Merz Pharma

In 1908, the trained pharmacist and chemist Friedrich Merz set up his own pharmaceutical production in Frankfurt am Main. At the time of its foundation, Merz already held a patent and a utility model protection. The company subsequently expanded and one year later moved to a former cigarette factory,^[9] where the company's headquarters have been located since.^[3][9] In the beginning, Merz developed and produced the first contraceptive for birth control, as well as menthol refreshment cigarettes, and ointments against scaly skin. During the Second World War, Allied air raids on Frankfurt destroyed about 70% of the buildings. However, Merz had outsourced duplicates of its production machinery to Reinheim (Darmstadt) and was thus able to quickly rebuild production after the end of the war.^[7]

In 1953, Merz entered the cosmetics business with the first anti-wrinkle product (Placentubex). From the 1960s onwards, Merz developed dragées for beauty care.^[22] Merz Spezial Dragees came into the market in 1964 and were promoted in the 1970s and 1980s under the slogan "Natural beauty comes from within".^[23][24] In the 1970s, the company also expanded its products for medical prescription, for example for the treatment of Parkinson's disease and lowering elevated blood lipids. In 2002, Merz developed Memantine, the world's first active ingredient for the treatment of moderate to severe Alzheimer's dementia.^[22] In 2005, Merz brought a new generation of botulinum toxins into the market.^[9] At that time, the preparation was the only botulinum toxin type A (BoNT/A) without complexing foreign proteins and thus reduced the risk of antibody-mediated therapy failure.^[25]

In 2012, the previous managing director and grandson of the company founder, Jochen Hückmann, retired from the business and handed over the management to Burchard.^[3] Hückmann had held the management since the early 1970s. During this time, the company continued to expand its position internationally among other things with the development of the active ingredient Memantine.^[22]

The patent for Memantine expired in Germany in 2012. Until then, it was the only approved drug against moderate and severe forms of dementia. In the USA, the drug still had three years of patent protection. In order not to suffer a drop in sales after the patent expired, the expansion of the aesthetic and special neurology divisions was pushed ahead.^[3][22] Three years earlier, Merz had acquired the US company Bioform Medical for EUR 190 million. Bioform specialised in the production of fillers for aesthetic medicine.^[3]

This was followed in 2013 by the purchase of the Swiss company Neocutis, whose aesthetic dermatology products were mainly in the USA by physicians. In the same year Merz took over the Swiss company Anteis, which also produced fillers for aesthetic medicine. Merz entered the non-invasive facelift medical device business in 2014 with the acquisition of US company Ulthera for a sum close to $600 million.^[26][27][28] In 2015 Merz launched a subsidiary in Thailand.^[29]

Merz established a new corporate structure in late 2020. This organisational structure consists of three independently operating business divisions: Merz Aesthetics, Merz Therapeutics and Merz Consumer Care. In addition, the global Merz Aesthetics team moved from Frankfurt to Raleigh, North Carolina.^[5][30] In early 2020, the company's business collapsed for three months as a result of the initial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cosmetic and medical procedures were cancelled due to fear of contracting the virus and the scarcity of personal protective equipment such as gloves.^[11]

It was announced at the beginning of 2023 that Merz would invest around EUR 120 million in the Reinheim site and that production at the site between the old town and the Gersprenzauen meadows would be phased out.^[31]

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