In 1947 Charles Worthington founded the Worthington Biochemical Company in Freehold, New Jersey for the express purpose of preparing enzymes for the growing biochemical research community.

The business was incorporated in 1951 to raise funds for expanding the staff. By 1959 the original facility had been out-grown so a new building was purchased in Freehold. Around this time a new field which relied heavily on enzymes had begun developing: clinical diagnostics. Worthington was still virtually alone as a manufacturer of high-purity enzymes and was able to quickly enter this new field.

The demand for kits to do blood analysis work exploded. By the late 1960's Worthington had already outgrown the second plant, and a new facility was built in Freehold to replace it. New investors were also brought into the company to help finance the sudden growth. A public stock offering was made in 1972, and the plant was expanded further. By 1976 Worthington had sales of $18 million a year, employed around 300 people, and had sales offices in Europe, Canada, and California. The research staff in Freehold was already developing products for areas of biochemical research just beginning to evolve: immunology and molecular biology. (Molecular biology is that field of research involved with genetics and DNA studies.)

Worthington had remained the primary source of all high-purity enzymes in the world. Its products were consistently excellent, and the needs and concerns of the research community were the focal point of the company. Worthington pricing was based on cost rather than demand so competition remained minimal. Because of the complex nature of enzymes, no synthetic substances had replaced them as tools for biochemical and medical research, and the new areas of research with which Worthington was involved were equally promising for the same reason.

Enzymes are still the major product of Worthington. Technically speaking, Worthington does not actually make enzymes: they extract them from various animal and plant tissues and various microbial sources such as bacteria, fungi, and molds. A starting material for a particular enzyme is selected according to the prevalence of that enzyme in the material. Some of the animal tissues used at Worthington include beef pancreas, electric eel tissue, hog kidney, cow eyes, horse liver, rabbit muscle, beef liver, pig heart, horse blood, and calf intestine. Various proteins are also extracted from horseradish roots, sweet potatoes, almonds, and pokeweed. Some products are isolated from the bacteria E. coli, several species of Clostridia, and various other bacteria. Yeast, mushrooms, whole milk, and eggs are also used.

The most important feature of each of their products is that it functions just as it would in the living cells from which it was extracted. The size and complexity of protein molecules make this difficult, and Worthington's ability to consistently produce enzymes and other proteins in their natural condition is the key to the company's continuing success.

Worthington has re-established its research and development program in two areas: classic enzymology and molecular biology. While they no longer have the necessary size to support a large in-house R&D staff, Worthington work jointly with various researchers at universities and institutes in developing new products. Current research has moved away from studying enzymes themselves, but the demand for enzymes in the research lab has not changed.

The newest area of research is molecular biology. The quality of Worthington products and our pricing policy has once again placed us in a position where other vendors are buying more of the products they sell from Worthington.

Products list:
Biochemicals, Enzyme