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Warner-Lambert Company, former diversified American corporation that manufactured products ranging from pharmaceuticals to candy. It became part of U.S. pharmaceutical conglomerate Pfizer Inc. in 2000.
The company dates to 1856, when William Warner, a Philadelphia pharmacist, invented the sugar-coated pill. In 1908 the Warner company was bought by Gustavus A. Pfeiffer and Company, a St. Louis patent-medicine company, which retained the Warner name. The company was incorporated in 1920 as William R. Warner and Company, Inc., and proceeded to buy several other companiesâincluding the Hudnut and Du Barry cosmetics businessesâand move its headquarters to New York City.
Over the next three decades the company embarked upon a series of acquisitions, including Lambert Pharmacal (Listerine), Emerson Drug (Bromo-Seltzer), American Chicle (Chiclets chewing gum), Smith Brothers (cough drops), and Parke-Davis (prescription drugs). Before Warner-Lambert merged with Pfizer, more than half of its sales came from pharmaceuticals, hospital supplies, and nonprescription drugs and health care products.
