Eli Lilly: From Civil War Roots to Global Pharma Leader
Colonel Eli Lilly, a pharmacist and veteran of the Union Army during the U.S. Civil War, founded Eli Lilly and Company in Indianapolis in 1876 with a clear goal to produce high-quality medicines in an era when many so-called remedies were unregulated and ineffective. A disciplined and principled man, Colonel Lilly insisted on rigorous standards and scientific methods, setting his company apart from the patent medicine industry of the 19th century.
One of the company’s major contributions was its partnership with Canadian scientists Frederick Banting, Charles Best, J.J.R. Macleod, and James Collip, who discovered and purified insulin in 1921–1922. Although the discovery was Canadian, Colonel Lilly’s industrial expertise enabled insulin to be mass-produced for the first time, marketed as Iletin in 1923, turning diabetes from a fatal disease into a manageable condition.
Later milestones included the development of antibiotics like erythromycin, psychiatric breakthroughs such as Prozac (fluoxetine), and cancer treatments like Alimta (pemetrexed). Today, Colonel Lilly’s company remains a global leader in research-based pharmaceuticals, with recent advances in immunology, cancer treatment, and the widely used diabetes and weight-management therapy tirzepatide (Mounjaro/Zepbound).
Other Molport Chronicles posts- from Alchemy to Pharma:
- Toxicology and Preclinical Testing (Animal Models)
- Dose Makes The Poison
- Oldest Pharmacy
- From Apothecary to Alkaloid Pioneer: The Origins of Merck and Modern Drug Discovery
- GSK legacy shaped by Beecham’s Pills and Research Laboratories
- The journey of ASPIRIN
- The footprint of Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS)
- BASF: From dyes to drugs
