In 1860, pharmacists John (1834–1907) and Frank Wyeth opened a drugstore with a small research lab on Walnut Street in Philadelphia.

[citation needed] In 1872, Henry Bower, an employee of Wyeth, developed one of the first rotary compressed tablet machines in the United States.

Six years later a fire destroyed the brothers' original Walnut Street store, and they sold the retail business and focused on mass production.

[citation needed] In 1941, the US entered World War II, and Wyeth shipped typical wartime drugs such as sulfa bacteriostatics, blood plasma, typhus vaccine, quinine, and atabrine tablets.

With this merger came Premarin, the world's first conjugated estrogen medicine, which was a flagship product for Wyeth until 2002, when preliminary results from the Women's Health Initiative linked it to a number of negative effects, including increased risk for breast cancer.

Other drugs introduced during this time include Isordil, a vasodilator for treatment of angina, Dryvax, a freeze-dried smallpox vaccine, and Ovral, a combined oral contraceptive pill.

Wyeth waived patent royalties on its innovative bifurcated needle, aiding in the delivery of over 200 million smallpox vaccines per year.

He completed the divestiture of non-core businesses such as household products, foods, candy (Brach's), and medical devices (e.g., its Sherwood-Medical Company was sold to Tyco-Kendal in 1997).

Wyeth also acquired A.H. Robins, makers of Robitussin, ChapStick, Dimetapp, and the Dalkon Shield merging it into its Whitehall unit to establish its Whitehall-Robins Division.

The acquisition gave Fort Dodge Animal Health strong market presence in Europe and Asia as well as expanding its product portfolio to include swine and poultry vaccines.

[2] In 1998, American Home Products was left at the altar by British pharma powerhouse SmithKline Beecham, who pulled the plug on the estimated $70 billion merger.

The deal was reportedly killed in response to British regulators who feared losing jobs to a proposed US headquarters location.

(SmithKline Beecham merged with fellow Brit Glaxo Wellcome in 1999 to form the world's leading drug company.)

In 1999, another American Home Products merger fell through, this time a proposed $34 billion merger-of-equals with chemical and biotech manufacturer Monsanto Company.

[20][21] Innovative Fort Dodge products include West Nile-Innovator, Duramune Adult, CYDECTIN Pour-on, the Pyramid vaccine line, Quest Gel, and EtoGesic Tablets.

Prenatal Infant and Follow-on Toddler Pre-school Special Feeder Former Milk Products A "whistleblower suit" was filed against Wyeth in 2005 alleging that the company illegally marketed their drug Rapamune.

According to the whistleblowers, Wyeth also provided doctors and hospitals with kickbacks to prescribe the drug in the form of grants, donations and other money.

Fenfluramine was marketed by Wyeth as Pondimin, but was shown to cause potentially fatal pulmonary hypertension and heart valve problems.