The business originated in New Zealand in 1904 and was concerned with
the marketing in the United Kingdom of a dried milk as an infant milk food
under the brand name 'Glaxo'. From this base the business extended into the
pharmaceutical field. Up to 1955 the growth of the business was generated solely
by internal development. Since then the business has developed also by amalgamation
with other concerns, primarily in the pharmaceutical field.

Glaxo Group Ltd, by now a wholly owned subsidiary of Glaxo Holdings Ltd
was incorporated under the name of Glaxo Laboratories Ltd
in 1935 with the primary object of carrying on the business, in the fields of
infant foods and pharmaceutical products, previously carried on by the Glaxo
Department of Joseph Nathan and Co Ltd which had its origins in the New
Zealand marketing operation.

In 1924 Glaxo Laboratories marketed its first pharmaceutical product,
Ostelin, designed to promote infant health and prevent rickets. In 1943 it
joined hi a consortium formed to produce penicillin on a commercial scale. In
1945 it erected at Barnard Castle the first factory in the United Kingdom for
mass production of penicillin by deep fermentation and in 1948 it set up a new
plant at Ulverston for the production of penicillin and streptomycin.

In 1952 Glaxo Laboratories acquired .Dextran Ltd, manufacturers of
Intradex blood plasma, and in 1955 it acquired Murphy Chemical Ltd, a
company engaged in the compounding and selling of farm and garden products
such as insecticides, fungicides, seed dressings and weed killers. Murphy was
acquired primarily as a vehicle for marketing those discoveries of the Glaxo
Laboratories research department which seemed likely to have applications in
agriculture or horticulture.

The first major acquisition by Glaxo Laboratories was that of Allen and
Hanburys Ltd in 1958; this company had a number of well known products and
also brought with it an interest in hospital furniture and equipment. In 1961
Evans Medical Ltd, which produced standard drugs and vaccines, was acquired.
In 1962 Glaxo Laboratories was reorganised, the parent company being formed
as Glaxo Group Ltd ('Glaxo') and Glaxo Laboratories becoming a subsidiary
responsible for .its own production and marketing operations in the United
Kingdom. In the;same year Glaxo acquired Edinburgh Pharmaceutical Industries
Ltd ('EPI') which made opiates; this company's subsidiaries, Duncan Flockhart
Ltd, Allied Laboratories Ltd and Macfarlan Smith Ltd were also acquired.

Both Evans Medical and EPI had major activities in pharmaceutical
wholesaling as a means of selling their standard drugs. In 1965 Glaxo decided
that the wholesaling should be done through a single company covering the
whole country. Accordingly, Glaxo joined with BDH Group Ltd to incorporate
Vestric Ltd to which subsidiary the wholesaling business of the two parents was
hived off.

In 1968 Glaxo acquired Farley's Infant Food Ltd and BDH Group Ltd.
The latter acquisition not only gave Glaxo a stake in oral .contraceptives and
laboratory chemicals but also resulted in Vestric becoming a wholly owned
subsidiary of Glaxo.