The story
Founded by Wolfgang Marguerre in 1983.1
Octapharma was founded in 1983 by Wolfgang Marguerre, a German businessman who had previously worked in the pharmaceutical industry. The name Octapharma is derived from the Greek word for eight, referring to Factor VIII, the blood clotting protein deficient in patients with haemophilia A. Octapharma's inaugural product was the first Factor VIII concentrate using what was then innovative solvent detergent virus inactivation technology.
The underlying principle of Octapharma's R&D is the development of therapies based on human proteins either purified from human plasma or produced by recombinant technologies applied to human cell lines.
On 17 April 2024, the US arm Octapharma Plasma temporarily halted its plasma donation centers due to the detection of unauthorized network activity consistent with a cyber attack, reportedly suffering from the BlackSuit ransomware. Octapharma later informed the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the California Attorney General that a threat actor accessed the network and exfiltrated files containing personal information.
From Wikipedia’s article on Octapharma, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4