Type Public Area served Worldwide Founded 1901 | Headquarters Budapest, Hungary Founder Gedeon Richter | |
 | ||
Traded as BPSE: RICHTER
Euronext: RICHTER
BUX Component
CETOP20 Component Industry Pharmaceutical
Biotechnology Key people Vilmos Gelsey (Chairman)
Erik Bogsch (CEO) Stock price RIG2 (FRA) € 20.40 0.00 (0.00%)10 Mar, 12:09 PM GMT+1 - Disclaimer Subsidiaries Finox AG, Medimpex UK Ltd | ||
Richter Gedeon Co. (Hungarian: Richter Gedeon Nyrt.) is a Hungarian multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company headquartered in Budapest, Hungary. It is one of the largest companies of the industry in the Central and Eastern European region and has operations in over 40 countries.
Contents
The company sells products for gynecology, the central nervous system, and cardiology areas among other therapeutic areas. The company was established in Budapest by Gedeon Richter, a pharmacist, in 1901. The establishment of his firm marked the beginning of the development of the Hungarian pharmaceutical industry.
Richter Gedeon Co. has a primary listing on the Budapest Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the BUX Index. It had a market capitalisation of approximately $4 billion as of November 2015, the third largest of any company with a primary listing on the Budapest Stock Exchange. It has secondary listings on Euronext.
History
Initially, small-scale pharmaceutical production took place in the "Arany Sas" (Golden Eagle) Pharmacy, which still operates today. Independent pharmaceutical research and production activities were launched in Hungary in those days. However, pharmaceutical production at an industrial scale necessitated heavy investments, and large-scale pharmaceutical manufacturing activities were considered to be extremely capital-intensive operations, even by the established standards in Western countries. Initially, the laboratory that operated on the premises of the pharmacy processed extracts from organs of animals and produced organotherapeutic drugs.
The plant was built in 1907 in the Kőbánya suburb of Budapest. In compliance with the established international trends of the pharmaceutical industry in those days, the company produced herbal drugs, processed extracts from plants and manufactured synthetic products at a later date. The company became a highly recognized manufacturer of lecithin products, antiseptic and febrifuge products, as well as painkillers (Hyperol, Kalmopyrin, Tonogen, which ones are in use tody too).
In 1934 Constant Janssen, of the future Janssen Pharmaceuticals, acquired the distribution rights for Gedeon Richter's products.
Today
The corporation has two plants today: the headquarters in Budapest, and a subsidiary in Dorog since 1967. In October 2010, Richter Gedeon Co. acquired 100% of a private Swiss drug company, Preglem, for CHF 445 million (€337 million). The company has joint ventures in India—with Themis Medicare, and in Germany, with Helm AG.