Cutter

Cutter Laboratories was a historic American pharmaceutical company based in Berkeley, California, specializing in biologics, vaccines, and blood-fractionation products. Founded in 1897, the company played a critical role in the early 20th-century medical landscape, notably as one of the primary manufacturers of the Salk polio vaccine. The company is frequently cited in medical history for the 1955 Cutter Incident, where a manufacturing failure led to the distribution of vaccine batches containing live virus. In 1974, Cutter was acquired by the German conglomerate Bayer AG, which utilized the acquisition to establish a major presence in the U.S. biologics market. Bayer eventually retired the Cutter brand name in the mid-1990s, fully integrating its operations into Bayer's healthcare business.