Eli Lilly and Company is an international pharmaceutical company. The headquarters is in the United States and offices are located in eighteen other countries. Pharmaceutical sales occur in nearly one hundred and twenty five countries today.

Eli Lilly history

Eli Lilly and Company was founded in 1876 by Col. Eli Lilly, who was a Civil War veteran and a pharmaceutical chemist. His company began with just three employees including his 14 year old son who had quit school in order to work with his father. The company is named after its founder, Col. Eli Lilly originally of Baltimore, Maryland.

The company’s first and one of its best known inventions was the gelatin coating for medicine capsules and pills. Lilly was also responsible for inventing the fruit flavors added to liquid medicine suspensions as well as the sugar coating for pills. His innovations made significant improvements in terms of making pharmaceuticals easier to ingest.

After serving in the Civil War, Lilly was inspired to produce high quality prescription drugs to contrast the ineffective and low- quality pharmaceuticals and medicines used during the war. One of his first and best known medicines produced were quinine, which was a drug used to treat malaria. Quinine went on to become Lilly’s bestselling medicine worldwide.

Eli Lilly operations

Lilly began his company in Indianapolis, Indiana and after a mere three years, his business expanded outside of the state. In just a few short years after that, Lilly’s pharmaceutical company name became synonymous with quality and he exceeded even his own expectations. By the late 1880’s Lily formally incorporated the company and had a business that employed over one hundred employees and was earning over $200,000 in sales, which roughly translates to $4,8 million in today’s dollars.

Eli Lilly Vision

Eli Lilly’s main vision was and is to this day to provide the highest quality products and pharmaceuticals as could possibly be made available to the public. Eli Lilly very quickly distinguished itself from other small pharmaceutical companies in the United States by this intense quality control and vision and focus on quality.

Eli Lilly was one of the first companies to institute a strict quality assurance program, which contributed heavily to the company’s reputation for quality and value. Lilly also pioneered and strongly advocated for the concept of administering addictive and extremely dangerous drugs only to people who had first been seen by a physician. The physician recommendation to take those drugs was then factored in when administering them from the company.

Key Facts

In addition to Quinine, Eli Lilly was one of the first companies to mass produce Penicillin. One of the most important products the company introduced was insulin. More recent drug developments include Prozac, Cialis, Cymbalta, Methadone, Darvocet, Keflex, and Zyprexa.

The company has founded some of the most important breakthrough medicines involving treatment for psychiatric and mental – health related conditions. For many years, the company was the leading producer worldwide of health products available to patients with diabetes.