This is the second story that I had in the May issue of L.
Nearly 50 years after its humble beginnings in 1908 as The Smith-Dorsey Company, employees at what is now known as Novartis came up with a revolutionary new product in the cough and cold therapy realm -- Triaminic.
Now 50 years later, the company stays at the forefront of consumer health products, manufacturing high-quality, well-known, over-the-counter brands such as Bufferin, Excedrin, Maalox and Theraflu from its expansive plant on the northeast edge of Lincoln and is celebrating 100 years of business in the community.
“There is a lot to be proud of at Novartis Consumer Health in Lincoln,” according to Site Leader Marlene Leuenberger. “Our work force is the most technically competent, dedicated, hardworking, and flexible group of people I have ever had the pleasure of working with. The work ethic, and positive outlook are amazing. I am also very proud of recent accomplishments associated with growing this plant in the last two years. We brought in the solid dose product associated with Novartis' purchase of Bristol Myers Squibb over the counter business on a very aggressive time line, and customer service improved as the volume moved into Lincoln. This project resulted in a volume increase of about 60 percent for the site overall. That is a rare accomplishment for a plant in the United States today.”
William C. N. Smith, Thomas G. Dorsey and William M. Widener, three pharmaceutical salesmen, started the company in downtown Lincoln on March 4, 1908, according to information from a historical book completed for the company’s 75th anniversary When they formed the company, they didn’t actually produce any product but they bought it from other companies and redistributed it under the Smith-Dorsey name. But less than a year after starting the company Dorsey left, although his name would be part of the company for years. However, they started to expand. They hired their first salesman in 1911 and in 1912 they had sales of $17,000 with 41 products. They moved to a number of different locations in downtown including in a building at the corner of 10th and O Streets, that is currently the site of the Terminal building.
By the 1920s, they were selling between 350 and 600 products. A lot of them weren’t just pharmaceutical products but they also sold thermometers, tongue blades and syringes that they got from other companies and resold them to physicians and pharmacists. By 1927, there were 11 salesmen and 23 employees in the office area, with just one person who did the research and the quality assurance. The capsules themselves were filled by hand, which would have been challenging work as employees counted the capsules and tablets by weight and put them in bottles with funnels, much different than today’s high-tech machines and processes. In the 1930s, they moved to an area on south 10th street, the current home of the Lincoln Police Department. The company worked out of that area of town for about 20 years until they moved to their current location in 1963.
In the late 1930s though the company made a change. They dropped a couple hundred products and stopped manufacturing and selling special formulas for physicians and pharmacists. Then in the late 1940s, the people that owned the company became active in national organizations for pharmaceutical manufacturers. What became clear to them was that to be successful they were going to need to put a lot more money into research than what they had locally. So they looked around either for a buyer or a merger. So the Wander Company, headquartered in Switzerland, purchased Smith-Dorsey. They infused a bunch of money into the company and it ended up being a really good move to help the company grow.
In 1951, the first year of Wander’s ownership, they had sales of just over $2 million. By 1967, they were up to $12.5 million. Wander put more emphasis on promoting the major specialty products and dropping slower moving items from the line. They also helped modernize the company’s accounting procedures and purchased the company’s first IBM data processing machine.
By the late 1950s, the company started hiring a lot of more experienced sales representatives and expanding around the country from its Midwest roots. More funding from Wander in the 1950s also meant the company was able to start doing more research on the analytical development side and formulations development research versus new drugs research, which is done in its New Jersey facilities.
Then in 1956, they introduced Triaminic tablets, which were a big deal for the company, according to Donna Blake, who is with Novartis’ Human Resources and Communications department. “It was a revolutionary concept at the time because it was an oral decongestant in the cough and cold lines of products,” she said. “That was developed by people locally here in Lincoln.”
Likewise in the late 1950s, the company felt they were outgrowing their space so they were able to purchase land by Waverly. They actually bought 128 acres and started building the facility they are at today. When it was completed April 1 of 1963, it was really in the middle of nowhere.
“We’ve had some very forward thinking people that worked here,” Blake said. “We started with 128 acres and now we have about 420 acres. As land has become available we have purchased it to have the space available, if needed for expansion, and to create a buffer zone. It’s nice. Some of the land we rent out to farmers because we don’t need it right now. We’ve had a lot of expansions over the years. We started with about 166,000 square feet and now we are up to 550,000 square feet. We are one big building. We have a beautiful facility.”
In 1967, Wander merged with the Sandoz Corporation and they became Dorsey Laboratories, a division of Sandoz-Wander. Then in the late 1980s-early 90s, they became the Sandoz Pharmaceutical Corporation. It wasn’t really a company change but just an acknowledgment of who they really were – a part of a global organization. In 1997, Sandoz merged with Ciba-Geigy. When that happened they became Novartis – which means ‘new skills in the science of life’.
“We wanted to establish a whole new identity,” Blake said, adding that one of the things that was an outcome of that merger was the production of the Maalox products were moved from another Ciba-Geigy facility to Lincoln. “What we had been doing before was a combination of prescription products and over-the-counter products. The direction we have taken now is that we are the consumer over-the-counter product manufacturing facility for Novartis Consumer Health in the United States. We are the only location in United States that makes the products that we make for Novartis. We are one of the largest manufacturing facilities for Novartis.”
Novartis employs over 98,000 people worldwide with just over 600 people at the Lincoln facility. “We have a wide variety of different types of employment here from Ph.D. level scientists to purchasing agents, manufacturing and packaging associates, and other support groups,” Blake said. They produce over 160 billion-consumer units per year. “It’s a nice mix of people. We are very fortunate because we’ve been here for a long time and with the changes the company has had Novartis has demonstrated its commitment to the Lincoln community,” Blake added. “When they moved Maalox here it was a big deal and then a couple of years ago, Novartis purchased Excedrin, Bufferin and Comtrex from Bristol Meyers Squibb. They didn’t purchase the physical facilities, they bought the products and then looked around the world to where they wanted to make the products and they chose Lincoln. We feel very fortunate.”
Likewise, Novartis enjoys giving back to the Lincoln community. This year is the 26th year as sponsor of the Novartis Run, which takes place around Holmes Lake. “We were one of the original supporters of the Lincoln Children’s Museum and we have a cool exhibit down there,” Blake said. “We refurbished the birdcage theater at the Children’s Zoo. We are big supporters of the United Way. We were one of the original supporters of the D.A.R.E. program in Lancaster County and we want to look for things that directly impact Lincoln and Lancaster County.”
As for celebrating their 100 years in business, Blake mentioned that it’s ongoing. “We are tying it into the events that we have,” Blake said. “We had a big dinner in February at the Embassy Suites where the employees could come for dinner and dancing. We will tie it into our picnic this summer. We had a big cake on March 4, our anniversary date.”
As for the future, Leuenberger says the goal for Novartis in Lincoln is to “leverage our high quality work force, our technology and our tradition of flexibility to become a truly global supplier. We will supply and compete on a worldwide basis. Following that path, it is our plan to continue steady growth over the next several years.”
Nearly 50 years after its humble beginnings in 1908 as The Smith-Dorsey Company, employees at what is now known as Novartis came up with a revolutionary new product in the cough and cold therapy realm -- Triaminic.
Now 50 years later, the company stays at the forefront of consumer health products, manufacturing high-quality, well-known, over-the-counter brands such as Bufferin, Excedrin, Maalox and Theraflu from its expansive plant on the northeast edge of Lincoln and is celebrating 100 years of business in the community.
“There is a lot to be proud of at Novartis Consumer Health in Lincoln,” according to Site Leader Marlene Leuenberger. “Our work force is the most technically competent, dedicated, hardworking, and flexible group of people I have ever had the pleasure of working with. The work ethic, and positive outlook are amazing. I am also very proud of recent accomplishments associated with growing this plant in the last two years. We brought in the solid dose product associated with Novartis' purchase of Bristol Myers Squibb over the counter business on a very aggressive time line, and customer service improved as the volume moved into Lincoln. This project resulted in a volume increase of about 60 percent for the site overall. That is a rare accomplishment for a plant in the United States today.”
William C. N. Smith, Thomas G. Dorsey and William M. Widener, three pharmaceutical salesmen, started the company in downtown Lincoln on March 4, 1908, according to information from a historical book completed for the company’s 75th anniversary When they formed the company, they didn’t actually produce any product but they bought it from other companies and redistributed it under the Smith-Dorsey name. But less than a year after starting the company Dorsey left, although his name would be part of the company for years. However, they started to expand. They hired their first salesman in 1911 and in 1912 they had sales of $17,000 with 41 products. They moved to a number of different locations in downtown including in a building at the corner of 10th and O Streets, that is currently the site of the Terminal building.
By the 1920s, they were selling between 350 and 600 products. A lot of them weren’t just pharmaceutical products but they also sold thermometers, tongue blades and syringes that they got from other companies and resold them to physicians and pharmacists. By 1927, there were 11 salesmen and 23 employees in the office area, with just one person who did the research and the quality assurance. The capsules themselves were filled by hand, which would have been challenging work as employees counted the capsules and tablets by weight and put them in bottles with funnels, much different than today’s high-tech machines and processes. In the 1930s, they moved to an area on south 10th street, the current home of the Lincoln Police Department. The company worked out of that area of town for about 20 years until they moved to their current location in 1963.
In the late 1930s though the company made a change. They dropped a couple hundred products and stopped manufacturing and selling special formulas for physicians and pharmacists. Then in the late 1940s, the people that owned the company became active in national organizations for pharmaceutical manufacturers. What became clear to them was that to be successful they were going to need to put a lot more money into research than what they had locally. So they looked around either for a buyer or a merger. So the Wander Company, headquartered in Switzerland, purchased Smith-Dorsey. They infused a bunch of money into the company and it ended up being a really good move to help the company grow.
In 1951, the first year of Wander’s ownership, they had sales of just over $2 million. By 1967, they were up to $12.5 million. Wander put more emphasis on promoting the major specialty products and dropping slower moving items from the line. They also helped modernize the company’s accounting procedures and purchased the company’s first IBM data processing machine.
By the late 1950s, the company started hiring a lot of more experienced sales representatives and expanding around the country from its Midwest roots. More funding from Wander in the 1950s also meant the company was able to start doing more research on the analytical development side and formulations development research versus new drugs research, which is done in its New Jersey facilities.
Then in 1956, they introduced Triaminic tablets, which were a big deal for the company, according to Donna Blake, who is with Novartis’ Human Resources and Communications department. “It was a revolutionary concept at the time because it was an oral decongestant in the cough and cold lines of products,” she said. “That was developed by people locally here in Lincoln.”
Likewise in the late 1950s, the company felt they were outgrowing their space so they were able to purchase land by Waverly. They actually bought 128 acres and started building the facility they are at today. When it was completed April 1 of 1963, it was really in the middle of nowhere.
“We’ve had some very forward thinking people that worked here,” Blake said. “We started with 128 acres and now we have about 420 acres. As land has become available we have purchased it to have the space available, if needed for expansion, and to create a buffer zone. It’s nice. Some of the land we rent out to farmers because we don’t need it right now. We’ve had a lot of expansions over the years. We started with about 166,000 square feet and now we are up to 550,000 square feet. We are one big building. We have a beautiful facility.”
In 1967, Wander merged with the Sandoz Corporation and they became Dorsey Laboratories, a division of Sandoz-Wander. Then in the late 1980s-early 90s, they became the Sandoz Pharmaceutical Corporation. It wasn’t really a company change but just an acknowledgment of who they really were – a part of a global organization. In 1997, Sandoz merged with Ciba-Geigy. When that happened they became Novartis – which means ‘new skills in the science of life’.
“We wanted to establish a whole new identity,” Blake said, adding that one of the things that was an outcome of that merger was the production of the Maalox products were moved from another Ciba-Geigy facility to Lincoln. “What we had been doing before was a combination of prescription products and over-the-counter products. The direction we have taken now is that we are the consumer over-the-counter product manufacturing facility for Novartis Consumer Health in the United States. We are the only location in United States that makes the products that we make for Novartis. We are one of the largest manufacturing facilities for Novartis.”
Novartis employs over 98,000 people worldwide with just over 600 people at the Lincoln facility. “We have a wide variety of different types of employment here from Ph.D. level scientists to purchasing agents, manufacturing and packaging associates, and other support groups,” Blake said. They produce over 160 billion-consumer units per year. “It’s a nice mix of people. We are very fortunate because we’ve been here for a long time and with the changes the company has had Novartis has demonstrated its commitment to the Lincoln community,” Blake added. “When they moved Maalox here it was a big deal and then a couple of years ago, Novartis purchased Excedrin, Bufferin and Comtrex from Bristol Meyers Squibb. They didn’t purchase the physical facilities, they bought the products and then looked around the world to where they wanted to make the products and they chose Lincoln. We feel very fortunate.”
Likewise, Novartis enjoys giving back to the Lincoln community. This year is the 26th year as sponsor of the Novartis Run, which takes place around Holmes Lake. “We were one of the original supporters of the Lincoln Children’s Museum and we have a cool exhibit down there,” Blake said. “We refurbished the birdcage theater at the Children’s Zoo. We are big supporters of the United Way. We were one of the original supporters of the D.A.R.E. program in Lancaster County and we want to look for things that directly impact Lincoln and Lancaster County.”
As for celebrating their 100 years in business, Blake mentioned that it’s ongoing. “We are tying it into the events that we have,” Blake said. “We had a big dinner in February at the Embassy Suites where the employees could come for dinner and dancing. We will tie it into our picnic this summer. We had a big cake on March 4, our anniversary date.”
As for the future, Leuenberger says the goal for Novartis in Lincoln is to “leverage our high quality work force, our technology and our tradition of flexibility to become a truly global supplier. We will supply and compete on a worldwide basis. Following that path, it is our plan to continue steady growth over the next several years.”
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