| Administrative History | Boots Pure Drug Co (India) Ltd was formally registered in 1944. It began trading on 1st April 1946, as a wholly owned subsidiary of Boots Pure Drug Company, and in the same year moved the company's Head Office to Bombay and commissioned a Pharmaceutical factory. The company was originally set up under the chairmanship of R. Lumley and was responsible for the manufacture, distribution and sale of Boots branded medical and pharmaceutical products and agricultural and animal health products.
A manufacturing division was established in 1948, which by the 1960s was producing 98% of the goods sold in the country.
In 1949 production started at the Sion factory.
The business was converted into a public limited company with Indian equity participation in 1965 and 40% of the shares were issued to the public.
In 1965 an Insulin manufacturing plant was commissioned and was the first one of its kind in India.
The name of the company was then changed to The Boots Company (India) Limited on November 1, 1971. In 1978 a chemical factory was opened in Nagar to manufacture ibuprofen.
The first Boots research unit to be built outside of the UK was opened in Bombay in 1981.
Following the purchase of the pharmaceutical activities of Boots to BASF in 1995, the name of the company was changed to Knoll Pharmaceuticals Limited. |