History of Vicks VapoRub

Lunsford Richardson sold his drugstore and moved to Greensboro with wife, Mary Lynn and their three children in 1891.

He then purchased the Porter Drug Store at 121 South Elm Street.  It served as a popular spot to socialize as well as shop. In 1905 at age fifty, he left the wholesale business and with $8,000 capital launched the wholly owned Vick Family Remedies Companies.

Lunsford mostly found his passion in developing home remedy, creating his own formulas to help customers relive headaches, coughs, and other common ailments.

He experimented with a new remedy to ease his children’s croup symptoms in 1894, blending an ointment of menthol, eucalyptus and other natural ingredients.

Richardson blended menthol into petroleum jelly and produces Richardson’s Coup and Pneumonia Cure Salve.

When rubbed on the chest the stuff did produce the sensation of heat, and as the menthol evaporated it did clear the nasal passages.

The products name was too long, however, so Richardson christened his line Vick Family Remedies, borrowing the name from his brother–in-law, Dr. Joshua Vick. The name Vicks was short, catchy and easy to remember.

In 1917 the company began a widespread distribution of samples on a house to house basis in many areas of the Northeast. Vick was probably the first drug company to hire a doctor to review the medical accuracy of all its advertising copy.

Sales increased each year and by 1929, Vicks products could be purchased in sixty foreign countries.

In 1938 the Richardson acquired the William S. Merrel Company. From this small town operation, Richardson Merrell grew into multi-national $500 million enterprise.

In 1956 Bendectin was introduced to the market, it was a product of Richardson Merrell, whose parent was Vicks.

In October 1985, the board approved the friendly sale to Procter & Gamble, securing a more favorable stock price and outcome for employees.
History of Vicks VapoRub

Merck & Company (USA)

Merck was founded as a chemical manufacturer in Germany in 1668. Run by the Merck family for generations, the company moved to the United States in 1891 under the direction of George Merck. The company had a humble start as an importer of chemicals from Germany.

By 1897 sales in the USA topped US$ 1 million, George Merck became a US citizen in 1902 and shortly afterwards began manufacturing at Rahway in New Jersey and in St Louis.

The ties between Merck’s subsidiary in the USA and its parent company in Germany were served during the way, a break that became permanent, each thereafter pursuing its own path.

Merck continued as a chemical manufacturer until the 1930s, when it began to do research and development (R&D) in pharmaceuticals.  In the 1920s, the founder announced his core philosophy: Medicine is for the patient; not for the profits. The profits follow.

Two mergers, one in 1953 with Sharp & Dohme, a pharmaceutical firm and another with Medco, a prescription benefits management company, found Merck leaving its chemical production roots and moving exclusively to producing and selling pharmaceuticals.

A merger with Schering Plough increased the number of employees from 73,000 in 2008 to the 100,000 figure at the end of 2009.
Merck & Company (USA)

Colonel Eli Lilly (1838-1898) founder of Ely Lilly and Company

Colonel Eli Lilly a 38 year old pharmaceutical chemist and veteran of the US Civil War, founded Eli Lilly and Company of Indianapolis on May 1876 after acquired a small laboratory. His aim was to improve the quality of already existing drugs.

He saw firsthand the blood causalities of war and was frustrated by the poorly prepared and often ineffective medicines of his day.

Colonel Eli Lilly started the company with total capital of $1,400 and four employees, including his 14 year old son, Josiah.

His business flourished but he still wasn’t satisfied with the traditional methods of testing the quality so his products.

In 1886, he hired a chemist as a full time scientist, using and improving upon the newest techniques for quality evaluation, his company would begin an incredible phase of growth that last literally for generation.

It initial success resulted from an innovative process of gelatin coating pills, which the firm still uses today. Lilly’s idea to coat pills with gelatin helped put his company on the medical map. The company was one of the pioneers in the development of hard capsules during the 20th century. The other one was Parke, Davis and Company.

Colonel Lilly sought to make medicine according to recognized scientific criteria: precise formulation, accurate compounding, standardization by assay, full disclosure of ingredients on the label and honest claims.

The medicines that he produced were purer than those of his competitors and that give him edge over the competition.
Colonel Eli Lilly (1838-1898) founder of Ely Lilly and Company

History of Paracetamol

Paracetamol is a very widely used as medicine. It is painkiller and reduces the temperature of patients with fever.

These actions are known respectively as analgesic and antipyretic.

In 1893, the white, odorless crystalline compound with a bitter taste that became known as paracetamol was discovered.

This happened at University of Strasburg when Professor Adolf Kussmaul, Department of Internal Medicine , asked two young assistants, Arnold Cahn and Paul Hepp, to treat patients with naphthalene as it had been used elsewhere as an internal antiseptic.

The medicine had little effect on worms, but, paracetamol was found in the urine of patients who had taken phenacetin, who had a great reduction in fever temperature.

In 1887, the Bayer company introduced the 4-ethoxy derivative, phenacetin, as a less toxic analogue of acetanilide.

It was highly successful product and established the Bayer Company as a leading pharmaceutical manufacturer.

Phenacetin was widely used for about 90 years until mounting concerns over carcinogecity and kidney damaging properties.

In 1889 it was demonstrated that paracetamol was a urinary metabolite of acetanilide. These discoveries, however, failed to attract much attention and were largely ignored at the time.

The use of paracetamol was first reported in 1893 by von Mehring who concluded that because of its hematological side effects of methaemoglobinaemia, it could not be recommended despite prompt antipyretic and analgesic actions.

It 1948-1949, Brodie and Axelrod discovered that paracetamol was the main metabolite of both acetanilide and phenacetin, that paracetamol experienced a resurgence of interest. As a derivative of p-aminophenol, paracetamol corresponds to the active principal metabolite phenacetin.

Their investigations showed that both acetanilide and phenacetin were metabolized into paracetamol and to which they owed their antipyretic and analgesic properties.

It was eventually ascertained that phenacetin had its own pharmacological action and was not dependent on paracetamol for its effects.

Because a high proportion of phenacetin is converted into paracetamol in the liver, however, phenacetin required a large dosage to achieve any direct analgesic effect.

In 1950 the first paracetamol product – a combination of paracetamol, aspirin and caffeine – was on the United States market under the name Triagesic.

Due to the report that Triagesic had been stricken with blood diseases, agranulocytoses, a sudden severe drop of white blood cell, it was immediately removed form the market.

Within a few years when became apparent that paracetamol had not connection with blood damage, by 1955 paracetamol was back in the American market.

In 1956, 500 mg tablets of paracetamol went on sale in the United Kingdom and its popularity as an over-the-counter analgesic rapidly increased.

This popularity was partly explained by the fact that paracetamol was proven to be easier on the stomach than some other analgesics.
History of Paracetamol