Louis Lloyd Winter
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Louis Lloyd Winter (March 17, 1924 – November 5, 1965) was a Canadian entrepreneur and one of the pioneers of Canada's generic pharmaceutical industry. He was born on
St. Patrick's Day Saint Patrick's Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick (), is a religious and cultural holiday held on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick (), the foremost patron saint of Ireland. Saint Patrick's Day was made an official Chri ...
in Toronto, Ontario. By the time of his sudden death in 1965, he had built Empire Laboratories into the largest pharmaceutical business in Canada.


Winter Laboratories

Louis Winter was the youngest of six children. He attended
Jarvis Collegiate Institute Jarvis Collegiate Institute is a high school in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is named after Jarvis Street where it is located. It is a part of the Toronto District School Board (TDSB). Prior to 1998, it was within the Toronto Board of Education ...
in Toronto where he made the honour roll. He was accepted into the biochemistry program at the
University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...
, and graduated with a master's degree in the subject. In 1948 he borrowed $10,000 from his father Abraham, and opened his first venture, Winter Laboratories. The business was based in the family's garage processing blood work and pregnancy tests for local pharmacies, doctors' offices and medical clinics. With just his school mate, Toby Johansen, to handle initial sales, the company quickly outgrew its space and moved into a house near the University of Toronto's main campus. The business continued to expand; Winter Laboratories leased the basement of the Mothercraft Building on
Bloor Street Bloor Street is an east–west arterial road in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Bloor Street runs from the Prince Edward Viaduct, which spans the Don River (Ontario), Don River Valley, westward into Mississauga where it ends at Central Parkway. East ...
, where
Rochdale College Rochdale College was an experiment in student-run alternative education and housing cooperative, co-operative living in Toronto, Canada from 1968 to 1975. It provided space for 840 residents in a co-operative living space. It was also an inform ...
was built in 1968. Louis Winter recognized that brand name pharmaceutical drugs and popular over-the-counter medications were expensive, and that many consumers were having a difficult time purchasing their required prescriptions. He knew that many of these products could be synthesized or purchased in bulk and then manufactured or packaged into their required dosage forms for a fraction of their retail cost. He investigated this prospect further with the Canadian government authorities, and he discovered from
Industry Canada Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED; ; )''Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada'' is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of Industry (). is a department of the G ...
, their Patent Office, and the government's Health Protection Branch, that he could establish a pharmaceutical manufacturing business providing that he adhered to their strict plant conditions and production standards. Before officially starting his own generic pharmaceutical company, on July 20, 1955, Louis Winter incorporated Anchor Serum Company of Canada Limited, after negotiating the exclusive Canadian rights to manufacture the product line of Anchor Serum Company of St. Louis, MO. Anchor Serum primarily specialized in supplying pharmaceuticals to veterinarians. As his manufacturing business expanded, Winter then purchased a four-story industrial building at 77 Florence Street, the former candy manufacturing facility of Jenny Lynn Chocolates, and on August 21, 1959, he incorporated Empire Laboratories Limited.


Empire Laboratories

Empire Laboratories became the first Canadian pharmaceutical company that was permitted to keep its pill and product packaging exactly like its
brand name A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...
counterparts, to prevent consumers from becoming confused when purchasing its lower cost
generic medication A generic drug is a pharmaceutical drug that contains the same chemical substance as a drug that was originally protected by chemical patents. Generic drugs are allowed for sale after the patents on the original drugs expire. Because the active ch ...
alternatives, providing that Empire placed its recognizable "E" trademark identity directly on all of its products (Parke, Davis & Co. v. Empire Laboratories Ltd.,
964 Year 964 ( CMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. Events Byzantine Empire * Arab–Byzantine War: Emperor Nikephoros II continues the reconquest of south-eastern Anatolia (modern Turkey). He recaptures Cyp ...
S.C.R. 351). This landmark
Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
case was instrumental in the development of Canada's
generic drug A generic drug is a pharmaceutical drug that contains the same chemical substance as a drug that was originally protected by chemical patents. Generic drugs are allowed for sale after the patents on the original drugs expire. Because the active ch ...
industry. Louis Winter soon had to expand his operations and purchased a larger five-story building from the Reichmann family, the former Planter's Peanut factory at 301 Lansdowne Avenue, just two blocks from Empire's current base on Florence Street, and he added additional production, including a synthesis laboratory on the top floor for the manufacturing of
saccharine Saccharin, also called saccharine, benzosulfimide, or E954, or used in saccharin sodium or saccharin calcium forms, is a non-nutritive artificial sweetener. Saccharin is a sultam that is about 500 times sweeter than sucrose, but has a bitter or me ...
, the low-calorie sweetener. Winter also purchased a printing facility which he renamed Professional Printing Services Limited from the Mount family in 1963 that was originally located at 1389 Weston Road, Toronto, and Walter and Peter Mount became Empire employees. Empire Laboratories could then provide all its independent pharmacies from coast to coast with customized prescription delivery bags, point-of-purchase displays, posters, and signage as a loyalty incentive, in an era prior to the dominance of national chain drug stores. Empire also provided medical practitioners with complimentary stationery and prescription pads. To offset these marketing costs, Empire's printing division also retained dedicated print brokers and a couple of sales representatives to ensure that the division did not operate at a loss, and it processed all of the company's product labels and plant packaging. The Empire pharmaceutical operation became diversified and expanded, and it became one of Canada's largest pharmaceutical companies with over 100 products in its 1964 product catalog. Empire was the first Canadian firm to license and manufacture popular medications like
Valium Diazepam, sold under the brand name Valium among others, is a medicine of the benzodiazepine family that acts as an anxiolytic. It is used to treat a range of conditions, including anxiety, seizures, alcohol withdrawal syndrome, muscle spas ...
(
diazepam Diazepam, sold under the brand name Valium among others, is a medicine of the benzodiazepine family that acts as an anxiolytic. It is used to treat a range of conditions, including anxiety disorder, anxiety, seizures, alcohol withdrawal syndr ...
), Orinase (
tolbutamide Tolbutamide is a first-generation potassium channel blocker, sulfonylurea oral hypoglycemic medication. This drug may be used in the management of type 2 diabetes if diet alone is not effective. Tolbutamide stimulates the secretion of insulin ...
) and Tetracyn (
tetracycline Tetracycline, sold under various brand names, is an antibiotic in the tetracyclines family of medications, used to treat a number of infections, including acne, cholera, brucellosis, plague, malaria, and syphilis. It is available in oral an ...
). The United States market was becoming a greater focus, and the U.S. military became a client, and a special manufacturing facility was being built in Puerto Rico under PRIDCO (
Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company The Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company (PRIDCO) — (or simply ''Fomento'')— is a government-owned corporation of Puerto Rico authorized and empowered to attract private capital to Puerto Rico to establish trade, cooperatives, ...
) to ship products tariff free to the US Mainland. Lou Winter also invested in Vanguard Medical Supplies, the first Canadian mail-order based pharmaceutical business with Israel Kerzner and Murray Rubin, to service rural regions via catalog mail order, and Professional Printing Services handled all of the catalog production.


Death

At age 41, Louis Winter died on November 5, 1965, at St. Joseph's Hospital in Toronto, just 17 days prior to his wife Beverley's death. Beverly had previously been hospitalized at the same facility having been diagnosed with terminal leukemia. The couple left four children under the age of seven: Paul born on December 16, 1958; Jeffrey born on May 23, 1960; Kerry born June 3, 1961; and Dana born on June 21, 1962.


Sale of Empire Laboratories

Bernard (Barry) Sherman, who had lost his father on November 17, 1952, at age nine, had worked for his Uncle Lou at Empire Laboratories during his final high-school years and throughout his first three years of college while attending the University of Toronto. Upon the completion of his PhD in astrophysics at M.I.T. in 1967, Barry Sherman with his high-school friend, Joel Ulster, purchased the Empire Group of Companies on August 23, 1967. The Executor, Royal Trust, now a division of
Royal Bank of Canada Royal Bank of Canada (RBC; ) is a Canadian multinational Financial institution, financial services company and the Big Five (banks), largest bank in Canada by market capitalization. The bank serves over 20 million clients and has more than ...
(RBC), processed this transaction on behalf of the infant beneficiaries of Beverley and Louis Winter. Barry Sherman would eventually launch
Apotex Inc. Apotex Inc. is a Canadian pharmaceutical corporation. Founded in 1974 by Barry Sherman, the company is the largest producer of generic drugs in Canada, with annual sales exceeding . By 2023, Apotex employed close to 8,000 people as Canada's larges ...
in 1974. To facilitate the corporate acquisition, Barry and Joel Ulster (Sherman and Ulster Limited) offered five-percent equity options to each of the four children and a fifteen-year royalty on four of its patented products
Globe and Mail, November 24, 2007


concerning the purchase of the corporate assets and brands from the Winter children's estate, as Sherman and his partner never paid the royalties nor provided the promised equity in the businesses. In September 2017, an Ontario Superior Court justice ruled against the cousins saying the case was "wishful thinking, and beyond fanciful." At the time of the judgement, a lawyer for the cousins said they would appeal, though no appeal occurred, and Sherman died a few months later under unknown circumstances.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Winter, Louis 1924 births 1965 deaths Businesspeople from Toronto University of Toronto alumni Canadian Jews