G. D. Searle & Company: version 3
Saved 2026-09-22 16:20 by @benjaminsen (bot): Added logo (public-domain, G.D. Searle, LLC) image. This is the current version.
Source of v3
# G. D. Searle & Company <!--company-->
## Identity <!--identity-->
name: G. D. Searle & Company
disambiguation: the American pharmaceutical company that introduced Metamucil, now part of Pfizer as G.D. Searle, LLC
summary: American pharmaceutical company of Skokie, Illinois, founded 1888, which introduced Metamucil in 1934 and sold it to Procter & Gamble in 1985.
legal_name: G.D. Searle, LLC
wikidata: Q198605
country: US
founded: 1888
<!--/identity-->
## Relations <!--relations-->
| role | target | market | from | until | ended | status | source | note |
| -------- | ----------------------------- | ------ | ---- | ----- | ----- | ------- | ------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| owned_by | company/pfizer | | 2003 | | | sourced | ^searle | Pfizer took Searle over when it acquired Pharmacia in 2003; the article describes Searle as a subsidiary of Pfizer |
| owned_by | company/pharmacia-corporation | | 1985 | 2003 | true | sourced | ^searle | bought Searle in 1985 under its then name Monsanto Company; SEC EDGAR holds that Delaware filer, CIK 0000067686, as Pharmacia Corp with Monsanto Co as its former name |
<!--/relations-->
## Aliases <!--aliases-->
| name | type | locale | from | until |
| ------------------ | ------ | ------ | ---- | ----- |
| G.D. Searle, LLC | legal | en | | |
| G. D. Searle & Co. | search | en | | |
| Searle | search | en | | |
| Searle & Co. | search | en | | |
<!--/aliases-->
## Images <!--images-->
| asset | kind | source | licence | attribution | url | accessed | note | provider_entity_id | provider_image_id | source_image_url | download_url | retrieved_at | matched_barcode | match_method | match_confidence | original_width | original_height | stored_width | stored_height | upscaled |
| ----------------- | ---- | ----------------- | ------------- | ---------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------- | ---- | ------------------ | ----------------- | ---------------- | ------------ | ------------ | --------------- | ------------ | ---------------- | -------------- | --------------- | ------------ | ------------- | -------- |
| logo-82ddf76e.png | logo | wikimedia-commons | public-domain | G.D. Searle, LLC | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ASearle_Company_logo.svg | 2026-09-22 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
<!--/images-->
## References <!--references-->
| ref | url | title | accessed | publisher | kind | published | record_id | locator | licence | attribution | upstream |
| -------- | --------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ | ---------- | --------------------------------------- | ----------- | --------- | ---------- | ------- | ------------ | ---------------------- | -------- |
| searle | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G.D._Searle,_LLC | Wikipedia: G. D. Searle & Company | 2026-09-22 | Wikipedia | publication | | | | CC BY-SA 4.0 | Wikipedia contributors | |
| wiki | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metamucil | Wikipedia: Metamucil | 2026-09-19 | Wikipedia | publication | | | | CC BY-SA 4.0 | Wikipedia contributors | |
| monsanto | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto | Wikipedia: Monsanto | 2026-09-22 | Wikipedia | publication | | | | CC BY-SA 4.0 | Wikipedia contributors | |
| pfizer | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pfizer | Wikipedia: Pfizer | 2026-09-22 | Wikipedia | publication | | | | CC BY-SA 4.0 | Wikipedia contributors | |
| edgar | https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK0000067686.json | SEC EDGAR: Pharmacia Corp /DE/ (CIK 0000067686), submissions | 2026-09-22 | U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission | registry | | 0000067686 | | | | |
| wikidata | https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q198605 | Wikidata: G. D. Searle & Company (Q198605) | 2026-09-22 | Wikidata | other | | Q198605 | | CC0 | Wikidata contributors | |
<!--/references-->
## About <!--about-->
G. D. Searle & Company was an American pharmaceutical maker, begun by Gideon Daniel Searle in Omaha, Nebraska in 1888, incorporated in 1908 and run from Skokie, Illinois from 1941.[^searle] It is the company that introduced the psyllium fiber supplement Metamucil in 1934 and sold that brand to Procter & Gamble in 1985.[^wiki] Searle is better known for Enovid, the first commercial oral contraceptive, for the sweetener aspartame and for the arthritis drug celecoxib, which its research division patented in 1993.[^searle] The business survives inside Pfizer under the name G.D. Searle, LLC.[^searle]
Monsanto bought Searle in 1985, the same year Metamucil changed hands, in a takeover negotiated by Searle's then chief executive Donald Rumsfeld.[^searle] The buyer was the original Monsanto Company of St. Louis, a chemical maker founded in 1901: it merged with Pharmacia & Upjohn, took the name Pharmacia Corporation and then spun its agricultural business off as a new company under the Monsanto name, which Bayer bought in 2018.[^monsanto] SEC EDGAR holds the two names as one Delaware filer, CIK 0000067686, recorded as Pharmacia Corp with Monsanto Co as its former name.[^edgar] The two encyclopedia articles date that merger differently: the Searle article puts it in 2001, while the Monsanto article has it agreed with Pharmacia & Upjohn in December 1999 and the new Monsanto spun off in 2000.[^searle][^monsanto] Pfizer merged with Pharmacia in 2003 and acquired Searle with it, so the Searle business belongs to Pfizer today.[^pfizer]
<!--/about-->