Monsanto the disposition of product lines unrelated to agriculture. In 1985, Monsanto acquired G. D. Searle & Company, a life sciences company that focused on pharmaceuticals, agriculture and animal health. In 1993, its Searle division filed a patent application for Celebrex, which in 1998 became the first selective COX‑2 inhibitor to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Celebrex became a blockbuster drug and was often mentioned as a key reason for Pfizer's acquisition of Monsanto's pharmaceutical business in 2002. In 1994, Monsanto introduced a recombinant version of bovine somatotropin, brand-named Posilac. Monsanto later sold this business to
Monsanto legal cases that protective procedures needed to be implemented. In 2003, Monsanto and Solutia Inc., a Monsanto corporate spin-off, reached a $700 million settlement with the residents of West Anniston, Alabama who had been affected by the manufacturing and dumping of PCBs. In a trial lasting six weeks, the jury found that "Monsanto had engaged in outrageous behavior, and held the corporations and its corporate successors liable on all six counts it considered - including negligence, nuisance, wantonness and suppression of the truth." In 2014, the Los Angeles Superior Court found that Monsanto was not liable for cancers claimed to be from