As a shepherd boy in the 1820s, Thomas Beecham noticed that sheep tended to eat certain vegetation under certain conditions. Through experimentation, he began to understand the medicinal properties of these herbs. He went on to develop his famous Beecham’s Pills, developing production methods that allowed him to make a million pills each day by 1913. In 1943, the company diversified into pharmaceutical research, and in the 1950s scientists discovered the form of the penicillin nucleus, 6-APA, that became so important in the fight against resistant strains of infectious disease.

John K. Smith founded an apothecary shop in Philadelphia, USA, in 1830. Mahlon N. Kline joined the successful drug wholesaler in 1865. Another wholesaler, French Richards and Co., was absorbed in 1891 and the company was renamed Smith, Kline and French. SK&F was Philadelphia’s leading drug house, with hundreds of products from tonics to medicines and liniments to perfumes.

After the Wall Street crash of 1929, SK&F Laboratories focused on research and development of new medicines. The first of these, benzedrine, treated nasal congestion. Dexedrine followed as an effective treatment for obesity. During the 1950s, Thorazine revolutionized the treatment of mental illness. SK&F’s research in drug delivery led to capsules that released their contents over an extended period. SK&F’s most famous breakthrough came in the 1970s with Tagamet, the first treatment for peptic ulcers and the first medicine with sales of $1 billion in a year.

SmithKline Beecham was formed through the merger of Smith Kline Beckman of the United States and the Beecham Group of the United Kingdom in July, 1989. Worldwide operations today deliver prescription medicines, vaccines, consumer healthcare products, and clinical testing to millions around the world.

Bioanalytical Systems, Inc.