pharmacy was so successful that by 1855 E. Merck AG was selling medications worldwide. It was at this time that Merck decided to send a company officer to the United States to set up a sales office. Once in the U.S. in 1899, Heinrich’s grandson George Merck bought one hundred and fifty acres in Rahway, New Jersey. A couple of years later, in 1903, Merck started production in its new U.S. headquarters. By this time Merck was not just producing drugs, it was also starting to produce different types of chemicals and there was also a research lab. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, George Merck, fearing that Germany would win the war and take over his company, sold all of his stock to a US company named Alien Property Custodian (Merck & Co., 2000). This ended all of Merck’s ties to Germany. After the war, George Merck regained a controlling share of the company in 1919 and from that day forward Merck has always been a publicly owned company. George Merck continued to grow the company until his death in 1926 at which time his son, George W. Merck took over. In 1926, George W. Merck decided to merge the company with Powers-Weightman-Rosengarten, which was a Philadelphia, based pharmaceutical company. In 1927 the company was officially incorporated and renamed Merck &