Pharmaceuticals

Along with chemicals, the pharmaceutical industry has blossomed in the period under review and British companies have more than blossomed.

In 1951, there were sound but unexciting companies quietly committed to research. One was a presence on the High Street, another a producer of baby milk, a third the name attached to a cold cure, the fourth largely hidden from view and the fifth, astonishingly, an addendum to a chemical company’s dyestuffs division. I am talking about Boots, Glaxo, Beecham, Burroughs Wellcome and ICI.

It could have stayed had it not been for scientists of great ability with space to research, vision to understand how drugs are bought and courage to follow through strongly held convictions. This is the sector that produced for Britain world leaders in the shape of GSK and Astra-Zeneca.