As dedicated animal health companies, Intervet and Schering-Plough have existed since the 1950s. Now a single company, Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health has combined sales exceeding U.S.$ 2,700 / €1,800 million in 2007 and is one of the leading companies in animal health. Already leaders in cattle, sheep, poultry, and aquaculture health, we are at the forefront of both recombinant and vaccine marker technologies. However this company is about more; it is a story of innovation, commitment to research and entrepreneurship in animal health reaching back over 50 years.

Inspired entrepreneurship
Despite disparate locations, both companies have similar roots, being built on inspired entrepreneurship. Lateral thinking by a Netherlands-based animal feed company helped create Intervet, and Schering-Plough leveraged human medicine into animal health. Both companies quickly became commercial successes in their home markets, and increasingly internationally.

Laying the foundations for the modern day
Intervet began life in the late 1940s, in Boxmeer, where the animal health unit headquarters remains today. Laboratoria Nobilis, founded by animal feed manufacturer Wim Hendrix, was researching poultry vaccines. Hendrix observed that “sick chickens don’t eat” – hardly ideal for feed sales. Vaccinated, healthy birds would be better for business. Addressing his primary concern of Fowl Pox, Professor Jac Jansen of the University of Utrecht veterinary faculty agreed to help, suggesting he employ one of his assistants, J.H.M. Richter. Richter developed the first inoculum for Fowl Pox in 1950, ‘Fowl Pox OVO DIPHTERIN, quickly followed by other vaccines and laying the foundations for the modern-day Intervet.

New identity
By 1961, Nobilis was exporting vaccines, its growth attracting a takeover by Netherlands-based pharmaceutical manufacturer KZO (Koninklijke Zwanenberg Organon). Further acquisitions broadened the company’s scope beyond vaccines, and also brought the name Intervet, (although the group did not formally adopt this until 1969). However, the name ‘Nobilis’ still remains, for a range of Intervet poultry vaccines.

Increased tenfold in two years
Meanwhile in the U.S., Schering-Plough Animal Health was taking root. The parent company had existed since the 1860s; their Veterinary Division, was formally established in the 1950s in Bloomfield, New Jersey. It was designed to service a demand for the corticosteroid prednisone – originally a human medicine - to treat ketosis in cattle. From an initial sales team of three, it increased tenfold in two years, entering the vaccine market in 1959 by acquiring American Scientific Laboratories.

Continuing growth and diversity
Subsequent decades brought further change; both companies assuming the identities we now know; Nobilis becoming Intervet in 1969; Schering merged with Plough, Inc., in 1971, becoming the Schering-Plough Corporation. By the 1970s, Intervet already had a strong European presence. Looking for global reach, the company bought Inter-Continental Biologicals, which became Intervet Inc. With a Marek’s Disease vaccine as the first U.S. product, Intervet was going on to market 17 vaccines in a single year, firmly establishing the company in the U.S.

Enhanced European presence
Schering-Plough’s animal health acquisitions also continued, purchasing vaccine makers Douglas Industries in 1981, and French company Rigaux in 1982, which provided European manufacturing facilities and a range of European-oriented products. Reflecting this, the company became the worldwide Animal Health division within the international pharmaceutical business. The European presence was further augmented by the acquisition of Byk Gulden in Germany.

Largest veterinary medicine company in Europe
Intervet was already Europe’s largest animal health company; in the 1990s they became the 3rd largest in the world, acquiring companies such as Norbio, Hoechst Roussel Vet and Bayer’s U.S. veterinary biologicals operations. Innovation flowed, through products including broad-spectrum anthelmintic PANACUR, the COBACTAN range of anti-infectives, and SCALIBOR, a dog-collar to prevent Leishmaniasis from sandfly bites. They also introduced the first-ever recombinant vaccine – for E. coli –followed by the first-ever monoclonal parenteral product, a marker vaccine against classical swine fever and a vaccine for Aujeszky’s disease. Recombinants now account for 45% of annual turnover. Meanwhile, Schering-Plough Animal Health built stakes in key markets, via new products, including the injectable bovine antibiotic NUFLOR, via acquisition - Fisons, Fujisawa and Aquaculture - and joint venture - including Takeda, Japan’s largest animal health company. In 2005, they took control of Takeda’s entire Japanese animal health operations.

Parallel cultures of innovation
In 2007, Schering-Plough acquired Organon BioSciences, creating Intervet /Schering-Plough Animal Health. The historical symmetries suggest symbiosis - parallel cultures of innovation, entrepreneurship and cU.S.tomer service and track records in positively assimilating talent and resources. The sum of the knowledge of these two companies can be greater than the individual parts, providing the foundation to become the world leader in animal health.

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