While serving with the Indiana Foot Soldiers during the American Civil War, Gideon Daniel Searle was hospitalized with an infection and studied medical books and papers while recuperating. After the war he worked as a drug company bookkeeper and salesman, purchasing his first drug store in Indiana at the age of 22.

Searle manufactured a few of his own preparations, selling them to local doctors and druggists. With success and the encouragement of his friend Eli Lilly, Searle became a full-time manufacturer in 1888 in Omaha, Nebraska. The company was formally incorporated as G.D. Searle & Co. in 1908.

By the time of its incorporation, Searle had carved its niche in the pharmaceutical industry. Searle’s special market was selling syrups, elixirs, tinctures, and a variety of other products to doctors who dispensed their own medications for their patients, bypassing the drug store.

During its first 25 years of operation Searle was typical of American pharmaceutical companies, making products from plants. When World War I restricted drug supplies from Europe, the company began to emphasize chemical research. In the 1920s, Searle developed an American version of European drugs used in the treatment of syphilis. Many “firsts” followed for Searle, including production of the first modern bulk laxative, the first motion-sickness drug, the first oral contraceptive, the first modern antiarrhythmic, the first specific oral anti-diarrheal, and the first once-a-day calcium channel-blocker for the treatment of hypertension. Searle also discovered the first product proven to prevent gastric ulcers caused by non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and discovered and introduced aspartame (NutriSweet® in the United States and Canderel® elsewhere), a hugely successful sugar substitute

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Bioanalytical Systems, Inc.