the company's history and Banting and Macleod earned the Nobel Prize in 1923 for their groundbreaking work. Lilly's other significant achievements included contributions to improved production and research. He devoted hours to developing a straight-line production system for the company's new Building 22, which was completed in 1926 and improved the company's manufacturing processes. As research expanded and the company introduced new products, including the sedative Amytal, the antiseptic Merthiolate, and other drugs such as ephedrine, Lilly strengthened ties with university scientists by establishing research fellowships at American and European universities. Another successful collaboration, this one with researchers at Harvard University and the University of Rochester for drugs to treat anemia, built on the lessons learned from the insulin project and earned the university scientists, George R. Minot, William P. Murphy, and George Whipple, the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1934. Eli Lilly became president of Eli Lilly and Company on January 26, 1932, and remained at its head until 1948. Lilly showed great management skill and concern for the welfare of his employees. During his tenure as president, the company grew to include 6,912 employees and had sales of $115 million in 1948. While the company expanded operations in Indianapolis and overseas, it established a reputation as a good place to work by providing employee assistance, sound wages, maintaining a positive outlook, and desegregating its workforce. As increased governmental regulations challenged the industry, the U.S. Justice Department investigated Eli Lilly and Company and two other pharmaceutical firms for violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act, charging them with fixing insulin prices. Legal counsel advised Lilly to avoid the high costs and negative publicity from an extended lawsuit by pleading nolo contendere, which he did, so the company could move forward. Under Lilly's leadership during World War II, the company supported the war effort by producing blood plasma in conjunction with the American Red Cross. It also manufactured encephalitis vaccine, antitoxin for gas poisoning, and vaccines for influenza and typhus as well as insulin, Merthiolate, and other drugs. Lilly was especially proud of the company's collaboration with the U.S. government and others on large-scale production of penicillin. In the renovated Curtiss-Wright complex on Kentucky Avenue in Indianapolis, Lilly employees were producing more than 250,000 ampules of penicillin per day by the late 1940s. In the postwar years, Lilly remained active in company business as it expanded overseas with the construction of