Mobay Chemical Corporation, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...

, was a joint venture of Monsanto Company and Bayer

Bayer

Bayer AG is a chemical and pharmaceutical company founded in Barmen , Germany in 1863. It is headquartered in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany and well known for its original brand of aspirin.-History:...

 to market polyurethanes in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Founded in 1954, Bayer bought out Monsanto's shares in the company in the 1970s.

Mobay, along with Miles Laboratories

Miles Laboratories

Miles Laboratories was founded as the Dr. Miles Medical Company in Elkhart, Indiana, in 1884 by Franklin Miles, a specialist in the treatment of eye and ear disorders, with an interest in the connection of the nervous system to overall health...

, was a member of Bayer's menagerie

Menagerie

A menagerie is/was a form of keeping common and exotic animals in captivity that preceded the modern zoological garden. The term was first used in seventeenth century France in reference to the management of household or domestic stock. Later, it came to be used primarily in reference to...

 of companies in the US while Bayer did not own the US rights to its name.

After a first failed attempt of appearing under the Bayer USA Inc. name in the US, Bayer consolidated its US operations under the Miles name in 1992.

In April 1990, Mobay and Occidental Chemical Corporation

Occidental Petroleum

Occidental Petroleum Corporation is a California-based oil and gas exploration and production company with operations in the United States, the Middle East, North Africa, and South America...

 refused to supply the Department of Defense

United States Department of Defense

The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...

 with thionyl chloride

Thionyl chloride

Thionyl chloride is an inorganic compound with the formula SOCl2. It is a reactive chemical reagent used in chlorination reactions. It is a colorless, distillable liquid at room temperature and pressure that decomposes above 140 °C. Thionyl chloride is sometimes confused with sulfuryl...

, a chemical needed for the production of sarin

Sarin

Sarin, or GB, is an organophosphorus compound with the formula [2CHO]CH3PF. It is a colorless, odorless liquid, which is used as a chemical weapon. It has been classified as a weapon of mass destruction in UN Resolution 687...

. The US government considered filing suit against Mobay and Occidental for violating Title III of the Defense Production Act

Defense Production Act

The Defense Production Act is a United States law enacted on September 8, 1950, in response to the start of the Korean War. It was part of a broad civil defense and war mobilization effort in the context of the Cold War. Its implementing regulations, the Defense Priorities and Allocation System ,...

of 1950, which gives the government the power to requisition supplies for warfare.