Ron Wing CBE
Pioneering Pharmacist, Ron Wing, studied as an
apprentice at Bradford Technical College from
1942 to 1947.
Ron’s interest in pharmacy was derived from
personal experience. His childhood had been
blighted by chronic asthma and when he was 13
he almost died from pneumonia, but was saved
by the prescription of a new drug, M&B693.
When his asthma was successfully treated with an
elixir of ephedrine, he became convinced of the
importance of medicine. With his health much
improved he was able to concentrate at school
and became an excellent student.
When he left school in 1942 he hoped to serve
in the Navy but was rejected due to his previous
health problems. His father was a railway fireman
and could not afford to send him to medical
school to train as a doctor so he found a position
as an apprentice pharmacist and studied at
Bradford Technical College. He qualified in 1947
when he was only 20. This was the youngest that
anyone had qualified in Britain and he wasn’t
eligible for his license until he was 21.
He then managed a pharmacy in Doncaster for
8 years before joining Wellcome in 1956. He
began as a sales representative, rising to product
manager 2 years later. He moved to Boots in
1967, where as Marketing Manager he conquered
numerous difficulties to launch ibuprofen. Three
years later he was appointed Managing Director
of Reckitt & Coleman Pharmaceuticals, where he
was instrumental in bringing out important new
treatments for epilepsy.
In 1980 he founded Sanofi UK and also became
a Director of the East Riding Health Authority.
He served as its Chairman from 1996 to 2002.
He held important positions on a number of
organisations: he was Chairman of the Central
Blood Authorities Laboratory from 1988 to 1993;
Chairman of the panel of fellows for the Royal
Pharmaceutical Society from 1987 to 2002 and
also served on the councils of London University’s
School of Pharmacy and Hull University.
Ron was given the freedom of the City of
London in 1986, awarded the CBE in 1985 and
received the honorary fellowship of the Faculty
of Pharmaceutical Physicians in 2002. He died in
2005.
Photograph courtesy of the Pharmaceutical Journal