About us
Founded in 1815, Macfarlan Smith Limited is one of the world's oldest pharmaceutical companies and has almost 200 years of expertise in natural product extractions and chemical synthesis, specialising in opiate narcotics such as Codeine and Morphine. Over the past 2 centuries, we have collaborated with Lord Lister, supplied Chloroform to Sir James Simpson and produced the first liquid essence of coffee.
Today, we are the world's leading manufacturer of opiate alkaloids and together with our sister companies, Johnson Matthey Pharmaceutical Materials (NJ, USA) and Johnson Matthey Pharma Services (MA, USA), we are able to provide the full spectrum of development, from drug discovery through to bulk production.
The Fine Chemicals Divisions also provides Research Chemicals. The Research Chemicals business is a globally integrated catalogue based supplier of speciality inorganic and organic chemicals. It operates under the Alfa Aesar brand name and is based in the UK, USA, Germany, China and India
