Gedeon Richter

Richter, Gedeon , (Ecséd, September 23rd, 1872 – Budapest, December 30th, 1944) The creator of Hungarian pharmaceutical industry who left behind extraordinary life-work, a pharmaceutical factory of world standard, his name is associated with the production of numerous new and efficient pharmaceutical preparations.
In 1893 he obtained a final certificate of research student at the University of Kolozsvár (now Cluj/Napoca, Romania). At the medical faculty of the Royal Hungarian University of Sciences in Budapest he obtained a diploma of pharmaceutics.
Richter pursued the pharmaceutical practice required by law for opening an individual pharmacy in Hungary and abroad, and after returning to Hungary in 1901 he bought a pharmacy in Budapest and became an individual pharmacist. In the laboratory of Sas Pharmacy he was engaged in the semi-plant production of galenic preparations and extracts containing hormones of endocrine glands.
In 1907 he started the first Hungarian pharmaceutical factory called Richter Gedeon Chemical Factory.
The equipment of the factory was up to the contemporary technical standard, analysing and research laboratories were also attached to the plants. Richter and his collaborators prepared a series of new medicaments and manufacturing processes. At the beginning the organotherapical preparations distributed with the brand name „Hormogland-Richter” were significant, later standard galenic preparations and synthetic products as well as vitamins appeared on the scale of products. Among the galenic materials the most significant ones were the digitalis extracts applied in cardiology and the ergot extracts important in obstetrics.
In the 1920's Gedeon Richter organised the first Hungarian biological laboratory which had a significant role in standardising active ingredients and in checking their quality. In a new research laboratory set up in the 1930's they worked out the semisynthetic production of steroid hormones isolated earlier from natural materials. In 1941 they solved the production of the first synthetic oestrogenic hormone, the silbestrol.
Richter realised soon that the industrial production of pharmaceuticals in a small country can only be viable, if it is supported by considerable export. In a short time he established a network of agents covering five continents and founded ten foreign affiliated firms.
During World War II Gedeon Richter had to renounce his ownership rights because of the laws of antisemitic politics, moreover he was banned from his factory from 1942. On December 30th, 1944 he was dragged away by a Hungarian nazi detachment and killed on the bank of the Danube.

• The history of Gedeon Richter

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gedeon_Richter_Ltd. Gedeon Richter Ltd] (Hungarian: Richter Gedeon Nyrt.), the largest pharmaceutical factory in Hungary, was established by Mr. Gedeon Richter, a pharmacist in 1901. Mr. Richter was not only the founder of the company, but the establishment of his firm also marked the beginning of the development of the Hungarian pharmaceutical industry. Initially, small-scale pharmaceutical production took place in the "Sas" (Eagle) Pharmacy, which still operates. 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 organotherapeutic 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). The corporation has two plants today: the headquarters in Budapest, and a subsidiary in Dorog. In October 2010, Gedeon Richter Ltd acquired 100% of a Swiss private drug company, Preglem, for CHF 445 million (€337 million)