Schering-Plough

Schering-Plough Corporation was a United States-based pharmaceutical company. It was originally the US subsidiary of the German company Schering AG, which was founded in 1851 by Ernst Christian Friedrich Schering. As a result of nationalization it became an independent company. In 1971, the Schering Corporation merged with Plough (founded by Memphis area entrepreneur Abe Plough in 1908) to form Schering-Plough. On November 4, 2009 Merck & Co. merged with Schering-Plough with the new company taking the name of Merck & Co. Schering-Plough Corporation was a United States-based pharmaceutical company. It was originally the US subsidiary of the German company Schering AG, which was founded in 1851 by Ernst Christian Friedrich Schering. As a result of nationalization it became an independent company. In 1971, the Schering Corporation merged with Plough (founded by Memphis area entrepreneur Abe Plough in 1908) to form Schering-Plough. On November 4, 2009 Merck & Co. merged with Schering-Plough with the new company taking the name of Merck & Co. Schering-Plough manufactured several pharmaceutical drugs, the most well-known of which were the allergy drugs Claritin and Clarinex, an anti-cholesterol drug Vytorin, and a brain tumor drug Temodar. These are now available from Merck & Co. Schering-Plough also owned and operated the major foot care brand name Dr. Scholl's and the skin care line Coppertone. These also became a part of the new company. As of June 2005, Schering-Plough had 1.4% market share in the U.S., placing it seventeenth in the top twenty pharmaceutical corporations by sales compiled by IMS Health. Schering-Plough was a full member of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), a membership which is also maintained by the new Merck & Co. Schering was founded in 1851 by Ernst Christian Friedrich Schering as Schering AG in Germany. Plough, Incorporated was founded by the Memphis, Tennessee area entrepreneur Abe Plough (1892–1984) in 1908. He borrowed $125 from his father to start the business at age sixteen. As a one-man business, he mixed 'Plough's Antiseptic Healing Oil,' a 'sure cure for any ill of man or beast,' and sold it off a horse-drawn buggy. Plough's acquisitions included St Joseph's Aspirin for children, Maybelline cosmetics, and Coppertone skin care products. Plough also had a broadcasting division, operating radio stations in Atlanta, Georgia (WPLO-AM & FM); Baltimore, Maryland (WCAO-AM & FM); Boston, Massachusetts (WCOP-AM & FM); Chicago, Illinois (WJJD-AM & FM); and Memphis, Tennessee (WMPS-AM & FM). Following the entry of the United States into World War II in 1941, U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt ordered Schering AG's U.S. assets be seized. These became the Schering Corporation. The company was placed under a government administratorship until 1952, when it was released and its assets sold to the private sector.