Laboratoires Pierre Fabre is a multinational pharmaceutical

Pharmaceutical company

The pharmaceutical industry develops, produces, and markets drugs licensed for use as medications. Pharmaceutical companies are allowed to deal in generic and/or brand medications and medical devices...

 and cosmetics company based in Castres

Castres

Castres is a commune, and arrondissement capital in the Tarn department and Midi-Pyrénées region in southern France. It lies in the former French province of Languedoc....

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, near Toulouse

Toulouse

Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...

. The company had a consolidated turnover of 1.43 billion euros ($1.62 billion) in 2003 (including 44% international).

Founded in 1961 by Pierre Fabre, it is present in over 130 countries and has more than 9,000 employees (in 2003), 34% of whom are internationally-based. The company's business activity is focused on research, development, manufacturing and marketing of cosmetics, prescription medicines and family health products. Pharmaceuticals represent 50% of turnover, whereas cosmetics and homeopathy

Homeopathy

Homeopathy is a form of alternative medicine in which practitioners claim to treat patients using highly diluted preparations that are believed to cause healthy people to exhibit symptoms that are similar to those exhibited by the patient...

-phytotherapy

Phytotherapy

Phytotherapy is the study of the use of extracts from natural origin as medicines or health-promoting agents.Traditional phytotherapy is often used as synonym for herbalism and regarded as "alternative medicine" by much of Western medicine, although effects of many substances found in plants have...

 represent 42% and 8%, respectively (percentages of 2003 turnover).

Pierre Fabre is best known for its vinorelbine (Navelbine), an anticancer drug of the vinca alkaloid

Alkaloid

Alkaloids are a group of naturally occurring chemical compounds that contain mostly basic nitrogen atoms. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Also some synthetic compounds of similar structure are attributed to alkaloids...

class.