Tocris History

Working with scientists for over 25 years

Tocris Bioscience is the trading name for the companies in the Tocris Cookson Group, consisting of Tocris Cookson Ltd., which is privately held and headquartered in Bristol, UK and its wholly owned US subsidiary Tocris Cookson Inc., located in St. Louis MO, USA. There are approximately 50 employees in the Group worldwide, operating out of two sites in the UK and one in the US.

Tocris Cookson Ltd was incorporated in the UK in July 1994 as the result of a merger between Tocris Neuramin Ltd of Bristol, UK and Cookson Chemicals Ltd of Southampton, UK.

Key Dates

1982Tocris Neuramin founded by Professor Jeff Watkins
1985Cookson Chemicals founded by Professor Richard Cookson
1994Merger of the two creates Tocris Cookson
1995US subsidiary Tocris Cookson Inc., opens
2002Tocris receives Queen's Award for Enterprise
2005Tocris Bioscience brand launched
2006Founders retire – MBO
2008Target Detective Launched
The Queen's Awards for Enterprise

Tocris Neuramin was founded in 1982 by Professor Jeff Watkins of the Pharmacology Department in the University of Bristol, UK. Watkins' research interests focused on glutamate receptors and their involvement in the synaptic transmission processes of the mammalian central nervous system. Tocris Neuramin was founded to make standard research tools and novel probes in this field easily available to researchers, at least partly in response to the number of requests for samples Watkins was receiving at the time.[1]

Cookson Chemicals was formed in 1985 by Richard Cookson, Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Southampton, UK. Cookson Chemicals provided custom synthesis services as well as a range of neurochemicals to the pharmaceutical and allied industries.

In 2002 Tocris Cookson was awarded The Queen's Awards for Enterprise in the International Trade category and later in 2006 received nominations in five categories of the prestigious Life Science Industry Awards.

In October 2005 Tocris announced the opening of new laboratories at the IO Centre, Bristol (UK). At this time, to reflect the increasingly biological nature of our products and customer base our trading name changed to Tocris Bioscience.

In January 2007 Tocris Bioscience announced the successful completion of a $40 million management buy out (MBO) deal, providing Tocris with the ability and freedom to further develop its existing business areas and to offer additional products and services to its international client base.

Today, Tocris Bioscience has customers in all of the world's major pharmaceutical companies, universities and research institutes, and provides the highest performing and most innovative range of research reagents available. Our range of over 3,000 products consists of small molecules, peptides and antibodies and is a unique collection of novel and exclusive tools for laboratory research.

[1] Watkins E, Jane D (2006). "The Glutamate Story". British Journal of Pharmacology 147: S100-S108. PMID 16402093.

[top]

Buy Now / Print Quote

Find multiple products by catalog number


divider line

New 2009-10 Catalog!

2009-2010 Tocris Catalog

Tocris' new catalog is out now. Packed-full of cutting edge products, request a copy or view PDF today.

request
divider line

Special Offer

25% discount* on selected Tocris products:

*Terms and Conditions

To view more special offers....

submit