Upjohn
{{Short description|American pharmaceutical manufacturing firm (1886–1995)}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Infobox company
| name = The Upjohn Company
| logo = Upjohn Logo.svg
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| fate = Merged with Pharmacia to form Pharmacia & Upjohn
| successor = Pharmacia & Upjohn
Viatris
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| foundation = {{Start date|1886}}
| industry = Pharmaceutical
| defunct = {{end date and age|1995}}
| location = Portage MI, U.S.
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File:Upjohn's Friable Pills.jpg
The Upjohn Company was an American pharmaceutical manufacturing firm (est. 1886) in Hastings, Michigan, by Dr. William E. Upjohn, an 1875 graduate of the University of Michigan medical school. The company was originally formed to make friable pills, specifically designed to crush easily, and thus be easier for patients to digest. Upjohn initially marketed the pills to doctors by sending them a wooden plank along with a rival’s pill and one of Upjohn’s, with instructions to try to hammer the pills into the plank.{{cite web | archive-date=May 17, 2008 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080517060135/https://www.kpl.gov/collections/LocalHistory/AllAbout/biography/Upjohn.aspx | url=http://www.kpl.gov/collections/LocalHistory/AllAbout/biography/Upjohn.aspx | title=William E. Upjohn: Person of the Century 1853 - 1932 | publisher=Kalamazoo Public Library | date=2002 | accessdate=December 24, 2024 | last=Lohrstorfer | first=Martha | last2=Larson | first2=Catherine | quote=Known by his contemporaries as a dreamer and a tinkerer, Dr. Upjohn saw a need to improve the means of administering medicine. Most medicines of the day were in fluid form, and those in pill form were often hard and insoluble. Patients were left to try to digest the bitter medicine, with no guarantee that it would dissolve in their systems effectively. Dr. Upjohn began experimenting with making better pills in the attic of his home. Eventually he invented his "friable" pill. Friable meant that the pill could easily be crushed to a powder. The pill was patented in 1885, and its reputation quickly spread within the medical community, thanks greatly to Dr. Upjohn's marketing strategy. He sent small pine boards to thousands of physicians along with samples of his rival's hard pills, and his own friable pills. He invited doctors to hammer the pills into the boards to see which one would be the most digestible. This tactic was eventually modified, but for the next 60 years, a thumb reducing an Upjohn pill to powder was used as the trademark symbol of his company, the Upjohn Pill and Granule Company, later more widely known to the world as The Upjohn Company.}}
History
Image:Unicap Upjohn.jpg produced by Upjohn.]]
Upjohn developed a process for the large scale production of cortisone. The oxygen atom group must be in position 11 for this steroid to function. There are, however, no known natural starting materials with an oxo-group in position 11. The only method for preparing cortisone prior to 1952 was a lengthy synthesis, starting from cholic acid isolated from bile. In 1952, two Upjohn biochemists, Dury Peterson and Herb Murray, announced that they had invented a new method by fermenting the steroid progesterone with a common mold of the genus Rhizopus. Over the next several years, a group of chemists headed by John Hogg developed a process for preparing cortisone from the soybean sterol stigmasterol. The microbiological oxygenation invented by Peterson and Murry is a key step in this process.{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/0039-128X(92)90013-Y |title=Steroids, the steroid community, and Upjohn in perspective: A profile of innovation |year=1992 |last1=Hogg |first1=John A. |journal=Steroids |volume=57 |issue=12 |pages=593–616 |pmid=1481225|s2cid=21779154 }}
Subsequently, Upjohn (together with Schering) biochemically converted cortisone into the more potent steroid prednisone via bacterial fermentation.{{Cite web|url=https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/drugInfo.cfm?id=3735|title=DailyMed - DELTASONE- prednisone tablet|website=dailymed.nlm.nih.gov}} In chemical research, the company is known for the development of the Upjohn dihydroxylation by V. VanRheenen, R. C. Kelly, and D. Y. Cha in 1976.{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/S0040-4039(00)78093-2 |title=An improved catalytic OsO4 oxidation of olefins to cis-1,2-glycols using tertiary amine oxides as the oxidant |year=1976 |last1=Vanrheenen |first1=V. |last2=Kelly |first2=R.C. |last3=Cha |first3=D.Y. |journal=Tetrahedron Letters |volume=17 |issue=23 |pages=1973–6}}) Upjohn's best known drugs before its acquisition by Pfizer were Xanax, Halcion, Motrin, Lincocin, and Rogaine.{{citation needed|date=February 2020}}{{when|date=February 2020}}
In 1995, Upjohn merged with Pharmacia AB to form Pharmacia & Upjohn.{{cite web|title=Upjohn Company|url=http://informagen.com/Resource_Informagen/report.php?mrn=112|url-status=unfit|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060507201538/http://informagen.com/Resource_Informagen/report.php?mrn=112|archive-date=May 7, 2006|website=Resource Informagen}} The company was owned by Pfizer from 2002 until 2020.
In 2015, Pfizer resurrected the Upjohn brand name for a division which manufactures and licenses drugs with patents that have expired. {{as of|2019|post=,}} Pfizer planned to divest itself of this business in 2020.{{cite news| title=Pfizer Is Spinning Off Upjohn. What's Left Will Be No Bargain, Analyst Says| url=https://www.barrons.com/articles/pfizer-mylan-upjohn-spinoff-negative-view-stock-51568898534| first=Josh| last=Nathan-Kazis| date=September 19, 2019| newspaper=Barron's| access-date=March 30, 2020}}
In July 2019, Pfizer announced plans to merge Upjohn with Mylan.{{Cite web|title=Viagra and EpiPen drugmakers form a $20-billion-a-year powerhouse|url=https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/29/business/pfizer-mylan-upjohn-merger/index.html|last=Valinsky|first=Jordan|date=29 July 2019|website=CNN|access-date=2020-05-07}} The merger was expected to close in the first half of 2020, was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic,{{Cite web|title=Mylan delays merger with Upjohn due to COVID-19 pandemic|url=https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2020/03/26/mylan-delays-merger-with-upjohn-due-to-covid-19.html|last=Gough|first=Paul|date=26 March 2020|website=Pittsburgh Business Times}} and finally completed in November 2020. The resultant entity was named Viatris.{{Cite web|last=Sabatini|first=Patricia|date=16 November 2020|title=Mylan completes merger with Upjohn to form Viatris|url=https://www.post-gazette.com/business/healthcare-business/2020/11/16/Mylan-merger-Upjohn-Viatris-bresch-coury-Pfizer-cost-cuts-generic-drugs/stories/202011160111|access-date=2020-11-18|website=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|language=en}}
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.upjohn.net Memories of The Upjohn Company]
- {{usurped|1=[https://archive.today/20130129064121/http://www.michmarkers.com/startup.asp?startpage=S0582.htm Upjohn first company location historical marker]}}
{{Pharmaceutical companies of the United States}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:1886 establishments in Michigan
Category:1995 disestablishments in Michigan
Category:1995 mergers and acquisitions
Category:Companies based in Kalamazoo, Michigan
Category:Pharmaceutical companies established in 1886
Category:Pharmaceutical companies disestablished in 1995
Category:Defunct pharmaceutical companies of the United States