Overview

Over the last half century, the pharmaceutical industry has been one of the great success stories of British industry, achieving world leadership through innovation and exports. Yet, when the partnership of two young American pharmacists, Silas Burroughs and Henry Wellcome, was established in London in 1880, the British industry had been lagging well behind its German and American competitors. In the early years, the company traded in imported products, including the highly profitable Kepler malt extract, and compressed medicines marketed under the 'Tabloid' trademark. Rarely in modern British history has a medium-sized company exercised such a dominant influence on an individual industry as did Burroughs Wellcome & Co. Within thirty years it became the largest manufacturer of pharmaceuticals in Britain, and the most significant company in this sector before the Second World War. Part of its commercial success was based upon its deployment of innovative marketing methods, especially product development, branding, advertising, salesmanship, market research, and resale price maintenance (of which Burroughs Wellcome was a pioneer as early as the 1880s).Perhaps more importantly, the pre-eminence and influence of the company lay in its extensive promotion of scientific research. Through a series of research laboratories established by the company in the 1890s - unprecedented in the industry - remarkable scientific advances were made which won the company unique prestige and established an unrivalled reputation and level of trust, especially among the medical community which used and recommended its products. Of particular note was the success of Henry Wellcome in achieving registration for the laboratories under the Cruelty to Animals Act, which allowed staff to perform animal experiments from the beginning of the twentieth century onwards. This was the single most important factor in promoting innovative physiological and bacteriological research within the company and was to serve, to a great extent, as the pattern for all future pharmaceutical research in Britain.In areas such as linking scientific research with manufacturing, Burroughs Wellcome led the way; ultimately, though, the company lost many of its managers, scientists, and engineers, who were enthusiastically recruited by other companies and by the newly created Medical Research Committee (later Council), to create further new laboratories and institutes.There was always significant tension between marketing for commercial profit on the one hand, and the advancement of medical research on the other. After the First World War, amid increasing competition from other British pharmaceutical companies, the profitability of Burroughs Wellcome & Co. as a commercial organisation began to decline, yet its research laboratories continued to lead the way in several important areas. This tension between marketing and research intensified as the company's relative position in the industry diminished. Before 1914, the strong relationship of trust between the firm and its consumers and clients was a central factor the company's success.Thereafter, the erosion of trust between managers and scientists who were pursuing sometimes conflicting priorities - and between managers in overseas subsidiary companies and London - is central to understanding the company's difficulties from the 1920s onwards, and demonstrates what was a continuing problem in the pharmaceutical industry. Professor Church and Dr Tansey examine the history of one of the most significant, innovative and interesting commercial organisations.They provide much new information and insight into many different aspects of this important story: the motivations of the company's American founders and their fraught relationship, and their activities after they had set up their business in London, at the hub of the British Empire; the company's innovative marketing and sales techniques; the establishment of pioneering research facilities, the creation of trust in the company's products and the research behind their development, and later the Wellcome Trust to promote medical and scientific excellence for the benefit of humankind; the creation of one of the earliest multinational companies; and the relationship between commercial operations and pure research.

Full Product Details

Author:   Roy Church ,  E. M. Tansey
Publisher:   Crucible Books
Imprint:   Crucible Books
Edition:   illustrated edition
Dimensions:   Width: 16.90cm , Height: 3.70cm , Length: 24.30cm
Weight:   1.000kg
ISBN:  

9781905472048

ISBN 10:   1905472048
Pages:   592
Publication Date:   10 May 2007
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

List of illustrations xi List of tables xvii Acknowledgements xix Archives, locations and abbreviations xx Foreword by Sir William Castell xxiii Preface xxv part one: 1878-1914 1. From trading to manufacturing: S.M.Burroughs & Co. and Burroughs Wellcome & Co., 1878-1888 3 American origins; Silas Burroughs and John Wyeth & Brother 3 The trading agency of S.M.Burroughs & Co., 1878-1880 7 The Kepler Malt Extract Co. 9 Henry Wellcome and the formation of Burroughs Wellcome & Co. 12 The medical and economic environment 15 The partnership's early financial difficulties 20 The acquisition of the Kepler Malt Extract Co. 24 Investment, growth, and development 27 Production and laboratory experimentation with Kepler Malt Extract; researching for quality 31 The Stamp Act and the threat to the trade in American proprietary medicines 34 Competition, costs, and the transition to manufacturing compressed medicines 37 2. Americanisation of the British drug trade: product innovation and 'creating a demand' 41 Products and agency agreements 41 Products, brands, and markets 42 Scientific basis for diversification 47 Broadening the product range; the innovation record 48 Pricing policies 51 Advertising ethical medicine; policy, contracts, and content 55 'Detailing' doctors to create a demand; sales representatives on the road 62 Researching the market for medicine 66 Campaigning for contracts; tapping institutional sources of demand 70 3. 'Quality for profit' through 'science and industry'; management and organisation, labour policies and finance 73 Managers, management and organisation 73 In pursuit of quality: towards control and research 78 Efficiency and cost control 82 Flirting with 'scientific management' 87 Disciplining the workers 90 Labour recruitment and welfarism 97 Finance, investment and profit 101 4. 'Friend and brother' in dysfunctional partnership: Burroughs versus Wellcome 107 The partnership in the 1880s; early disagreements 107 Issues of ownership, control and management; the renewed partnership agreement of 1885 113 The case of Burroughs versus Wellcome, 1887-1889 118 Towards dissolution of the partnership 120 The death of Burroughs; consequences and his role and impact on the pharmaceutical industry in Britain 124 5. 'The new crusade'; Burroughs Wellcome & Co. versus the retail trade 130 Introducing retail price maintenance 130 Defending brands from substitution 131 The Tabloid case: Burroughs Wellcome & Co. versus Thomas & Capper 134 The challenge to retail price maintenance 136 Substitution and 'trade pirates'; Wellcome versus the retail traders' association 139 Selling medicine; the role and management of travelling representatives 145 Travellers in conference and on the road; promotion and publicity 149 Detailing doctors and chemists; the travellers' art of 'propagation' 152 Advertising medicine 159 6. Creating products, producing knowledge and gaining respect: research laboratories, 1894-1914 168 The Wellcome Research Laboratories, 1894-1899 169 The Home Office and animal experimentation, 1896 170 The Wellcome Physiological Research Laboratories, 1899-1914 171 Home Office application, 1900-01 172 'I want him to develop my ideals': Henry Dale's influence on the WPRL, 1904-1914 175 Contracts and conditions 178 Publishing and publications 180 From animal substances to hormone preparations 181 The use of the word 'adrenaline' 183 Ergot research at the WPRL 185 Dale as Director of the WPRL, 1906-1914 187 The Wellcome Chemical Research Laboratories, 1896-1914 189 Chemical research in the factory and the WCRL, 1897-1914 193 Wellcome Tropical Research Laboratories, 1902-1913 195 Wellcome Bureau of Scientific Research 200 7. Products and prestige: sera and vaccines before the First World War 203 Serum production - the beginnings and early problems, 1894-96 203 The Lancet's report on serum anti-toxins, 1896 207 Diphtheria diagnosis service 210 Serum production before the First World War 213 Development of new anti-sera 218 Vaccines 221 Veterinary research and products 222 8. In search of overseas markets; agencies, depots, branches, and multinational enterprise 224 Problems and policies 224 Trading in Europe 225 Expansion beyond Europe 227 The Australasian market; the first overseas branch 232 Initiatives in North America 239 Origins and development of the New York branch 240 The American branch on the eve of the First World War 246 part ii: 1914-1940 9. The impact of war; innovation and transformation from laboratory research to factory production 255 The suspension of German trade marks and the drive for synthetic substitute drugs 255 The haemorrhage of knowledge and skills; the challenge from Jesse Boot 258 Wellcome, BW&Co., and the wider war effort 263 From laboratory research to factory production; manufacturing and management 267 Sera and vaccines 269 Tetanus 270 Gas gangrene and other sera and vacccines 272 Further losses in a competitive market for human resources 273 Measuring the impact of war 275 The formation of The Wellcome Foundation Ltd 281 10. Policy formation, research and development 287 Postwar problems in the research laboratories 287 Formation of the Scientific and Technical Committee 293 Professional research staff and the commercial organisation 295 Research strategy and innovation under the STC 297 Insulin 299 Early production problems 299 Science versus commerce: advertising claims for insulin 306 Industrial collaboration: British insulin manufacturers 308 Other drugs and developments 309 The (eventual) resolution of the ergot problem 309 Chaulmoogra and derivitives 312 Other chemotherapy plans 314 Communication between the laboratories 315 Research choices, product development and commercial interests: tropical medicine 317 Patents, publications and research 319 11. Academic reputation counters commercial stigma: sera and vaccines, 1918-1940 325 Sera and vaccines 325 Diphtheria anti-toxins: the beginning of the inter-war period 325 Diphtheria susceptibility testing 331 Scarlet fever (scarlatina) 334 TB testing and treatment 339 Influenza, common cold and pneumonia 340 Other products 341 Tropical diseases: yellow fever vaccine 342 Veterinary products 343 Lamb dysentery and related diseases 344 Veterinary research and commerce 346 Foot and mouth disease and tuberculosis: the commercial taint continued 347 Canine distemper vaccine 349 Diphtheria Immunisation: Problems and the end of an era 352 The Ring Case 353 Sulphonamides 356 12. Competition and product development between the wars: Tabloids, Kepler and other 'general goods' 359 The postwar Tabloid range 359 From digitalis to Digoxin 366 Kepler cod liver oil and malt extract and the infant health food market 369 The challenge of vitamins to Kepler goods 371 Vitamin research and marketing policies 376 Vitamin concentrates, natural foods, and Kepler goods 381 The decline of Kepler goods and the search for new products 383 13. Wellcome's American agenda: tariffs, war and the transition to manufacturing at the New York branch 387 Protection, war and policy 387 The formation of the Wellcome Foundation, Burroughs Wellcome (USA) Inc. and the drive for manufacturing at Tuckahoe 389 Marketing and product development 396 Competition and development in the American market 402 Prosperity and depression: Tuckahoe manufacturing and the Tuckahoe Research Laboratory 406 Competition and marketing during the Great Depression 408 Vitamin wars in the USA 412 Product planning and policy; reputation-building and marketing 414 14. A failing business? The nature and origins of decline 421 Interpretations and explanations 421 BW&Co. in the British pharmaceutical industry 427 Financial dimensions; profits, investment, and Wellcome's diverse expenditures 429 Marketing policies 435 Advertising policy; ethical medicines and over-the-counter proprietary products 438 Product innovation in a competitive environment 444 Wellcome's legacy: the Wellcome Trust 448 The Trust's review of BW&Co. 453 15. Themes and perspectives: BW&Co., the pharmaceutical industry, and medical research 457 Scientific ethic, reputation, and profitable business 457 Entrepreneurship, management, and under-investment; personalities and policies 459 Owner-entrepreneur and managers; more dysfunctional relationships 462 Organisational culture, trust and corporate sclerosis 468 16. Wellcome's influence on pharmaceutical and medical research in Britain 475 The law and animal experimentation 475 Standardisation: innovation and diffusion 477 People and networks 482 Companies and industry 484 Academe 487 The Royal Society and other professional organisations 490 The Medical Research Council and the National Institute for Medical Research 493 Notes and references 497 Bibliography 543 Index 551

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Author Information

Roy Church is Professor Emeritus of Economic and Social History at the University of East Anglia (Norwich) UK and Visiting Professor in the Wellcome Centre for the History of Medicine at University College London. A former editor of the Economic History Review, he has published widely, mainly in the field of British economic history for which he has received prize awards for journal articles and for a major monograph on the history of the British coal industry in the nineteenth and early twentieth --centuries. His most recent publications have --focused on the history of marketing and the dynamics of business organization; specifically advertising, selling, corporate culture, and trust. Tilli Tansey is Reader in the history of modern medical sciences at the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine, University College London. She was a research neuroscientist before taking a second doctorate in medical history, on the career of Sir Henry Dale (1875-1968). She specialises in twentieth-century medical sciences, especially physiology and pharmacology. She has published extensively in historical and medical journals, and is the co-editor of several volumes, including Women Physiologists (1993); Ashes to Ashes: The History of Smoking and Health (1998; 2003); and Wellcome Witnesses to Twentieth-century Medicine (Wellcome Trust, 1997- ). She is currently writing a book on medical laboratory technicians. She is the Honorary Archivist of the Physiological Society and an Honorary Member of the Royal College of Physicians of London.

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