FPLC was developed and marketed in Sweden by Pharmacia in 1982 and was originally called fast performance liquid chromatography to contrast it with HPLC or high-performance liquid chromatography.
The company's facilities in Strängnäs Sweden are presently being expanded for the production of Genotropin, a growth hormone.
Bengt Samuelsson has served as a director on the boards of Pharmacia AB, NicOx SA and Schering AG and is an advisor to the venture capital fund HealthCap.
In 1980 the company Fleur de Santé was started, owned half by Knut Wulff, and half by Fortia, the publicly traded holding company of Pharmacia.
Three scientists working at Uppsala University Hospital, Leif Wide, Rolf Axén and Jerker Porath, then presented their ideas to use Pharmacia's separation medium Sephadex as the solid phase in immunodiagnostics tests and proposed a collaboration with the company for the commercial development.