Mallinckrodt

Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, based in Dublin, Ireland, with its U.S. headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri, produces specialty pharmaceutical products, including generic drugs and imaging agents.^[1]

Mallinckrodt manufactures and distributes products used in diagnostic procedures and in the treatment of pain and related conditions. This includes the development, manufacture and distribution of specialty pharmaceuticals, active pharmaceutical ingredients, contrast products and radiopharmaceuticals. The company employs 5,500 at 47 locations around the world. Net sales were $2 billion in 2011.^[2]

Separation from Covidien

In 2011, Covidien announced plans to spin off its pharmaceuticals business into a standalone public company.^[3] Mallinckrodt Plc was officially separated as of June 28, 2013. Trading of regular shares of the company’s stock on the New York Stock Exchange began on July 1, 2013, under the ticker symbol MNK.^[1]

History

Early history

In 1867, the Mallinckrodt brothers, Gustav, Otto and Edward, founded G. Mallinckrodt & Co. in St. Louis, Missouri.^[4] Mallinckrodt Chemical Works was incorporated 15 years later. By 1898, the company had established itself as a pharmaceuticals supplier and in 1913 became the first to introduce barium sulfate as a contrast media for x-rays.^[4]

Nuclear waste in St. Louis, Missouri

Henry Farr and John Ruhoff, technical managers for Mallinckrodt, Inc. were directed by Edward Mallinckrodt, Jr. to develop a chemical process for purifying large quantities of uranium.^[5] Uranium purified by Mallinckrodt was used at the University of Chicago Chicago Pile-1, the first nuclear chain reaction. Mallinckrodt also contributed uranium to the Manhattan Project, producing fissionables used in the atomic weapons detonated over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. From 1942 to 1957 Mallinckrodt purified 50,000 short tons (45,000,000 kg) of uranium products at various locations in and around the city of St. Louis.^[6] The waste was secretly dumped on Coldwater Creek and in various St. Louis suburbs, including Berkeley, Hazelwood, Bridgeton, and Weldon Spring with the approval of the federal government, which is now taking financial responsibility for the cleanup.^[7] The dumping substantially contaminated Coldwater Creek.

Cleanup efforts are now underway by the Army Corps of Engineers.^[8] Cleanup sites include the St. Louis Downtown Site (SLDS), where uranium was refined; the St. Louis Airport Site (SLAPS), where waste produced at SLDS was stored; the Hazelwood Interim Storage Site (HISS), where waste from SLAPS was improperly relocated; and the St. Louis Airport Site Vicinity Properties (SLAPS VPs), areas where contamination was caused by relocation of waste. Additional nuclear waste was also illegally deposited at the West Lake Landfill, which has now been designated a Superfund site. Various buildings have been decontaminated and demolished and nuclear material has been excavated and shipped out of St. Louis by covered rail as part of the cleanup process, yet more nuclear waste remains in and around St. Louis.

Recent history

• 1981 – Mallinckrodt is listed among Fortune 500 companies^[9]
• 1982 – Avon Products, Inc. acquires Mallinckrodt
• 1986 – International Minerals and Chemical Corporation (IMCERA Group Inc.) acquires Mallinckrodt from Avon
• 1995 – Mallinckrodt establishes generic pharmaceuticals business
• 1996 – Mallinckrodt Inc. acquires maker of urology imaging systems and injectors, Liebel-Flarsheim Co.^[10]
• 2000 – Tyco International acquires Mallinckrodt^[11]
• 2007 – Tyco Healthcare spins off and becomes Covidien, an independent company.^[12] The healthcare business units were spun off under the name Covidien.^[13]
• 2011 – Covidien announces plans to spin off Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals as a standalone public company^[14]
• 2012 – Mallinckrodt announces acquisition of CNS Therapeutics for $100 million^[15]
• 2013 – Mallinckrodt spins off from Covidien and begins trading under ticker symbol MNK^[1]
• 2014 – Acquires Cadence Pharmaceuticals^[16] and Questcor Pharmaceuticals;^[17] joins S&P 500^[18]
• 2015 – Acquires Therakos for $1.325 billion^[19]

Market

Mallinckrodt markets its products to major wholesalers and retail drug store chains. Imaging products are marketed primarily to physicians, technologists and hospitals, imaging centers, cardiology clinics and radiopharmacies.^[2]

Products

Mallinckrodt has two main product lines.^[20]

• Specialty Pharmaceuticals products include branded drugs as well as specialty generics and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). Products include biologics, medicinal opioids, synthetic controlled substances, and acetominophen.
• Medical Imaging products include contrast media and radiopharmaceuticals for medical imaging applications.

In the fourth quarter of 2014, Specialty Pharmaceuticals accounted for 74% of net sales. Key specialty pharmaceutical products include^[21]

• Achtar gel, an injectable biological drugs used for the treatment of infantile spasms, acute exacerbations of multiple sclerosis, and certain orphan diseases
• Offirmev is a proprietary IV formulation of acetominophen used in conjunction with opioid painkillers in the post surgical setting.
• Xartemis XR is a controlled release oral combination of acetominophen and oxycodone for the treatment of acute pain.
• Exalgo is a once-daily, long-acting form of hydromorphone, another pain drug.

Key generic specialty products include:^[22]

• Hydrocodone API and tablets
• Oxycodone API and tablets
• Methylphenidate hydrochloride extended release tablets
• Dextroamphetamine sulfate controlled release tablets
• Other controlled substances, including acetominophen-containing products

Medical Imaging products include Optiray (ioversol injection), an iodide based contrast medium for CT scans, and Optimark (gadoversetamide injection) a Gadolinium-Based Contrast Agent used in magnetic resonance imaging of the brain or liver.

References

External links

• Official site