S. E. Massengill Company was apharmaceutical company founded in 1898 by Samuel Evans Massengill, who graduated from theUniversity of Nashville Medical School but decided to manufacture drugs rather than practice medicine himself.[1] By 1937, it employed more than two hundred people inBristol, Tennessee, including six graduate pharmaceutical chemists. In 2011, it was purchased byPrestige Brands, now known as Prestige Consumer Healthcare.
The company was responsible for theelixir sulfanilamide disaster of 1937, described as one of the most consequential masspoisonings of the 20th century.[2] Elixir sulfanilamide was formulated withdiethylene glycol as a solvent. The company claimed to have been unaware of the toxicity of diethylene glycol, despite the existence of published studies describing its dangerous properties. The elixir was released with no safety testing, leading to the deaths of at least one hundred people in fifteen states. The resulting scandal led to the passage of the 1938Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.[1]
Massengill continued to operate as a family-owned pharmaceutical firm until it was acquired in 1971 byBeecham plc., itself later merged intoSmithKline Beecham in 1989 and since 2000 intoGlaxoSmithKline.[3]
On December 20, 2011, Massengill was sold toPrestige Brands for £426 million ($660 million).[4]
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