Founder Profile
William McLaren Bristol
Last reviewed: November 2026 · By Swet Parvadiya
Who is William McLaren Bristol?
William McLaren Bristol is a founder of Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, which was founded in 1887 with Edward Robinson Squibb and John Ripley Myers.
- Company founded
- Bristol-Myers Squibb Company
- Founded
- 1887
- Co-founders
- Edward Robinson Squibb and John Ripley Myers
Background
William McLaren Bristol was a Hamilton College graduate who went into business with his classmate John Ripley Myers rather than into science.
Founding Story
In 1887 Bristol and Myers bought the Clinton Pharmaceutical Company of Clinton, New York, reportedly for about $5,000. The business was renamed Bristol, Myers and Company in May 1898, and after Myers died in 1899 Bristol renamed it the Bristol-Myers Corporation. Its first nationally recognized product was Sal Hepatica, a laxative mineral salt sold from the 1890s, followed by Ipana toothpaste in 1901. Under the Bristol family the company grew into a consumer and pharmaceutical group that later added Clairol and Drackett and entered antibiotics after World War II, before merging with Squibb in 1989.
William McLaren Bristol was born in 1860.