Celltech

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Celltech Group
TypePublic
IndustryBiotechnology
Founded1980
Defunct2004
FateAcquired
SuccessorUCB
HeadquartersSlough, UK
Key people
Goran Ando (CEO)

Celltech Group plc was a leading British-based biotechnology business based in Slough. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

History[]

The Company was founded by Gerard Fairtlough in 1980 with finance from the National Enterprise Board.[1] Amongst the work conducted at Celltech was the cloning of the glutamine synthetase (GS) gene in CHO cells (see Chinese hamster ovary cell) leading to the creation of a biotechnology tool still widely used to express recombinant eukaryotic proteins.[2]

In 1999 the Company led consolidation in the UK biosciences market merging with Chiroscience plc, after which it was briefly referred to as Celltech Chiroscience,[3][4] and then buying Medeva plc.[5] Then in 2000 it bought Cistron, a US biosciences business.[6] It expanded into Germany in 2001 buying Thiemann, a German biosciences business,[7] and went on to buy Oxford Glycosciences in July 2003 for £102m.[8] Celltech was acquired by UCB, a Belgian drugmaker, in 2004.[9] Since then it has been known as UCB Celltech.

Operations[]

The Company was engaged in research and development of therapies for patients with serious diseases. Products included:[10]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "PharmaTelevision - Video". January 3, 2009. Archived from the original on 3 January 2009.
  2. ^ Vuksanaj, Kathy (October 4, 2021). "A British Biotech Biopedia: Early Days in the U.K."
  3. ^ Macalister, Terry (January 19, 2000). "Biotech sector finds new life". The Guardian. London, England: Guardian Newspapers Ltd. p. 27. Retrieved December 24, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ Finch, Julia (June 16, 1999). "£700m merger fuels biotech 'arms race'". The Guardian. London, England. p. 21. Retrieved December 24, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ UK Biotech Industry Consolidates As Celltech Buys Medeva for $915m[permanent dead link]
  6. ^ UK's Celltech Buys Cistron of the US[permanent dead link]
  7. ^ "Celltech acquires German sales and marketing firm Thiemann for $44.6 m". www.thepharmaletter.com. Archived from the original on 11 April 2013.
  8. ^ ISIS Archived September 17, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ "Celltech sold to Belgian firm in £1.5bn deal". The Guardian. 18 May 2004.
  10. ^ Businessweek: Celltech Group Archived September 8, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ Damle, NK; Frost, P (August 2003). "Antibody-targeted chemotherapy with immunoconjugates of calicheamicin". Current Opinion in Pharmacology. 3 (4): 386–90. doi:10.1016/S1471-4892(03)00083-3. PMID 12901947.
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