Colonel Lilly a 38 year old pharmaceutical chemist and veteran of the US Civil War, founded the company with aim for improving 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.
He started the company with total capital of $1,400 and four employees, including his 14 year old son, Josiah.
He invented a process for coating pills with gelatin. 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.
Eli Lilly in 1963 was the first company successfully to manufacture and sell Lok-Caps capsules. It became the industry standard later because it can be handled in automatic filling and packaging machines.
Eli Lilly producing the first commercially available insulin product in 1923, shortly after the substance has been isolated by Frederick Grant Banting and Charles Best.
Prozac, the world’s top selling antidepressant was introduced in 1988 and rapidly became one of the company’s top selling drugs.
History of Eli Lilly and Company
