& co. msd its former subsidiary and now an independent company . merck type publicly traded kgaa traded as fwb mrk industry chemicals pharmaceuticals founded 1668 ; 348 years ago 1668 founder friedrich jacob merck headquarters darmstadt germany key people stefan oschmann ceo and chairman of the executive board wolfgang b chele chairman of the supervisory board products liquid crystals life science and performance chemicals over the counter medicines small molecules and biopharmaceuticals revenue 11.362 billion 2014 1 total assets 42.13 billion 2016 2 number of employees ca. 50 000 2016 3 website www.merckgroup.com the merck group branded and commonly known as merck is a german multinational chemical pharmaceutical and life sciences company headquartered in darmstadt with around 50 000 employees in around 70 countries . merck was founded in 1668 and is the world s oldest operating chemical and pharmaceutical company as well as one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world . 4 5 merck operates in europe africa asia oceania and the americas . it has major research and development centres in darmstadt boston tokyo and beijing . merck pioneered the commercial manufacture of morphine in the 19th century and for a time held a virtual monopoly on cocaine . merck was privately owned until going public on the frankfurt stock exchange in 1995 and is listed on the dax index of germany s top companies . the merck family still controls a majority 70.3 % of the company s shares . the merck group includes around 250 companies in 180 countries ; the current main parent company of the group since 1995 is named merck kgaa and is itself mainly owned by the former main parent company e. merck ohg which now operates as a holding company . the american pharmaceutical company merck & co. was established as a subsidiary of merck in 1891 but became an independent company in 1917 . it is known as msd merck sharp and dohme outside of north america . the original merck of darmstadt holds the rights to the name merck in all countries except the u.s. and canada where it is known as emd emanuel merck darmstadt . in 2015 merck adopted a new uniform brand identity for all its subsidiaries and the company has stressed its intention to protect the brand of the real merck globally and initiated litigation against its former subsidiary over use of the name . 6 contents 1 history 1.1 name 1.2 price fixing settlement 1.3 acquisition history 2 healthcare 3 life science 3.1 merck millipore 4 performance materials 4.1 liquid crystals 4.2 pigments and cosmetics 5 references 6 external links history edit the angel pharmacy in darmstadt which was owned by the merck family from 1668 ; the beginning of the merck company merck headquarters in darmstadt merck chemical production plant in gernsheim merck s second largest production site merck visitor centre in darmstadt the roots of merck reach back as far as the 17th century in germany . in 1668 friedrich jacob merck an apothecary assumed ownership of the engel apotheke angel pharmacy in darmstadt germany . in 1816 emanuel merck a descendant of the original founder took over the pharmacy . thanks to his scientific education he was successful in isolating and characterizing several different alkaloids in the pharmacys laboratory and by doing so also invented morphine and other chemicals medicines and drugs . he began the manufacture of these substances in bulk in 1827 touting them as a cabinet of pharmaceutical and chemical innovations . he and his successors gradually built up a chemical pharmaceutical factory that produced in addition to raw materials for pharmaceutical preparations a multitude of other chemicals and from 1890 medicines . 7 in 1891 georg e merck established himself in the united states and set up merck & co. in new york . merck & co. was confiscated following the first world war and set up as an independent company in the united states . 8 9 today the us company which operates as merck sharp and dohme msd outside the u.s. and canada has about 86 000 employees december 2011 in 120 countries . it is one of the top 5 pharmaceutical companies worldwide larger than its german ancestor which employs around 40 700 people in 67 countries december 2011 . while merck in darmstadt is the legal successor of the original merck and retains the rights to the name merck in all countries except the u.s. and canada it is sometimes known as the german merck or merck darmstadt in north america . the company was formerly also referred to as e. merck emanuel merck . merck was legally named e. merck ohg until 1995 . in 1995 it was listed on the frankfurt stock exchange and became a kgaa legally named merck kgaa . merck korea received the leading investor award at the 5th korea eu industrial cooperation day in 2011 . on march 13 2006 merck announced a takeover bid for schering ag the world s largest producer of oral contraceptives . on march 23 2006 bayer ag made a supported offer for schering and merck decided to drop out of the bidding for the company . 10 schering is not to be confused with schering plough which was once part of schering ag but was acquired by merck & co. in 2009 . in september 2006 the company announced a takeover bid of 13.2 billion for serono sa switzerland s largest biotech firm . the deal included a buy out of the bertarelli family s 64.5 % stake in serono to be followed by a public tender offer for the remaining shares starting in november 2006 . 11 12 the combined company has an r & d budget of approximately 1.1 billion and sales of approximately 4.6 billion . its approximately 2 billion in sales of biologics would make it 7th among pharmaceutical biotech companies . the new entity merck serono began operations in 2007 . in 2010 merck took over billerica ma based millipore corporation for eur 5.3 billion us 7.2 billion . 13 14 it is now a division of merck s business unit chemicals merck millipore . with the acquisition of millipore merck is consolidating its us holdings and shutting down the gibbstown facility and warehouse . gibbstown operations will be transferred to the new philadelphia office and millipore headquarters . 15 in december 2013 the company bought az electronic materials sa azem for about 2.6 billion in cash to increase its offering of specialty chemicals to the electronics industry . 16 in september 2014 merck halted the clinical development of two drug candidates in development with oxygen biotherapeutics . one drug candidate suffered a lack of success in patient recruitment with its muc1 antigen specific cancer immunotherapy drug tecemotide l blp25 missing its phase i ii endpoint of increasing overall survival in patients with stage iii non small cell lung cancer . 17 later in september it was announced that the company would acquire sigma aldrich for us 17 000 000 000 . 18 after the acquisition was completed in 2015 merck has around 50 000 employees . 3 in november 2014 merck and pfizer agreed a deal for the latter to sell the former sharing rights to develop an experimental immunotherapy drug for a fee of 850 million . 19 in october 2015 merck revealed it would return the rights of the kuvan drug to biomarin pharmaceutical inc. . the drug is effective in the treatment of the rare genetic disorder pku however merck is moving away from genetics into cancer treatment immunology and neurology . 20 in october 2015 it was announced that karl ludwig kley ceo of merck since april 2007 would retire in april 2016 and be succeeded by stefan oschmann who has been a member of the executive board since 2011 . 21 name edit former logo of merck kgaa used until october 13 2015 merck in darmstadt is the sole legal successor of the original merck and retains the rights to the trademark merck in all countries except the u.s. and canada . in recent branding campaigns the company has referred to itself as the original merck and the real merck . the company was legally known as e. merck ohg until 1995 when merck kgaa became the main parent company and the former a holding company . both ohg and kgaa are generic business entity type designations and not used in everyday speech or branding . in 2015 merck adopted a new logo and said it will be much more aggressive about protecting the brand of the real merck . 6 it has initiated litigation in several countries against its former subsidiary merck & co. msd over infringing use of the merck name . in 2016 the high court of justice in the united kingdom ruled that msd had breached an agreement with its former parent company and that only merck of darmstadt is entitled to use the merck name in the united kingdom ; the judge also held that msd s use of merck as part of branding on its global websites were directed to the uk and infringed merck s trade mark rights in the uk . 22 in response msd has initiated counter litigation in the united states . 23 price fixing settlement edit generics uk merck s former british subsidiary the global generics business being sold on october 2 2007 paid a 12m out of court settlement with the department of health over involvement in an alleged price and supply fixing cartel . 24 the nhs alleges various drugs companies exploited the oligopolistic market conditions forcing the nhs to pay inflated prices . nhs fraud investigators believe there was a conspiracy to limit the supply of 30 of its most commonly prescribed drugs including a class of penicillin antibiotics and to a generic version of best selling ulcer treatment zantac . 25 the nhs has so far filed claims in relation to just three drugs seeking damages of more than 150m while the serious fraud office sfo is conducting a parallel investigation into the price fixing allegations limited to the supply of blood thinning pill warfarin and penicillin based antibiotics . homes and offices of executives at six firms including ranbaxy generics uk norton healthcare goldshield and regent gm were raided by the sfo in may 2002 . acquisition history edit the following is an illustration of the company s mergers acquisitions spin offs and historical predecessors merck kgaa merck founded 1668 by jacob friedrich merck merck serono serono acq 2006 merck millipore millipore corporation acq 2010 waters associates inc acq 1979 waters chromatography division sold 1994 amicon separation sciences acq 1996 tylan general acq 1997 bioprocessing limited acq 1999 microelectronics division spun off 2001 as mykrolis microsafe acq 2005 novaseptic acq 2005 newport bio systems acq 2006 serologicals corporation acq 2006 guava technologies acq 2009 bioanalab acq 2009 az electronic materials acq 2013 sigma aldrich acq 2014 bioreliance acq 2012 molecular medicine bioservices acq 2007 epichem group ltd acq 2007 advanced separation technologies acq 2006 pharmorphix ltd acq 2006 iropharm acq 2006 beijing superior chemicals and instruments co acq 2006 proligo group acq 2005 jrh biosciences acq 2005 ultrafine acq 2004 isotec acq 2001 sigma aldrich corporation aldrich chemical co merged 1975 sigma international ltd merged 1975 healthcare edit after wilhelm adam sert rner s isolation of morphine from opium in 1805 merck pioneered from 1827 the commercial manufacture of morphine for an expanding global market . from 1884 onwards merck also played role in the production and marketing of cocaine . sigmund freud author of ber coca 1884 was an enthusiastic collaborator in merck s coca research though the methodological sophistication of his self experimentation studies has been challenged . attention was directed at vitamins as a new product category and vigantol was introduced in 1927 followed by cebion in 1934 . following the defeat of germany in world war ii