UCB is a multinational

Multinational corporation

A multi national corporation or enterprise , is a corporation or an enterprise that manages production or delivers services in more than one country. It can also be referred to as an international corporation...

 biopharmaceutical

Biopharmaceutical

Biopharmaceuticals are medical drugs produced using biotechnology. They include proteins , nucleic acids and living microorganisms like virus and bacteria where the virulence of viruses and bacteria is reduced by the process of attenuation, they can be used for therapeutic or in vivo diagnostic...

 manufacturing company headquartered in Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

, Belgium.

History

UCB was founded on 18 January 1928 by Emmanuel Janssen

Emmanuel Janssen

Emmanuel Janssen was a Belgian businessman, who founded the Union Chimique Belge in Brussels, Belgium, in 1928. UCB was one of the first companies in the world to distill ammonia from coal.-References:...

, a Belgian businessman. Initially focused on industrial chemicals ( it was one of the first companies to distill amonia from coal ), the company also included a small pharmaceutical division based around Meurice Laboratories.

In the early 1950s, UCB set up a research centre where new medicines such as Atarax (hydroxyzine

Hydroxyzine

Hydroxyzine is a first-generation antihistamine of the diphenylmethane and piperazine classes. It was first synthesized by Union Chimique Belge in 1956 and was marketed by Pfizer in the United States later the same year, and is still in widespread use today....

) were developed. Successful sales enabled the pharmaceutical division to expand, and led to the discovery of another important compound, called piracetam

Piracetam

Piracetam is a nootropic drug. Piracetam's chemical name is 2-oxo-1-pyrrolidine acetamide; it shares the same 2-oxo-pyrrolidone base structure with 2-oxo-pyrrolidine carboxylic acid . Piracetam is a cyclic derivative of GABA. It is one of the group of racetams...

. This was marketed in the 1970s as Nootropil and used to treat memory and balance problems

Balance disorder

A balance disorder is a disturbance that causes an individual to feel unsteady, for example when standing or walking. It may be accompanied by feelings of giddiness or wooziness, or having a sensation of movement, spinning, or floating...

. It remains one of UCB's key products. At this time, UCB was a company focusing on three core areas: pharmaceuticals, chemicals and film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

s.

The success of Nootropil made it possible for UCB to build a modern pharmaceutical site in Braine-l'Alleud

Braine-l'Alleud

Braine-l'Alleud is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Walloon Brabant, about 20 kilometers south of Brussels. The Braine-l'Alleud municipality includes the former municipalities of Braine-l'Alleud proper, Ophain-Bois-Seigneur-Isaac, and Lillois-Witterzée. It also includes...

, south of Brussels. There, UCB developed Zyrtec (cetirizine

Cetirizine

Cetirizine , a second-generation antihistamine, is a major metabolite of hydroxyzine, and a racemic selective H1 receptor inverse agonist used in the treatment of allergies, hay fever, angioedema, and urticaria.-Availability:...

), a blockbuster antihistamine

Antihistamine

An H1 antagonist is a histamine antagonist of the H1 receptor that serves to reduce or eliminate effects mediated by histamine, an endogenous chemical mediator released during allergic reactions...

. Other important products have followed including Keppra (levetiracetam), Xyzal (levocetirizine

Levocetirizine

Levocetirizine is a third-generation non-sedative antihistamine, developed from the second-generation antihistamine cetirizine. Chemically, levocetirizine is the active enantiomer of cetirizine. It is the L-enantiomer of the cetirizine racemate. Levocetirizine works by blocking histamine receptors...

), and Cimzia (certolizumab pegol

Certolizumab pegol

Certolizumab pegol is a therapeutic monoclonal antibody produced by UCB for the treatment of Crohn's disease and rheumatoid arthritis.-Method of action:...

).

At the end of 2002, the chemicals and films divisions were merged and UCB added the resin

Resin

Resin in the most specific use of the term is a hydrocarbon secretion of many plants, particularly coniferous trees. Resins are valued for their chemical properties and associated uses, such as the production of varnishes, adhesives, and food glazing agents; as an important source of raw materials...

s, additive

Additive

Additive may refer to:* Additive function, a function that preserves the addition operation* Additive inverse, an arithmetic concept* Additive category, a preadditive category with finite biproducts...

s and adhesive

Adhesive

An adhesive, or glue, is a mixture in a liquid or semi-liquid state that adheres or bonds items together. Adhesives may come from either natural or synthetic sources. The types of materials that can be bonded are vast but they are especially useful for bonding thin materials...

s activities of Solutia, to form the surface specialties division. The films part has since been sold to Innovia Films in September 2004. The chemicals division, Methylamines and Derivatives was spun off and later sold to form the company Taminco.

In May 2004, UCB acquired the British biotechnology company Celltech

Celltech

Celltech Group plc was a leading British-based biotechnology business based in Slough. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.-History:...

, followed in March 2005 by the sale of the surface specialties business to Cytec Industries

Cytec Industries

Cytec Industries Incorporated, based in Woodland Park is a speciality chemicals and materials technology company with pro-forma sales in 2004, including the Surface Specialties acquisition, of approximately $3.0 billion. Cytec is a result of its spin-off from American Cyanamid Company...

. By divesting all of its non-pharmaceutical activities, and acquiring Celltech, UCB transformed itself into a global biopharmaceutical company.

In 2006, UCB started the purchase of the German pharmaceutical company Schwarz for €4.4 billion

1000000000 (number)

1,000,000,000 is the natural number following 999,999,999 and preceding 1,000,000,001.In scientific notation, it is written as 109....

. , UCB holds approximately 87% of Schwarz's outstanding shares

Shares outstanding

Shares outstanding are common shares that have been authorized, issued, and purchased by investors. They have voting rights and represent ownership in the corporation by the person or institution that holds the shares. They should be distinguished from treasury shares, which is common stock held by...

. The purchase of Schwarz enabled UCB to introduce two new drugs against CNS disorders: Neupro (rotigotine

Rotigotine

Rotigotine is a non-ergoline dopamine agonist indicated for the treatment of Parkinson's disease and restless legs syndrome in Europe and the United States...

), a transdermal patch

Transdermal patch

A transdermal patch is a medicated adhesive patch that is placed on the skin to deliver a specific dose of medication through the skin and into the bloodstream. Often, this promotes healing to an injured area of the body. An advantage of a transdermal drug delivery route over other types of...

 for treatment of Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system...

 and Vimpat (lacosamide

Lacosamide

Lacosamide is a medication developed by UCB for the adjunctive treatment of partial-onset seizures and diabetic neuropathic pain marketed under the trade name Vimpat....

), a new anticonvulsant

Anticonvulsant

The anticonvulsants are a diverse group of pharmaceuticals used in the treatment of epileptic seizures. Anticonvulsants are also increasingly being used in the treatment of bipolar disorder, since many seem to act as mood stabilizers, and in the treatment of neuropathic pain. The goal of an...

. Another new drug of the Schwarz portfolio

Portfolio (finance)

Portfolio is a financial term denoting a collection of investments held by an investment company, hedge fund, financial institution or individual.-Definition:The term portfolio refers to any collection of financial assets such as stocks, bonds and cash...

, Toviaz (fesoterodine

Fesoterodine

Fesoterodine is an antimuscarinic drug developed by Schwarz Pharma AG to treat overactive bladder syndrome . It was approved by the European Medicines Agency in April 2007 and was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration on October 31, 2008.Fesoterodine is a prodrug...

), a compound to treat overactive bladder

Overactive bladder

Overactive bladder is a urological condition defined by a set of symptoms: urgency, with or without urge incontinence, usually with frequency and nocturia. Frequency is usually defined as urinating more than 8 times a day. The International Continence Society is responsible for this definition...

, was licensed to Pfizer

Pfizer

Pfizer, Inc. is an American multinational pharmaceutical corporation. The company is based in New York City, New York with its research headquarters in Groton, Connecticut, United States...

 in 2006.

Operations

The Company's efforts are focussed on treatments for severe diseases treated by specialists, particularly in the fields of central nervous system

Central nervous system

The central nervous system is the part of the nervous system that integrates the information that it receives from, and coordinates the activity of, all parts of the bodies of bilaterian animals—that is, all multicellular animals except sponges and radially symmetric animals such as jellyfish...

 (CNS) disorders (including epilepsy

Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain.About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases...

), inflammatory

Inflammation

Inflammation is part of the complex biological response of vascular tissues to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged cells, or irritants. Inflammation is a protective attempt by the organism to remove the injurious stimuli and to initiate the healing process...

 disorders (including allergy

Allergy

An Allergy is a hypersensitivity disorder of the immune system. Allergic reactions occur when a person's immune system reacts to normally harmless substances in the environment. A substance that causes a reaction is called an allergen. These reactions are acquired, predictable, and rapid...

), and oncology

Oncology

Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with cancer...

.