May & Baker Nigeria Plc (Nigeria)

May & Baker Nigeria Plc is a pharmaceutical company located in Lagos, Nigeria. It was founded on September 4, 1944, and is Nigeria's first pharmaceutical company. The company originated in England in 1834 as Grimwade, May & Pickett, a firm manufacturing chemicals for pharmaceutical products. Over the years, the company went through mergers and acquisitions, eventually becoming a mega European conglomerate. However, today only the Nigerian offshoot retains the original name. In Nigeria, May & Baker started as May & Baker (West Africa) Limited in 1944, serving as a trading outpost for the West Coast of Africa. During the Nigerian civil war, the company relocated to its present site in Ikeja, Lagos state. In 1976, May & Baker built a factory in Ikeja and began local manufacturing of pharmaceuticals. The company changed its name from May & Baker (West Africa) Limited to May & Baker Nigeria Limited in the same year. In 1979, due to the indigenisation decree, May & Baker, United Kingdom relinquished 60 percent of its equity holding in May & Baker Nigeria to Nigerians. The company's name was briefly changed to Embechem Nigeria Limited before reverting back to May & Baker Nigeria Limited. May & Baker Nigeria Limited became a publicly quoted company in 1994 after being listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. The company changed its name to May & Baker Nigeria Plc. In 1997, Joseph Ikemefuna Odumodu became the first indigenous Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of May & Baker Nigeria. In 2002, the foreign partners decided to divest, but they remained technical associates of the company through Aventis SA, France. After the merger of Aventis and Sanofi in 2004, the technical relationship transferred to Sanofi-Aventis. However, in 2005, May & Baker Nigeria renegotiated the relationship to have its own products. Since 2005, May & Baker Nigeria has undergone an aggressive expansion and diversification program. The company established Biovaccines, a local vaccine production subsidiary, in partnership with the Federal Government of Nigeria in 2005. In 2006, May & Baker constructed a food processing factory and a local plant for the production of anti-retroviral drugs in Nigeria. Additionally, a World Health Organization Standard Pharmaceutical production facility was completed and commissioned in 2011.