Merck KGaA to strengthen company brands worldwide

Chemicals businesses renamed to support brand recognition for EMD, Merck

12-Dec-2002

To further support recognition and increase the strength of the the company's brands world-wide, Merck KGaA today announced several name changes for its global chemicals business, effective January 1, 2003.

Merck of Darmstadt, Germany holds the exclusive rights to the Merck name world-wide except in North America, where name rights belong to its former U.S. subsidiary, Merck & Co, Inc. Merck & Co., which was established out of Darmstadt, Germany in 1891, has been a completely independent company since 1917. Today, the companies are no longer commercially associated with each other.

As Merck is not allowed to use the Merck name in North America, the company announced in October 2001 that it was establishing the umbrella brand EMD for its North American core Pharmaceutical and Chemical businesses. Today, EMD Pharmaceuticals of Durham, North Carolina, and the EMD Lexigen Research Center, an oncology-oriented research unit based in Billerica near Boston, Massachusetts, represent the U.S. Ethical Pharmaceutical business of Merck.

To further strengthen brand recognition for EMD in North America, Merck KGaA today announced that its U.S. Chemicals businesses will also operate under the EMD brand, effective January 1, 2003. EM Industries, Inc. of Hawthorne, New York, will be renamed to EMD Chemicals, Inc. EMD Chemicals represents the Analytics & Reagents business (formerly EM Science), the Life Science Products business (formerly Health & Human Nutrition), the Industrial & Automotive Pigments business and the Cosmetic Pigments & Chemicals business in the United States.

Merck's U.S. affiliate CN Biosciences, Inc. of San Diego, California, will be renamed to EMD Biosciences, Inc. This business, a self-standing part of Merck's global Life Science Products division, will continue to operate through the established product brands Calbiochem, Novabiochem, Novagen and Oncogene Research Products. EMD Biosciences focuses on development, production, marketing, sales and distribution of a broad array of products used world-wide in disease-related life sciences research at pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies as well as in academia.

Outside North America, Merck has the exclusive right to the Merck name. To further strengthen the Merck brand in the European marketplace, the European businesses of EMD Biosciences will be renamed to Merck Biosciences.

In the UK, CN Biosciences (UK) Ltd., based in Nottingham, will be renamed to Merck Biosciences Ltd. In Switzerland, Calbiochem-Novabiochem AG, based in Läufelfingen near Basel, will operate under Merck Biosciences AG. In Germany, Calbiochem-Novabiochem GmbH, based in Schwalbach near Frankfurt/Main, will be renamed to Merck Biosciences GmbH.

https://www.chemeurope.com/en/news/17085/merck-kgaa-to-strengthen-company-brands-worldwide.html