page_title: Henry Wellcome
section_title: Pharmaceutical executive
hierarchical_section_title: Henry Wellcome / Biography / Pharmaceutical executive
caption_attribution_description: Henry Solomon Wellcome
context_page_description: Sir Henry Solomon Wellcome FRS was an American-born British pharmaceutical entrepreneur. He founded the pharmaceutical company Burroughs Wellcome & Company with his colleague Silas Burroughs in 1880, which is one of the four large companies to eventually merge to form GlaxoSmithKline. In addition, he left a large amount of capital for charitable work in his will, which was used to form the Wellcome Trust, one of the world's largest medical charities. He travelled to Sudan where he stole artefacts and carried excavations in a holy site and perhaps participated in hiding the great history of Sudan he was also a keen collector of medical artefacts which are now displayed at the Wellcome Collection.
context_section_description: In 1880, Wellcome established a pharmaceutical company, Burroughs Wellcome & Company, with his colleague Silas Mainville Burroughs. They introduced the selling of medicine in tablet form to England under the 1884 trademark "Tabloid". Previously, medicines had been sold mostly as powders or liquids. Burroughs and Wellcome also introduced direct marketing to doctors, giving them free samples. In 1895, Burroughs died, aged 48, leaving the company in the hands of Wellcome. It flourished and Wellcome set up several related research laboratories.  In 1924, Wellcome consolidated all his commercial and non-commercial activities in one holding company, The Wellcome Foundation Ltd.
caption: Henry Wellcome in 1880
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