GlaxoSmithkline is one of those torturous amalgams that spell trouble for headline writers and puzzlement in consumers. Folk memories of Beecham's powders and babyfood nothwitstanding, it is hard for most to put products to the name.

For those who suffer from asthma or eczema, or to veterans of the second World War, the name Glaxo has different resonances. Ventolin, the ubiquitous inhaler and relief of choice for asthma sufferers was a Glaxo innovation as was hydrocortisone, the base treatment for a host of skin disorders.

And Glaxo was at the forefront of penicillin production, the wonder antibiotic that saved scores of lives during the latter days of the war. Its recent success is Zantac, the anti-ulcer drug.

Glaxo, after decades of expansion and mergers is now one of the world's foremost pharmaceutical companies but it wasn't always like this.

Glaxo started life as a dried milk company specialising in baby foods under the control of the Nathan family - its nascent R&D arm just another cog in product enhancement.

The company toddled along quite happily until the war, when it became involved in penicillin research and realised that the future lay in pharmaceuticals, a momentous decision that was to see all other activities eventually discarded and pole position taken in one of the world's most lucrative markets - the business of medicine.

This is well written, exhaustively researched and enjoyable.

comidheach@irish-times.ie