United States., and King Pharmaceuticals President Jefferson "Jeff" Gregory also began negotiations in 1995 with Hoechst to acquire U.S. distribution rights to Altace. The King Pharmaceuticals wholly owned subsidiary Monarch Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (another brother of John Gregory - Joseph Gregory - was then the president of Monarch Pharmaceuticals) acquired ownership of the U.S. distribution and marketing rights to Altace and other Hoechst products from Hoechst AG subsidiary Hoechst Marion Roussel of Kansas City, Missouri on December 18, 1998, and following a January 1999 merger a few weeks later with Rhône-Poulenc, Hoechst assumed the new corporate identity of Aventis). In 2001, Forbes magazine ranked John Gregory among the 400 richest Americans. The bulk of Gregory's personal fortune was due in large part due to the ability of King Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to reintroduce the Hoechst branded prescription drug Altace back into the U.S. market under the King Pharmaceuticals, Inc. subsidiary Monarch Pharmaceuticals brand following the 1998 U.S. marketing and distribution agreement between King Pharmaceuticals/Monarch Pharmaceuticals and Hoechst AG/HMR. In late December 1998, King Pharmaceuticals (d.b.a. Monarch Pharmaceuticals, Inc.) purchased the U.S. marketing and distribution rights of the company's most successful drug, Altace, for $362.5 million from the U.S. subsidiary of Hoechst AG, Hoechst Marion Roussel of Kansas City. As a result of increasing the number of sales representatives and the findings of the Heart Outcomes Prevention Evaluation (HOPE), Altace sales increased. Using profits from Altace, King continued to add product lines, the most significant purchases being Levoxyl, Thrombin, and Cytomel in 2000. Also in 2000, seeing fewer opportunities to obtain branded drugs, the company acquired an R&D company based in North Carolina. In 2002, King and Meridian Medical Technologies agreed that King would purchase Merdian for $247.8 million in cash; Meridian was a manufacturer of autoinjectors, including EpiPen, an epinephrine autoinjector. The deal was completed in January 2003. In 2002, John Gregory stepped down as CEO, and his brother Jefferson Gregory took over. Then in 2004, Jeff Gregory stepped down as well after the SEC began investigations into King's Medicaid billing practices. The board named Brian Markison to replace him. Soon after, in July 2004, a deal was made for Mylan Laboratories to acquire King for $4 billion. Investors, most notably Carl Icahn, were critical of the merger, saying that Mylan was overpaying for King. The next year the deal was called off. In 2008 King Pharmaceuticals acquired Alpharma Pharmaceuticals to expand