Four major companies comprise today’s Wyeth-Ayerst Pharmaceuticals: Wyeth Laboratories began in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where brothers John and Frank Wyeth opened a drug store in 1860. John began the novel practice of preparing quantities of frequently prescribed compounds in advance, and by 1862, the Wyeth brothers had published a catalog listing their line of drug preparations, elixirs, and tonics.

Ayerst, McKenna & Harrison, Ltd., was established in 1925 in Montreal, Canada. The new company set out to produce a biologically tested cod liver oil and, in so doing, established the first commercially operated biological laboratory in Canada.

A.H. Robins and its broad line of prescription medications developed from the company’s founding as an apothecary and manufacturing chemist shop in 1866 in Richmond, Virginia.

Lederle Laboratories was founded in New York, New York, in 1906 by Dr. Ernst Lederle, a former New York City Health Commissioner. Considered a pioneer in the fight against disease, especially in children, Dr. Lederle established the company to produce diphtheria antitoxin.

From these beginnings came a succession of pharmaceutical innovations, including the development of the “compressed pill,” or tablet, and the first rotary tablet press, invented by Wyeth in 1872. Accomplishments also include the development of an infant formula patterned after mother’s milk; the first orally active estrogen (which became the pioneer product for estrogen replacement therapy); the first penicillin tablets and oral suspensions; and development of a heat-stable, freeze-dried vaccine and the bifurcated needle, ultimately used to deliver 200 million smallpox vaccinations per year.

Bioanalytical Systems, Inc.