On Oct. 11, 1938, the Squibb Biological Laboratories, New Brunswick, New Jersey, established a new laboratory for the study of filterable virus diseases. Dr. Raymond C. Parker, biologist of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, was appointed head of the laboratory, which operated as a unit of the Biological Division of E. R. Squibb and Sons.

The new building was a continuation of a programme of expansion which began in 1938 with the dedication to pure science of the 750,000-dollar laboratory of the Squibb Institute for Medical Research. Among the common diseases caused by filterable viruses are smallpox, rabies, equine encephalitis, measles, chicken pox, poliomyelitis, and the common cold. No specific product for the prevention of four of these diseases—the common cold, poliomyelitis, chicken pox, and measles—was not yet available at that time.

The company moved away from pharmaceutical business and devoted itself entirely to its specialties: Sal Hepatica and Ipana, its two big winners, and a dozen or so assorted toiletries, antiseptics and cough syrups.