Annual report : 2016 / Burroughs Wellcome Fund.

  • Burroughs Wellcome Fund
Date:
2016
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: Annual report : 2016 / Burroughs Wellcome Fund. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    A LEGACY ACROSS CENTURIES BWF was created in 1955 as the corporate foundation of Burroughs Wellcome Co.—the U.S. branch of the historic Wellcome pharmaceutical enterprise. The Wellcome enterprise was established in 1880 in the United Kingdom by two young American pharmacists, Henry Wellcome and Silas Burroughs, who moved to London to manufacture and sell “compressed medicines” —that is, pills — which they believed could replace the potions and powders of the day. The notion of standardized doses of easily consumed medication, as popularized by Burroughs and Wellcome, would change human health forever. The firm prospered. After Burroughs died in 1895, Wellcome directed the growth of the company into an international network with subsidiaries in numerous countries on several continents. As the business grew, Wellcome held firm to his belief that research was fundamental to the development of excellent pharmaceutical products, and he established the industry's first research laboratories. When Henry Wellcome died in 1936, his will vested all of his corporate shares in a new organization—the Wellcome Trust—devoted to supporting research in medicine and allied sciences, and to maintaining museums and libraries dedicated to these fields. From its London offices, the Trust grew to become the world’s largest charitable foundation devoted exclusively to the biomedical sciences. The Trust’s global success inspired the establishment of BWF as a parallel foundation serving biomedical research in North America. In 1993, BWF received a $400 million gift from the Wellcome Trust to become a fully independent foundation, headquartered in the Research Triangle Park of North Carolina. The importance of curiosity-driven research—as endorsed by Henry Wellcome more than 100 years ago— guides the mission of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. Investing in the research and careers of the best and brightest scientists offers the fullest promise for improving human health, and we will continue our commitment to this belief in the years to come.
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