G. D. Searle & Company (often referred to as Searle) was an American pharmaceutical company, now owned by Pfizer. Searle is most notable for having developed the first female birth control pill,[1] and the artificial sweetener NutraSweet. Searle also developed the drug Lomotil, an antidiarrheal medication. One notable alumnus of Searle was Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense for George W. Bush in the 2000s. Prior to its 1985 merger with Monsanto, Searle was a company mainly focusing on life sciences, specifically pharmaceuticals, agriculture, and animal health.
History
In 1888, Gideon Daniel Searle founded Searle in Omaha, Nebraska.[2] The company incorporated in 1908 and established headquarters in Skokie, Illinois in 1941.[2]