Lilly Research Laboratories

Eli Lilly and Company is an American pharmaceutical company headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, with offices in 18 countries. Its products are sold in approximately 125 countries. The company was founded in 1876 by, and named after, Col. Eli Lilly, a pharmaceutical chemist and veteran of the American Civil War. Lilly's notable achievements include being the first company to mass-produce the polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk, and insulin. It was one of the first pharmaceutical companies to produce human insulin using recombinant DNA including Humulin (insulin medication), Humalog (insulin lispro), and the first approved biosimilar insulin product in the US, Basaglar (insulin glargine). Lilly is currently the largest manufacturer of psychiatric medications and produces Prozac (fluoxetine), Dolophine (methadone), Cymbalta (duloxetine), and Zyprexa (olanzapine). The company is ranked 123rd on the 2019 Fortune 500. It is ranked 221st on the Forbes Global 2000 list of the largest public companies in the world and 252nd on the Forbes list of America's Best Employers. Eli Lilly is a full member of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA). As of 1997, it was the largest corporation and the largest charitable benefactor in Indiana. The company's founder was Colonel Eli Lilly, a pharmaceutical chemist and Union army veteran of the American Civil War. Lilly served as the company president until his death in 1898. A stylized version of his signature still appears in the company's logo. In 1869, after working for drugstores in Greencastle and Indianapolis, Indiana, Lilly became a partner in a Paris, Illinois, drugstore with James W. Binford. Although the drugstore was profitable, Lilly was more interested in medicinal manufacturing than running a pharmacy. He began formulating plans to create a company of his own. Lilly left the partnership with Binford in 1873 and returned to Indianapolis. Lilly opened a drug manufacturing operation called Johnston and Lilly with John F. Johnston as his partner in 1874, but dissolved the failing partnership on March 27, 1876. Lilly used his share of the assets, which amounted to an estimated $400 in merchandise (several pieces of equipment and a few gallons of unmixed chemicals) and about $1,000 in cash, to open his own pharmaceutical manufacturing business in Indianapolis in May 1876. His new business venture became Eli Lilly and Company.