Eli Lilly and Company is a major insulin manufacturer, located in Indianapolis, Indiana in the United States. The company was founded in 1876 by a pharmaceutical chemist, Colonel Eli Lilly, as a tiny laboratory in Indianapolis. In 1919, his heir Joseph Lilly hired biochemist George Henry Alexander Clowes as director of biochemical research. Clowes' negotiations with researchers who developed insulin at the University of Toronto helped launched the first successful large-scale production of insulin in 1923. The success of insulin enabled the company to attract well-respected scientists and, with them, make more medical advances.