F.H. Faulding: 1845 Adelaide pharmacy becomes multinational on brands like Solyptol oil plus developed drugs
F.H. Faulding's Solyptol oil, labelled as "the national antiseptic". At right: Another product, Faulding Lavender, featured in the 1950s Rundle Street window display of John Martin's store.
Main image courtesy State Library of South Australia
Adelaide’s F.H. Faulding – a small Rundle Street pharmacy from 1845 that became a multinational company – had its product success in the 19th Century founded on eucalyptus oil, the basis of an antiseptic marketed as Solyptol (for soluble eucalyptus oil).
Two of the Faulding company's major innovations were to develop a process to distil eucalyptus oil and to develop the test to determine the eucalyptol content of the oil. The test became the industry standard, and the British Pharmacopoeia standard method in 1898.
Other well-known products were Milk Emulsion (a pleasant alternative to cod-liver oil), Solyptol Soap (gold medal winner at the Franco-British Exhibition in London in 1908), Solyptol disinfectant, junket tablets, cordials, essential oils for perfumery and reagents such as Epson salts, most produced in its factory in Thebarton.
Other products developed by the company include Barrier Cream, formulated in 1941 to counter dermatitis in armament factories, and penicillin produced at a bacteriological laboratory built at Thebarton in 1944.
After World War II, Faulding extended its products and wholesaling, becoming a public company in 1947. Faulding benefited from technology transfer with overseas companies in return for the Australian rights to their products. In the 1980s,
Fauldings opened its W.F. Scammell* Research Centre in Salisbury and developed drugs such a Doxycycline capsules and enteric-coated aspirin. Eryc – enteric-coated pellets of erythromycin – was a notable success, helping Faulding set up a bridgehead in the United States of America.
A $2.3 billion a year revenue earner employing 4300 people and selling pharmaceuticals and healthcare products into 70 countries, Fauldings became a takeover target and was bought out by Mayne Pharma in 2001.