May & Baker has its origin in the United Kingdom. In 1834, a young man, John May and his two Partners started a business for manufacturing chemicals for pharmaceuticals products. His partners were Joseph L. Pickett and Thomas S. Grimwade.

The company, which was known as Grimwade, May & Pickett, was located at Battersea, England.

Pickett died a year after the business started and by 1839 when Grimwade left the partnership, May was joined by another young chemist, William Garrard Baker. The new partnership was called May and Baker.

The ownership of this young company was to pass through several hands and associations and long after its original founders were brought out, the name May & Baker has remained till today, because of the goodwill created worldwide by the use of “M&B” trademark.

From its early beginnings, May & Baker built a reputation for quality. For instance at an1851 exhibition in London, the company was awarded the prize medal for it’s acids, metallic salts and other preparations used in Pharmacy. The medal was awarded for the “excellent quality” of the company’s products, according to the citation.

For years the company continued to manufacture chemicals for pharmaceutical products until 1889 when it introduced its first drug, Sulphonal, a sedative.

In December 1890, May & Baker was registered in the United Kingdom as a limited liability company. Thereupon, it became May & Baker Limited.

May & Baker Limited became the subsidiary of a French company in the early years of the 20th century. The company had entered into an agreement with the French pharmaceutical company, Poulenc Freres, whereby the former was selling the latter’s products in the United Kingdom.

This relationship was further cemented in 1927, when Poulenc Freres bought into May & Baker, owning 85 per cent of the company’s total capital and over 90 per cent of it’s ordinary shares.

In 1928, Poulenc Freres merged with another French company, Rhone. The resulting company from the merger became known as Rhone-Poulenc, which inherited Poulenc Freres in May & Baker Limited.

Following the company’s acquisition by the French company and the need to expand and build a modern factory, may & Baker moved to its present site at Dagenham. This was in April 1934. The door to May & Baker’s fame in Sulphonamides was opened in November 1937 with the successful synthesis of M&B 693 from Sulphapyridine. The company was, for many years, best known for M&B 693 which provided a cure for the hitherto killer-disease, bacterial pneumonia.

Other Sulphonamides like the M&B 760 were soon to follow.

As part of its expansion overseas, May & Baker Limited, United Kingdom established a trading company in Nigeria in 1944. the company was incorporated in Lagos on the 4th September 1944 as May & baker (West Africa), and also controlled its parent’s business activities in Ghana and other parts of the West Coast.

The company first settled at 17A, Tinubu Street, Lagos. Its business then included sales of human pharmaceuticals; laboratory and photographic chemicals and horticultural and vertinary products. Some of its early products included Quinacrin (antimalarial), Gonazole (anti-biotic), Soneryl (sedative), Ephedrin, Sulphonamides, Nivaquine (anti-malarial) and Rovamycine (then a vertinary product).

The company relocated from Tinubu to its present site at Ikeja, also in Lagos during the Nigerian civil war. In 1976, it built its factory at Ikeja whereupon it began local manufacturing. That same year it changed from May & Baker (West Africa) to May & Baker Nigeria Limited.

However in 1979, owing to the indigenisation decree which required that foreign interests in companies operating in Nigeria be of a minority nature, the parent May & Baker, United Kingdom relinquished 60 per cent of its equity holding in the Nigerian affiliate to Nigerians while retaining 40 over cent. This occasioned another name change and the company became known as Embechem. This eventually dropped because of its unpopularity, for the previous name, May & Baker Nigeria Limited.

All this while, the company was under the direct supervision of May & Baker Limited, United Kingdom. In 1990, it came under the direct supervision of Rhone-Poulenc, which in later years merged with Rorer, an American pharmaceutical company, to form Rhone-Poulenc Rorer.

May & Baker Nigeria Limited became a publicly quoted company following its listing by introduction, on the Nigerian Stock Exchange on 10th November 1994. Thus, it became May & Baker Nigeria Plc.

The year 1996 was a trying period for the company. Rhone-Poulenc Rorer (RPR) representing the interest of May & Baker, United Kingdom, had signaled its intention to divest from May & Baker Nigeria Plc. the divestment process was turbulent due to a hostile takeover bid, which was obviously not going to be in the interest of the future company. The crisis was stemmed by RPR’s conversion of its decision to divest its 40 per cent equity holding.

In the aftermath of the crisis, the then expatriate Managing Director, Mr. RPA Hornsby resigned, which paved way for the appointment of another expatriate, Mr Collin Tindill as Managing Director for a brief period of time. In December 1997, the first indigenous Managing Director/Chief Executive officer of the company, Mr. Joseph I. Odumodu, was appointed.

In 2002 the company became 100 per cent owned by Nigerians with the complete buyout of the foreign partners who had decided to divest. However, the foreign partners represented by Aventis SA, France remained technical associates of May & Baker Nigeria Plc. Following the merger of Aventis and Sanofi, another French firm to form Sanofi Aventis in 2004, the technical relationship now subsists between May & Baker Nigeria Plc and Sanofi-Aventis of France.