Burroughs Wellcome Fund

The Burroughs Wellcome Fund (BWF) is a private, independent biomedical research foundation based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. BWF was founded in 1955 as the corporate foundation of the Burroughs Wellcome Co., the U.S. branch of the Wellcome pharmaceutical enterprise, based in the United Kingdom. In 1993, a $400 million gift from the Wellcome Trust enabled BWF to become fully independent from the company, which was acquired by Glaxo in 1995 and is now known by the moniker GlaxoSmithKline.

BWF is one of the most significant funders of biomedical research. Its overall goal is to help scientists early in their careers develop as independent investigators, and to advance fields in the basic medical sciences that are undervalued or in need of particular encouragement. Additionally, BWF has invested $3 million annually to support hands-on science education programs for primary and secondary students in North Carolina. According to its annual report, BWF had $720 million in total assets and made $28.4 million in grants in 2013.

The Burroughs Wellcome Fund, founded in the United States in 1955, has roots in 19th-century England, where in 1880 two American pharmacists, Silas Burroughs and Henry Wellcome, formed Burroughs Wellcome and Co. to develop “compressed” medicines or pills for delivering standardized, reproducible dosages that could be safer and more effective than the common potions and powders of the day. After Silas Burroughs died in 1895, Henry Wellcome expanded the company into several continents and numerous countries, including the United States.

In 1924, Wellcome consolidated all of the company’s holdings under a corporate umbrella that he named The Wellcome Foundation Ltd. In recognition of his contributions to international science, Wellcome received a knighthood in 1932 by King George V. When Sir Henry died in 1936, his will called for vesting all of the corporate shares in a new entity – the Wellcome Trust. The Trust’s charge was to devote all of its income to research in medicine and allied science and to the maintenance of research museums and libraries dedicated to these fields. Over the decades, the Trust has supported a vast array of biomedical research in the United Kingdom and other selected regions of the globe, becoming the world’s largest charitable foundation devoted exclusively to the biomedical sciences.

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