Merck renames businesses to improve brand recognition
Merck KgaA, of Darmstadt in Germany, is renaming some of its global chemicals businesses to increase the strength of its EMD brand.
Merck KgaA, of Darmstadt in Germany, is renaming some of its global chemicals businesses to increase the strength of its EMD brand.
The umbrella brand was created in October 2001 for the company's North American core pharmaceutical and chemical businesses, because Merck KgaA does not hold the rights to the Merck name in North America. These are held by the former US subsidiary Merck & Co, which has been completely independent since 1917 and has no commercial ties to Merck in Germany.
The EMD brand already covers EMD Pharmaceuticals, of Durham, North Carolina, and the EMD Lexigen Research Center, an oncology-oriented research unit based in Billerica near Boston, Massachusetts. With effect from 1 January 2003, Merck KgaA's US chemical businesses will also operate under the same umbrella brand. EM Industries, of Hawthorne, New York, will be renamed EMD Chemicals, and will repre-sent the analytics & reagents business (formerly EM Science), the life science products business (formerly health & human nutrition), and the industrial and cosmetics pigments businesses.
Merck's US affiliate CN Biosciences, of San Diego, California, will be renamed EMD Biosciences and will continue to operate as a self-standing part of Merck's global life science products division, focusing on de-velopment, production, marketing, sales and distribution of a broad array of established product brands, including Calbiochem, Novabiochem, Novagen and Oncogene Research Products.
To further strengthen the Merck brand in the European marketplace, the European businesses of EMD Biosciences in the UK, Switzerland and Germany will be renamed Merck Biosciences.