Origins In 1867, the three Mallinckrodt brothers, Gustav, Otto and Edward Sr., founded G. Mallinckrodt & Co. in
St. Louis. The Mallinckrodt family had immigrated from Germany. Otto and Edward both temporarily returned to Germany, then the leader in chemical research and education, for advanced training. Brothers Gustav and Otto died in the 1870s, leaving Edward (1845–1928) in sole charge of the family business. Mallinckrodt Chemical Works was incorporated 15 years later, in 1882. By 1898, the company had established itself as a pharmaceuticals supplier and in 1913 became the first to introduce
barium sulfate as a
contrast medium for X-rays.
Uranium processing (1942–1957) In April 1942 Edward Mallinckrodt was approached by a contingent from the
Metallurgical Laboratory of the
Manhattan Project, particularly by
Arthur Holly Compton. Compton urgently needed a source of refined uranium. The chemical company already worked with ether, which could theoretically be used in a purifying process but which posed its own handling risks. With extreme haste and with tight security restrictions, Mallinckrodt developed a novel technique from theoretical concept, to experiment, to full production. The company submitted test materials by mid-May, supplied the material for the first self-sustaining reaction in December, and had satisfied the project's entire order of the first sixty tons before the contract with the government was even signed. From 1942 to 1957, Mallinckrodt processed
uranium ore for the
Manhattan Project feed materials program at a factory north of downtown St. Louis. Nuclear waste from the factory and other locations was buried in steel drums at a 21.7-acre site near
Lambert Field. Radioactive waste from the site seeped into
Coldwater Creek. The area was designated a
Superfund site by the
Environmental Protection Agency in 1989.
Corporate changes The company issued public shares in 1954. Viewed as an attractive takeover target in the era of leveraged buyouts, Mallinckrodt was bought by
Avon Products in 1982, and largely kept intact as a business entity. Just four years later it was sold to
International Minerals and Chemical Corporation. After re-brandings, spin-offs and other changes of corporate identity Mallinckrodt was again sold in 2000 to
Tyco International.
Cocaine processing from Coca-Cola's coca plants Coca-Cola includes a
coca leaf extract as an ingredient prepared by
Stepan Company in
Maywood, New Jersey. The plant is the only commercial entity in the United States authorized by the
Drug Enforcement Administration to import coca leaves, which come primarily from
Peru via the
National Coca Company. The plant extracts the
cocaine from the coca plants and sells it to Mallinckrodt for medicinal purposes. , Mallinckrodt is the only company in the U.S. that is allowed to receive
cocaine, which is sold as a
prescription drug for use in hospitals as a
local anesthetic by eye and
ear, nose and throat (ENT) doctors.
Ties to Washington University in St. Louis Throughout its history,
Washington University in St. Louis has received a large number of donations from the Mallinckrodt family and corporation, including a posthumous endowment by Edward Mallinckrodt Jr. on behalf of his father to the
Washington University School of Medicine Radiology Department resulting in the creation of the
Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology. Both Edward Mallinckrodt Sr. and Jr. served as members of the Washington University Board of Trustees. Washington University in St. Louis' student union building and performing arts building was renamed the Mallinckrodt Center in 1976. In 2018, Mallinckrodt partnered with the Washington University School of Medicine with funding of up to $10 million over five years to support research projects that show promise in developing new drugs for treating rare diseases. The elder Edward also made significant donations to his alma mater, Harvard University, and to the
St. Louis College of Pharmacy.
Tax inversion to Ireland (2013) In 2013, Mallinckrodt executed a
corporate tax inversion to Ireland to avoid U.S. corporate taxes, by acquiring Irish-based Cadence Pharma for $1.3 billion. This was despite the fact that almost all of Mallinckrodt's revenues come from the U.S. market (see table below). In 2015, Mallinckrodt was one of several U.S. tax inversions that
The Wall Street Journal reported to be using a lower tax-platform to acquire further U.S. pharmaceutical firms, such as the $5.6 billion acquisition of Questor in 2014. In December 2015,
The Irish Times reported the CEO as saying that "It'd have to be a pretty dramatic change to the US tax code" for Mallinckrodt to return to the U.S., and that "We're already foreign domiciled, so we may as well take full advantage of it". In February 2018, Mallinckrodt told the
Wall Street Journal that it would get a $450 to $500 million tax credits from the
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA), but that some of these benefits would be offset by the anti-inversion provisions of the TCJA. In April 2018, Mallinckrodt's Irish tax inversion came under further scrutiny when it was revealed that Mallinckrodt's main drug, Acthar, was one of the most expensive drug-related expenditures for the U.S. Medicare programme.
Acthar controversy '' reported that Mallinckrodt had made a settlement of $100 million with the U.S.
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in relation to antitrust probes on Acthar and quoted the FTC as saying: "Questcor [Mallinckrodt's subsidiary] took advantage of its monopoly to repeatedly raise the price of Acthar, from $40 per vial in 2001 to more than $34,000 per vial today – an 85,000 percent increase". The city of
Rockford, Illinois, is now suing Mallinckrodt and
pharmacy benefit management company
Express Scripts for their failure to reduce Acthar's price. In May 2017, the
Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. investor
Jim Chanos accused Mallinckrodt in relation to Acthar of being a "one-product company", and the
Irish Times quoted Chanos on Bloomberg stating that a "murky alliance" had developed between Mallinckrodt and distributor Express Scripts, who is the sole distributor of Acthar, and that "Acthar is the epitome of excessive drug prices". In September 2017, the
Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published research showing that Acthar was one of the most expensive drugs in the U.S.
Medicaid and
Medicare system, but that most sales of Acthar were "driven in part by a relatively small group of doctors who were prescribing it heavily", and that alternatives at one-fiftieth of the price of Acthar were available. In April 2018, a
whistleblower lawsuit claimed Acthar, which had never passed a modern
FDA process as Acthar had been available for 60 years and was thus passed under FDA "grandfathering" rules, had an unknown formulation and efficacy. A whistleblower filed a
qui tam action in 2018 alleging that Mallinckrodt failed to pay the correct Medicaid rebates for Acthar in violation of the federal and state
False Claims Acts. Medicaid Rules required Mallinckrodt to pay back the amount it had raised the price of Achtar above inflation. To avoid meeting its increased rebate obligations, Mallinckrodt began reporting Acthar’s base AMP as if it had been approved in 2010 (after the enormous price increases). In October 2020, Mallinckrodt filed for bankruptcy, which stayed the pending False Claims Act case. On March 2, 2022, the bankruptcy court confirmed Mallinckrodt’s plan of reorganization, which included the settlement of the whistleblower's lawsuit for $234 million.
Role in opioid crisis A
US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) database tracking every opioid pill sold in the United States from 2006 through 2012 was made public in 2019. The database "attributed the vast majority of the 76 billion opioid pills produced and shipped from 2006 through 2012 to three companies", one of which was SpecGx, a subsidiary of Mallinckrodt. In those years SpecGx supplied 28.9 billion oxycodone pills, more than 80 for each person in the United States, and over 2 billion pills just in Florida. In October 2020, Mallinckrodt filed for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection while facing more than $1 billion in costs from lawsuits over its role in fueling the opioid crisis. On June 2, 2023, Mallinckrodt announced that they would be considering a second Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing after lenders of the company raised concerns over an upcoming $200 million payment related to opioid-related litigation that was due in the coming weeks. However, on June 16, Mallinckrodt got an extension on their $200 million payment with a new due date of June 23, 2023. On June 23, the day the payment was supposed to be due, Mallinckrodt got their payment due date extended for the second time to June 30, 2023. It later got delayed to July 7, 2023, and again to July 14, 2023. On July 11, 2023, Mallinckrodt was sued for allegedly misleading investors for misrepresenting its financial strength before missing payments to opioid victims and bond holders. On July 14, Mallinckrodt's $200 million opioid payment was once again extended to July 21. On July 17, it was extended yet again to August 15. On July 27, 2023, Mallinckrodt announced that they were in negotiations to completely avoid paying the opioid payment to victims. If this plan turns out successful, victims of the opioid payment could lose up to a maximum of $1 billion, and the money could end up going to funds and investors instead. On August 15, 2023, Mallinckrodt announced that they were preparing to file for their second Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in three years after failing to make scheduled payments to its lenders and opioid creditors since June, citing numerous short-term extensions to its payment within the last two months. Mallinckrodt is currently in negotiations to establish a restructuring support agreement with its stakeholders, and the payment was also extended once again to next week. Mallinckrodt stated that there would be no guaranteed recovery for holders of its ordinary equity shares in the eventuality of a bankruptcy filing . On August 23, after losing approximately 92% of their stock value in 2023, Mallinckrodt officially announced their intention to file for Chapter 11 protection within the coming days in order to reduce the amount of long-term debt it owes to victims of the opioid crisis and cut its debt obligations. The company has also entered into a new restructuring agreement with its creditors and an opioid victims trust. On August 28, 2023, Mallinckrodt and some of its affiliated debtors filed a voluntary petition under
Chapter 11 of the United States Code in the
United States District Court for the District of Delaware for the second time in three years in effort to dramatically cut its debt load and reduce its sweeping opioid settlement. Immediately after the announcement, the NYSE halted Mallinckrodt's stock, and its stock was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange soon thereafter, and began trading on
OTC Markets. On November 14, 2023, Mallinckrodt reduced its total funded debt by approximately $1.9 billion after winning approval for its bankruptcy plan to ample liquidity to execute strategic priorities back in October, and announced that it has completed its second Chapter 11 reorganization and has exited bankruptcy. Ownership of Mallinckrodt will be handed over to lenders and bondholders and all remaining equity sales would end.
Merger In March 2025, Mallinckrodt and
Endo announced plans to merge in a deal valued at $6.7 billion. == Major acquisitions ==