Mercury Drug

Mercury Drug began from a bottle of sulfathiazole, which was considered a wonder drug after the war. It was 1945, and Manila had just been liberated from the Japanese occupation. The city was devastated and medicines were scarce and expensive. Mariano Que, who worked in a drugstore before the war, saw the need. He went to Bambang St., Manila, where the action was then, on advice of a friend, and saw a peddler selling sulfathiazole there. He recognized it as the ‘wonder drug’ believed to cure all diseases. Seeing a ‘W’ on the tablets, he knew it was the genuine sulfathiazole. He tried to buy a bottle for P100, the only money in his pocket. The peddler wanted more but as Mariano Que had only P100, the peddler agreed to sell to him. He then sold these tablets by piece or “tingi-tingi” to make the medicine more affordable. With some profit, he was able to purchase other medicines and eventually a pushcart, which he loaded with his growing supply of pharmaceutical goods.