How it started
1886–1995: Formation and initial growth
The company was founded in 1886 by Alfred Kern (1850–1893) and Edouard Sandoz (1853–1928) in Basel (Switzerland) under the name Chemiefirma Kern und Sandoz. Initially the company focused on production of dyes namely alizarin blue and auramine. When Kern died, the company changed its name to Chemische Fabrik vormals Sandoz in 1895 and began producing pharmaceuticals for the first time the same year. As early as 1895, the first pharmaceutical substance called antipyrine was produced to reduce fever. In 1899 they started producing saccharin.
In 1917, Sandoz entered pharmaceutical research when Arthur Stoll (1887–1971) was hired, and, in 1929, Calcium Sandoz was introduced, laying the foundation research into modern calcium therapy.
In 1918, Arthur Stoll isolated ergotamine from ergot; the substance was eventually used to treat migraine and headaches and was introduced under the trade name Gynergen in 1921.
In 1938 Albert Hofmann produced the synthetic substance lysergic acid diethylamide, better known as LSD. The psychoactive properties of this preparation were nevertheless not discovered until 1943, when Hofmann ingested a small amount by accident. From 1947 to the mid-60s, LSD was sold by Sandoz under the name Delysid. It was marketed as a treatment for a wide variety of mental ailments, ranging from alcoholism to sexual deviancy. Sandoz suggested in its marketing literature that psychiatrists take LSD themselves, to gain a better subjective understanding of the schizophrenic experience, and many did exactly that and so did other scientific researchers. The Sandoz product received mass publicity as early as 1954, in a Time magazine feature. Research on LSD peaked in the 1950s and early 1960s. The CIA purchased quantities of LSD from Sandoz for use in its illegal human experimentation program known as MKUltra. Sandoz withdrew the drug from the market in 1965. The drug became a cultural novelty of the 1960s after psychologist Timothy Leary at Harvard University began to promote its use for recreational and spiritual experiences among the general public.
In 1939, Kern & Sandoz became Sandoz Ltd., a name it operated under for nearly sixty years.
From Wikipedia’s article on Sandoz, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2