| Type | merged with Hoechst AG |
|---|---|
| Industry | Chemicals |
| Founded | 1928 |
| Founder(s) | Étienne Poulenc |
| Products | Chemicals and pharmaceuticals |
Rhône-Poulenc (French pronunciation: [ʁon pulɛ̃k]) was a French chemical and pharmaceutical company.
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The Company was founded in 1928 through the merger of Société des Usines Chimiques du Rhône (Society of Rhône Chemical Factories) from Lyon and Établissements Poulenc Frères (Poulenc Brothers Company) from Paris founded by Étienne Poulenc, a 19th century Parisian apothecary and brought to prominence by his second and third sons Emile and Camille Poulenc (1864–1942). In 1950, the company synthesized chlorpromazine which it sold to Smith, Kline & French (today part of GlaxoSmithKline) who marketed the drug as Thorazine.[1] In January 1999, Rhône-Poulenc merged with Hoechst AG to form Aventis. In 2004, Aventis went on to merge with Sanofi-Synthélabo forming Sanofi-Aventis, the third largest pharmaceutical company in the world.
In 1997, the chemicals division of Rhône-Poulenc was spun off into a separate company named Rhodia. The agricultural chemicals division of Rhône-Poulenc, known as Aventis CropScience after the merger with Hoechst, was sold to the German chemical and pharmaceutical company Bayer in 2002.
Rhône-Poulenc originally funded the Rhône-Poulenc Prizes, now known as the Royal Society Prizes for Science Books.
[1] Note:- Emile Poulenc was the father of the French composer Francis Poulenc.