Details

Industries

Health Diagnostics,Manufacturing

Operating Status

Active

Syntex Corporation is a pharmaceutical company formed in Mexico City in 1944 by Russell Marker to manufacture therapeutic steroids from the Mexican yams called cabeza de negro (Dioscorea mexicana) and Barbasco (Dioscorea composita).


Syntex chemists synthesized cortisone from diosgenin, a phytosteroid contained in Mexican yams. This synthesis was more economical than the previous Merck & Co. synthesis, which started with bile acids.


Syntex was integrated into the Roche group in 1994.