Alpharma history

After leaving Pfizer, Storm moved to the United States in 1980 to join Abbott Laboratories, where he spent another four years before joining Rorer Group, a Fort Washington, Pennsylvania-based pharmaceutical manufacturer.

1983: The company acquires Dumex and completes its initial public offering.

To fill the void left by Storm's exit, the company created a three-member office of the chief executive comprising Jeffrey E. Smith, A.L. Laboratories' chief financial officer since 1984, Cohen, and Sissener, who had been and continued to be the board's chairperson.

In late 1989, pharmaceutical sales composed 65 percent of the company's business, while animal health products contributed 20 percent.

After months of discussions in 1990, a suitable replacement was found in Richard P. Storm, an executive with 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry.

Selected as A.L. Laboratories' president and chief executive officer in January 1991, Storm left his position as executive vice-president at Rorer Group and immediately set himself to the task of achieving his new company's financial goal.

In another promising venture, the company also began to market a generic version of the widely popular Rogaine product to combat hair loss in 1996.

By 1997, Alpharma had more than 170 prescription and over-the-counter products and pulled in revenue of $500 million.