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National Resources Planning Board 



Pharmaceuticals 



Abbott Laboratories 



Dr. Wallace C. Abbott began to practice medicine in 

 Chicago in 1886. Troubled by the indelinite and 

 changeable results that he had obtained from the use of 

 unstandardized fluid extracts and tinctures, he began to 

 study the experiments of the Belgian dosinietrist, Burg- 

 graeve. The idea of using only the active principle of a 

 drug plant in place of a wate:y or alcoholic extract 

 appealed to him. Unable to puichase such a product, 

 he began to isolate the pure alkaloids from the crude 

 drugs and to make his own active-princijjle granules. 

 From Ills "laboratory" in an annex to the family kitch- 

 en, he was soon supplying granules to other physicians 

 in the neighborhood. After the incorporation of the 

 enterprise in 1900 as the Abbott Alkaloidal Company, 

 the manufacture of other types of products was under- 

 taken, and the nucleus of a chemical research staff was 

 formed. Dr. Alfred S. Burdick's association with the 

 company had much to do with the emphasis given to 

 research. 



The First World War placed unusual demands upon 

 all the pharmaceutical laboratories of the country, and 



residted in an enlargement of research facilities. The 

 Abbott Laboratories continued their expansion after 

 the war and began research aimed at the development 

 of synthetic mcdicinals to meet definite needs. One 

 result of this study was a new local anesthetic, particu- 

 larly useful to doctors working on the eye. A research 

 program in the field of hypnotics led to the production 

 of several new compounds. 



In 1922 the Abbott Laboratories acquired the Derma- 

 tological Research Laboratories in Philadelphia, which 

 had been founded in 1911 on philanthropic grants for 

 the study of psoriasis and have continued to maintain 

 research there under a highlj' trained staff. 



In recent years the company's search for highly 

 potent sources of vitamins A and D has led to the use 

 of livers of the halibut, which, before 1931, were thrown 

 back into the sea as a useless part of the fish. 



Eli Lilly and Company 



Other companies were also active in the search for 

 new and more reliable medicinal products. The firm 

 now known as Eli Lilly and Company had equipped a 

 laboratory and emploj^ed a chemist for assaying and 

 research by the late eighties. From this small begin- 



iic;inK '.».— lirst Laboratory ol Parke, Davis and Company, 1S73, Detroit, Micliigan 



