Uploaded July 2018 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
S. E. Massengill Company was a pharmaceutical company started in 1898. It was founded by Samuel Evans Massengill, who graduated from the University of Nashville Medical School, but decided to manufacture drugs rather than practice medicine himself.[1] By 1937, it employed more than 200 people in Bristol, Tennessee, including six graduate pharmaceutical chemists.
The company was responsible for the elixir sulfanilamide disaster of 1937, described as one of the most consequential mass poisonings of the 20th century.[2] In that year, the company introduced a new product, Elixir Sulfanilamide, which used toxic diethylene glycol as a solvent, leading to the deaths of at least 100 people in 15 states. The company claimed it was unaware diethylene glycol was toxic, although at least 2 previous studies found it to be so. S.E. Massengill placed the product on the market with no safety testing, only appearance, fragrance, and taste tests. The resulting scandal led to the passage of the 1938 Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.[1]
S. E. Massengill Company was a pharmaceutical company started in 1898. It was founded by Samuel Evans Massengill, who graduated from the University of Nashville Medical School, but decided to manufacture drugs rather than practice medicine himself.[1] By 1937, it employed more than 200 people in Bristol, Tennessee, including six graduate pharmaceutical chemists.
The company was responsible for the elixir sulfanilamide disaster of 1937, described as one of the most consequential mass poisonings of the 20th century.[2] In that year, the company introduced a new product, Elixir Sulfanilamide, which used toxic diethylene glycol as a solvent, leading to the deaths of at least 100 people in 15 states. The company claimed it was unaware diethylene glycol was toxic, although at least 2 previous studies found it to be so. S.E. Massengill placed the product on the market with no safety testing, only appearance, fragrance, and taste tests. The resulting scandal led to the passage of the 1938 Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.[1]
