Upjohn (company)
| Upjohn
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | Association of persons |
| founding | 1886 |
| resolution | 1995 |
| Reason for dissolution | Merger with Pharmacia to Pharmacia & Upjohn |
| Seat |
Michigan , United States
|
| Branch | Pharmaceutical Industry |
The Upjohn Company was a pharmaceutical company founded in Kalamazoo in 1886 by William E. Upjohn . He graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1875 . The company was originally founded to manufacture friable pills , which were developed for easier digestion. They could be "crushed into a powder under the thumb", which was a strong marketing argument at the time.
In 1995 Upjohn merged with Pharmacia to form Pharmacia & Upjohn , which is now owned by Pfizer .
history
Upjohn develops a process for the large-scale production of cortisone . The steroid absolutely requires oxygen in the eleventh position for its biological activity. However, there are no natural starting materials that have this configuration. Until 1952, the only starting point for the preparation of the substance was a lengthy synthesis in which cholic acid was first isolated from the bile. In 1952, the two biochemists Dury Peterson and Herb Murray, who worked for Upjohn, announced that they were able to insert the required oxygen atom by fermenting the steroid progesterone using a common mold of the genus Rhizopus . In the years that followed, a group of chemists under John Hogg developed a process for extracting cortisone from the sterol stigmasterin in soybeans. The microbiological oxygenation is of particular importance here.
Later, Upjohn and Schering AG succeeded in biochemically converting cortisone into the more active steroid prednisone by means of bacterial fermentation . The company is known in chemical research for the development of Upjohn's dihydroxylation by V. VanRheenen, RC Kelly and DY Cha in 1976. The company's best-known drugs prior to being bought by Pfizer were Xanax , Halcion , Motrin , Lincocin, and Rogaine .
In 2015, Pfizer reactivated Upjohn as the name of a division that manufactures medicines whose patents have expired. In 2019, the company planned to part ways with this business in 2020.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Martha Lohrstorfer, Catherine Larson: William E. Upjohn: Person of the Century from 1853 to 1932 . 2002. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007.
- ^ Upjohn Company . Archived from the original on May 7, 2006.
- ^ John A. Hogg: Steroids, the steroid community, and Upjohn in perspective: A profile of innovation . In: Steroids . 57, No. 12, 1992, pp. 593-616. doi : 10.1016 / 0039-128X (92) 90013-Y . PMID 1481225 .
- ^ Prednisone Half Life Is A Good Medicine . Archived from the original on January 11, 2012.
- ↑ DailyMed - DELTASONE- prednisone tablet .
- ↑ V. Vanrheenen, RC Kelly, DY Cha: An improved catalytic OsO 4 oxidation of olefin to cis-1,2-glycol using tertiary amine oxides as the oxidant . In: Tetrahedron Letters . 17, No. 23, 1976, pp. 1973-6. doi : 10.1016 / S0040-4039 (00) 78093-2 .
- ↑ Josh Nathan-Kazis: Pfizer Is Spinning Off Upjohn. What's Left Will Be No Bargain, Analyst Says . In: Barron's , September 19, 2019. Retrieved March 30, 2020.
Web links
- Memories of The Upjohn Company
- Upjohn at MichMarkers.com