The Business of Medicine: The Extraordinary History of Glaxo, a Baby Food Producer, Which Became One of the World's Most Successful Pharmaceutical Companies. By Edgar Jones. London: Profile Books, 2001. Pp. xxiii, 520. $49.95.

Extract

In his acknowledgments Edgar Jones explains that this book started as a commission to the London School of Economics Business History Unit, and was later transferred to Glaxo as an in-house project. At all points Jones worked closely with Glaxo staff, an association that is reflected in his extensive use of company documents and interviews with past or present company personnel. Company support is also evident in the handsome production of the book, which includes many photos, some in color. This much said, and taking note of the celebratory tone suggested by the subtitle, this is a work of scholarship by a trained economic historian and should be welcomed as an important addition to the still-under-populated genre of company histories of the pharmaceutical industry. Jones's study reaches back to the nineteenth-century origins of the company in general merchandising, and forward to the merger with SmithKline Beecham in 2000 that resulted in one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Its chronological center lies in the half century 1935–1985, which witnessed the transformation of the company.