Yrjö Wilhelm Jalander (19 May 1874 Helsinki - 6 July 1955 Helsinki) was a Finnish pharmacist and the founder of Oy Merijal Ab and the pharmaceutical factory Leon.[1]
Jalander's parents were Fredrik Wilhelm Jalander and Thecla Alexandra Forsell (1850–1910). His older brother was Major General, Governor and Minister Bruno Jalander.[2][3]
Jalander graduated as a pharmacist from the University of Helsinki in 1900, and completed a degree in chemistry in Leipzig in 1904. From 1904 to 1908, Jalander ran the Åström Technochemical Plant in Turku, which he had founded together with the manufacturer Edvard Åström. Jalander operated a pharmacy in Ruukki from 1900 to 1903, in Karstula from 1908 to 1910 and in Mariehamn from 1911 to 1915. He then had a pharmacy in Oulu from 1914 and in Helsinki from 1918. Jalander bought Korkeavuorenkatu and Ratakatu corner plot in Helsinki on which he built a red-brick residential house completed in 1920, known as the house of Jalander.[4][5] In this house, Jalander opened the Lion Pharmacy in 1921, which operated in the same location until 2007. Jalander also founded Oy Merijal Ab's technochemical plant in Oulu in 1915 and the pharmaceutical plant in Leon in Helsinki in 1922.[6]
In the 1930s, Jalander was involved in Publishing Company Vasara, which published National Socialist and anti-Semitic literature. He was also the editor-in-chief of the Nazi Siniristi magazine, published by Vasara and contributed to Finno-Swedish Nazi newspaper För Frihet och Rätt.[7]
In 1934, Jalander developed a tar-flavored cough lozenge Terva Leijona, which he named after the Leijona pharmacies he owned in Helsinki and Oulu. These pastilles became popular and are sold to this day.