Pioneering pharmaceutical research – the Herne Hill connection

in the 1940s. Glenny was involved in the production of antitoxin and Ewins in the chemistry division.

Antitoxin had been shown to work but many problems remained. The immunisation of horses was haphazard; antibody production was not understood, nor was the immune response, and the sterile production of biologicals was in its infancy. Glenny analysed the record on antiserum production which resulted in systematising the immunisation of horses and optimising antiserum production. While working at Herne Hill he also made major contributions to our understanding of the immune response and to vaccine development. He was the first to demonstrate the secondary immune response, the reason we are given a booster dose to increase protection. His work on the inactivation of diphtheria toxin to produce toxoid contributed to the development of diphtheria vaccine for children introduced in 1939.

In 1898 Henry Wellcome signed a lease on buildings and land in Brockwell Park to provide a home for the Wellcome Physiological Laboratories. This was a revolutionary development. Medical advances and new treatments are now the stuff of everyday news. But at that time there was only one specific treatment for any infection, quinine for malaria. Vaccines were being developed to prevent some infections but only smallpox vaccine was widely available. Serum therapy using antibodies raised in horses was seen as the best way forward. This had been shown to work for both tetanus and diphtheria.

Funds for the laboratory were provided by Burroughs, Wellcome & Co. Henry Wellcome had founded a research laboratory in 1894 and it was this lab that transferred to Herne Hill.

This was a first for the pharmaceutical industry; the laboratory was intended not only to develop new commercial products but also to work on basic biomedical problems. His unprecedented actions revolutionized the pharmaceutical industry; Wellcome saw basic research as key to the company’s growth and success.

Wellcome was keen to attract the best scientists for his new venture and tried to recruit Gowland Hopkins (Nobel Prize 1929) as director but he was unsuccessful – perhaps due to academic snobbery towards commercially linked research. In retrospect this is surprising in that there was little academic research in the UK. Research degrees were not introduced until 1922. Research was among the primary functions of German universities.

In 1904 he was more successful in attracting Henry Dale (Nobel Prize 1936) to become director in 1906. It was then that Wellcome formulated the dictum “Freedom of research—liberty to publish”. This attracted many talented scientists to the Wellcome Laboratories until their closure in 1995.

The move to Herne Hill provided the opportunity to recruit more staff, many of them locally. The most remarkable were two 17-yearolds recruited from Alleyn’s School in 1899. Alexander T. Glenny and Arthur J. Ewins became laboratory technicians. To obtain a BSc they studied in the evenings at the South-Western Polytechnic (later Chelsea Polytechnic, now part of King’s). This was one of many institutions preparing students for the University of London Exams. Both men went on to be elected Fellows of the Royal Society

In 1914, on the basis of his work at Herne Hill, Dale was elected to the Royal Society and invited to become director of the new National Institute of Medical Research. Both Dale and Ewins joined the Medical Research Committee (later Council). The outbreak of war revealed how heavily dependent Britain was on imports from Germany. Dale coordinated the development and production of substitutes. The Wellcome Laboratories and works were now engaged in the production of a wide range of drugs and medical products for which there had been a virtual German monopoly. For example, Wellcome had to produce and manufacture a British version of aspirin and, in collaboration with other companies, arsphenamine, at that time the sole treatment for syphilis. Government support resulted in the development of the British pharmaceutical industry. Ewins was fully involved and in 1917 moved to May & Baker where he became director of research. He worked on chemotherapy, particularly sulphonamide antibacterials, most famously M&B 693. In 1943 this was used to save Winston Churchill’s life when he fell ill with pneumonia.

R. A. O’Brien had succeeded Dale at Herne Hill as director. He had a particular interest in tetanus antitoxin, which was fortunate in the context of WW1, tetanus being a particular hazard to wounded soldiers. In late 1914 David Bruce, commander of the Royal Army Medical College at Millbank, advised that all wounded should be treated with tetanus antitoxin. O’Brien and Glenny rose to the challenge and produced a mixed anti-gas gangrene antitoxin.

The war expanded the scope of research and increased the production of both antitoxins and drugs. The decision was taken to consolidate the research on a new site in Beckenham. In 1922 the Herne Hill labs closed, having played a pivotal role in both peace and war. Antitoxins may seem old-fashioned but it should be remembered that monoclonal antibodies used for Covid 19 and other diseases are the modern manifestation of the same ideas.

Bo Drasar

Bo Drasar is an Emeritus Professor of Bacteriology, working in particular at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Note: all the buildings that housed the Wellcome Laboratories were demolished in 1923. They stood half way up the hill on the right between the main Herne Hill gate and Brockwell Hall. No visible sign of them remains today.