Richter, Gedeon

The creator of Hungarian pharmaceutical industry who left behind extraordinary life-work, a pharmaceutical factory of world standard, his name is associated with the production of numerous new and efficient pharmaceutical preparations.

In 1893 he obtained a final certificate of research student at the University of Kolozsvár (now Cluj/Napoca, Romania).

At the medical faculty of the Royal Hungarian University of Sciences

in Budapest he obtained a diploma of pharmaceutics.

Richter pursued the pharmaceutical practice required by law for opening an individual pharmacy in Hungary and abroad, and after returning to Hungary in 1901 he bought a pharmacy in Budapest and became an individual pharmacist. In the laboratory of Sas Pharmacy he was engaged in the semi-plant production of galenic preparations and extracts containing hormones of endocrine glands.

In 1907 he started the first Hungarian pharmaceutical factory called Richter Gedeon Chemical Factory.

The equipment of the factory was up to the contemporary technical standard, analysing and research laboratories were also attached to the plants. Richter and his collaborators prepared a series of new medicaments and manufacturing processes. At the beginning the organotherapical preparations distributed with the brand name „Hormogland-Richter” were significant, later standard galenic preparations and synthetic products as well as vitamins appeared on the scale of products. Among the galenic materials the most significant ones were the digitalis extracts applied in cardiology and the ergot extracts important in obstetrics.

In the 1920's Gedeon Richter organised the first Hungarian biological laboratory which had a significant role in standardising active ingredients and in checking their quality. In a new research laboratory set up in the 1930's they worked out the semisynthetic production of steroid hormones isolated earlier from natural materials. In 1941 they solved the production of the first synthetic oestrogenic hormone, the silbestrol.

Richter realised soon that the industrial production of pharmaceuticals in a small country can only be viable, if it is supported by considerable export. In a short time he established a network of agents covering five continents and founded ten foreign affiliated firms.

During World War II Gedeon Richter had to renounce his ownership rights because of the laws of antisemitic politics, moreover he was banned from his factory from 1942. On December 30th, 1944 he was dragged away by a Hungarian nazi detachment and killed on the bank of the Danube.

Richter Gedeon Chemical Factory
At turn of the 19th–20th century the development of the research of synthetic chemistry and the examination of the curative effect of materials by means of animal experiments gave a great stimulus to pharmaceutical production. The plant was built in 1907 in the Kőbánya suburb of Budapest. The main profile of the Richter's enterprise was the production of organotherapic materials. At the beginning his medicaments were made of the dried powder of animal organs. The other important group of medicaments was constituted by the extracts of medicinal herbs, and they were also engaged in the production of synthetic agents.
In the years after World War I important medical and therapeutic inventions were published one after the other, a series of vitamins and hormones were determined. For measuring the biological value of the new substances a laboratory was set up in the early 1920's. Independent pharmaceutical research and production activities were launched in Hungary in those days.
In order to promote the developing export, in 1923 Richter transformed his enterprise in personal property into a joint stock corporation and founded foreign affiliated companies The operation of the research laboratory started in the 1920's resulted in the introduction of new synthetic agents produced with chemical processes. In 1927 there were both a chemical, pharmacological and analytical laboratory and an experimental plant in one of Budapest's suburb Kőbánya.
Between the two world wars hormone products patented under the Hormo-Gland Richter brand name were remarkably successful and the company also introduced a number of vitamins in the market. In 1936 the factory had 9 plant divisions and 5 scientific departments. In the period between 1906 and 1948 the company obtained 86 patents.
The plants were heavily damaged during World War II and the staff of specialists also suffered significant losses. After the quick restoration, by the end of 1945 the factory could operate again normally, but in the after-war period the production of many previously imported agents had to be solved, too. A laboratory of phytochemistry and biochemistry was established for research work. After the end of the war the company lost its Western European export markets and its subsidiary companies and in 1948 the plant was nationalized under the new name "Kőbánya Pharmaceutical Factory" (Kőbányai Gyógyszerárugyár) maintaining its joint stock corporation character. In the interest of selling the products successfully introduced abroad they kept the firm name „Gedeon Richter Ltd.” in this field.

In the first half of the 1950's quick development started, new plants were built, the production of new effective agents was realised. The company made a very good use of its skills and expertise in pharmaceutical production and developed a range of cosmetics that were marketed under the "Fabulon" brand name as well as the new "Richtofit" range of products using extracts from herbs. In 1977 the researchers of the company discovered an original product Cavinton, a cerebral enhancer (active substance: vinpocetine).
Even in the 1990's the firm maintained its distinguished place in Hungarian pharmaceutical production. Since November 1st, 1990 it has been operating again under the name „Richter Gedeon Chemical Factory Ltd.”