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Today Mallinckrodt, headquartered in St. Louis, is a world-leader in respiratory devices and
airway management, provides devices and products in imaging, such as magnetic resonance, nuclear medicine, ultra-sound and x-ray and provides bulk and dosage pharmaceuticals
primarily for pain relief. But back when it all started, 138 years ago, the three brothers, Edward, Otto and Gustav Mallinckrodt formed G. Mallinckrodt & Company, and began selling active ingredients to pharmaceutical companies and chemicals to laboratories.
“That’s really where Mallinckrodt’s original business started,” Michael Collins, president of Mallinckrodt Pharmaceutical says.
In 1996 Mallinckrodt began putting some of those ingredients together, expanding the pharmaceutical division of the company, which is now about one-third of the $3.4 billion entity. Of Mallinckrodt’s 12,000 employees, nearly 1,100 work at Mallinckrodt’s 45-acre site downtown.
Even though we have been bought by a large
international firm, this is a company that grew up
in St. Louis.
Michael Collins
president,
Mallinckrodt Pharmaceutical |
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“(Mallinckrodt’s) founding site is down off the river off Broadway,” Collins says. “It’s still in operation today.”
The corporate headquarters are located in Hazelwood and are the workplace for another almost 1,000 employees. In Maryland Heights another 300 employees are in the business of making nuclear pharmaceuticals.
With plants all over the world and a 2001 merger with Tyco Healthcare, a division of Tyco International, one might wonder about the company’s commitment to the St. Louis region. But Collins notes Mallinckrodt’s recent lease of a 65,000 square-foot facility for research and development in Webster Groves. A team of more than 100 members will begin the work of refining and developing generic and branded drugs there when renovations are completed in April. This investment, including a $7 to $10 million renovation of the site and 50 new hires, speaks to the company’s continuing
commitment to St. Louis, Collins says. Mallinckrodt’s St. Louis roots go deep. “Even though we have been bought by a large international firm,” Collins says, “this is a company that grew up in St. Louis.”
 Established 136 years ago in St. Louis, Missouri, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals has developed from a small family-owned company to an international force in generic pharmaceuticals. |
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But Mallinckrodt is only one of several pharmaceutical companies that calls St. Louis home. Tripos, Centocor, KV Pharmaceuticals and Forrest Pharmaceuticals are a few others involved in the making of medicines here in
St. Louis and another well-known brand in the industry, TUMS®, also had its start right here. If that’s not enough to settle your stomach, GlaxoSmithKline Site Director Glen Giles would likely suggest a tablet or two, because it’s something that your body needs anyway.
“Not only do you get rid of your heartburn if you eat too much, but you get the calcium your body needs,” Giles says. “You lose calcium everyday. You need to replace it.”
In 1928 when St. Louis Pharmacist Jim Howe was planning a cruise with his wife, one of the items they were sure to pack was the old Mason jar filled with the mint-flavored antacid tablets. Howe had created the tablets in his basement for his wife’s acid indigestion. During the cruise the tablets became popular with many of the passengers onboard and Howe saw an opportunity.
Two years later he had a commercial product available. Howe then created a contest to name the product and a nurse stationed at Jefferson Barracks won the $100 prize and the slogan “Tums for the tummy” was born.
Today GSK, manufacturer of TUMS®, is one of the last major manufacturing entities right in downtown St. Louis, Giles says. The facility takes up almost an entire city block, with seven buildings connecting to form the 230,000 square-foot factory, office and warehouse where 213 employees crank out 612 billion tablets a year.
“Twenty-four million pounds of material moves through the facility each year. You’d never know it,” Giles says. “You’d never know we were here.”
And now the facility will produce of OS-CAL, providing 30 to 40 new professional and manufacturing jobs.
“We’re pretty excited about that,” Giles says. “It’s good for the City of St. Louis, it’s good for (GlaxoSmithKline) and it’s good for our facility.”
But the pharmaceutical industry isn’t just good for St. Louis; St. Louis is good for the pharmaceutical industry. When Pfizer, the world’s largest pharmaceutical company, bought Pharmacia in 2003 for about $56 billion, two major research sites had to be shut down, and the cultural offerings available in St. Louis helped save the four locations in this region, Michael Montague, Pfizer’s head of public affairs in St .Louis, says. A world-class symphony, fine restaurants and an established art community are among the things that contribute to a cultural life here, and that culture is a demand of the kinds of workers Pfizer wants to attract.
“Pfizer had to make hard decisions,” Montague says. “The environment is important in those kinds of decisions. All of that is very important. (It is) part of what attracted the scientist to this area. And what (St. Louis’ cultural environment) offers is what is important in attracting the best and the brightest.”
Pfizer’s St. Louis laboratories concentrate on the discovery and early-stage development of new medicines in two therapeutic areas, arthritis and inflammation treatments and cardiovascular disease, with St. Louis being Pfizer’s “early stage biopharma global center.” Of the about 1,200 Pfizer employees at the four campuses in the St. Louis region, 1,000 are scientists and keeping that intellectual power here is good news for the region.
“Pfizer is a substantial employer in this state,” Montague says. “St. Louis is one of six Pfizer regions world wide.”
Regional leaders have high hopes that the BioBelt concept, a multi-state region of plant and life science industries with St. Louis at its center, will take off, and these are some of the companies on which those hopes are pinned. The Battelle Memorial Institute, the nation’s leading think tank, and the world’s largest independent research and development organization, was enlisted by the RCGA and completed its study assessing the
St. Louis region in 2000 and again in 2002 and made recommendations for future growth in the fields of plant and life sciences.
The study found that the 187 plant and life sciences companies based in the St. Louis region have 10,166 employees. And St. Louis has made more progress in its implementation of the plant and life sciences strategy as any region of the country and is well on the road to becoming the leading center for the life sciences. There is currently more than 17 million square feet of high-tech research and development space in the region and that is expected to increase six to 10 percent this year. Both GlaxoSmithKline and Mallinckrodt attest to specific growth in the year to come. It may be more likely that in St. Louis’ future this will be the rule, rather than the exception.
Making Medicine, Making a Difference
By Sue Britt
Tyco Healthcare/Mallinckrodt manufactures and markets medical products including products that sustain breathing, diagnose disease and relieve pain. Headquartered in St. Louis, the company has locations around the world including North, Central and South America, Europe, South Africa, Asia and Australia. Tyco Healthcare is a leading distributor and servicer of medical devices and its broad portfolio includes disposable
medical supplies, monitoring equipment, medical instruments and bulk analgesic pharmaceuticals.
Mallinckrodt’s Community Partnership Program supports activities all over the world and concentrate in four focus areas of health, youth, science and environment, and civic and community development.
Examples of Mallinckrodt’s contributions in St. Louis include donations to the United Way of Greater St. Louis, financial support of a free dental clinic for children from low-income families and a contribution to fund the Mallinckrodt Just Like Me play area at the Saint Louis Zoo.
| Mallinckrodt’s contributions in St. Louis include funding the Mallinckrodt Just Like Me play area at the Saint Louis Zoo. |
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