Rhône-Poulenc

Rhône Poulenc S. A. was a French pharmaceutical and chemical company that is now part of Sanofi- Aventis.

It was founded as Société Chimique du Rhône in 1895. The company invented in 1911, the cellulose acetate. 1922 was added operations currently located in the textile sector subsidiary Rhodiaceta. 1948 succeeded with Rhodia Inc. the jump overseas. In 1968, the Group has at that time major chemical company Pechiney (aluminum) and Progil (chlorine, phosphate, plastics and petrochemicals). This was rated a long time as the most important fusion of the French chemical industry. Various companies in the fine chemicals and heavy chemicals were combined in one group.

The group Rhône-Poulenc and the German Phytopharmakaunternehmen A. Nattermann & Cie. GmbH was based in Cologne.

From 1982 to 1993, the company was owned by the French state, who conducted extensive modernization measures in the then poor operation. In 1993, France again separated from his ownership rights, as these private investments prevented. In 1996, the Group employed 75,000 people in 140 countries on all continents. Turnover was 86 billion francs, of which almost 80 % of the business outside the French borders. Of importance here is Merial, a collaboration with MSD (Merck, Sharp & Dohme, a U.S. company ).

In 1998, Rhône -Poulenc 's seventh largest pharmaceutical and chemical company in the world. In the same year was created by merging the process chemicals, fibers and polymers, the French group Rhodia SA. The remaining areas, including the pharmaceutical industry Rhone- Poulenc merged in late 1999 with the German group Hoechst AG for Aventis, based in Strasbourg, the after a further merger now Sanofi-Aventis is called.