The History of L.D. Collins

Laurence Collins was born Aug 21 1931 in Stamford Hill, London. His family moved to Cockfosters, Barnet in 1937.

Laurence studied at Bedford School until 1949, gaining School Certificate aged 16 and Higher School Certificate in Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Subsidiary French, before attending Chelsea School of Pharmacy, passing his qualifying exams in 1953.

One year’s practical training followed with a small retail group named Lewis and Burroughs, in various of their shops. In July 1954 Laurence registered as a pharmacist. Following this he did approximately one year’s locum work, mainly with the Boots Company and the London Co-op, to gain experience. Following this, Laurence worked as a manager at J R Armour in Borehamwood, living in a flat over the shop.

In 1957 Laurence was managing Parry Jones & Co. Pharmacy in Barnet. In 1959 the Collinses purchased a house in Hankins Lane, Mill Hill, along with T M O’Neill’s Pharmacy in Matthias Road, Stoke Newington. After a few months the pharmacy’s name was changed from “O’Neill” to “L. D. Collins”. The business grew rapidly.

In 1970 the pharmacy was compulsorily purchased by the local council in a redevelopment plan. In the same year Laurence formed L.D. Collins & Company Ltd, which purchased a thriving pharmacy from Alan Locatell in Church Street, Stoke Newington. Opposite the pharmacy was a GP named Dr. Michael Dalton. His mother was Dr. Katherina Dalton, who practised in Wood Green and also in Harley Street. Her main interest was treatment of Premenstrual Syndrome, and she procured Progesterone Suppositories from Locatell’s for treatment of that condition. L.D Colllins and Co. obtained the suppositories by special order from Medo Chemicals of North London and McCarthy’s of Romford.

The Company also manufactured the suppositories using moulds which had been unused for years. Dr. Dalton began issuing prescriptions to her patients, some sending their prescriptions to the L.D. Collins and Co. for supply in the post, others taking their scripts to their local pharmacy which would, in turn, order from L.D. Collins.

The company began to receive orders from wholesalers. To comply with the Medicines Act of 1968 the company applied for and obtained a Product Licence of Right for the suppositories. The company sold Locatell in 1974 to Safedale Ltd, but retained the Cyclogest portion of the business, trading from an office in Barnet. In June 1976 it received a full Product Licence for 200mg and 400mg suppositories using the registered trade name Cyclogest, by which time the suppositories were manufactured by Richard Daniels of Derby.

The Company switched to Cox Pharmaceutical of Brighton, who later moved manufacture to Rustington Sussex and later again to Barnstaple, Devon. An agreement was signed in 1984 whereby Cox made and distributed under licence from L.D. Collins and paid royalty in return. In 1982 the Collinses moved to a house in Hendon Wood Lane, which also served as the company’s office. Ownership of Cox moved first to Hoechst and then to Alpharma, who were later bought by the Icelandic Company Actavis.

In 2016 The Company expanded its range of partners for the purposes of selling Cyclogest in the Middle East.