The Upjohn Company was an American medicine-making company started in 1886 in Hastings, Michigan, by Dr. William E. Upjohn, who graduated from the University of Michigan medical school in 1875. The company was first created to produce pills that crumble easily, making them simpler for patients to swallow and digest. To introduce their product, Upjohn sent doctors a wooden board along with a pill from a competitor and one of their own, asking them to try hammering the pills into the board.

History

Upjohn created a method to produce cortisone on a large scale. For the steroid to work, an oxygen group must be in position 11. However, no natural materials are known to have an oxygen group in this position. Before 1952, the only way to make cortisone was through a long chemical process starting with cholic acid from bile. In 1952, two Upjohn scientists, Dury Peterson and Herb Murray, discovered a new method by fermenting progesterone with a mold from the Rhizopus genus. Later, a team led by John Hogg developed a way to make cortisone from a compound called stigmasterol found in soybeans. The microbiological oxygenation process created by Peterson and Murray was a key step in this method.

Upjohn, along with Pharmacia, later used bacteria to convert cortisone into a stronger steroid called prednisone. In chemical research, Upjohn is known for a process called the Upjohn dihydroxylation, developed by scientists in 1976. Before being acquired by Pfizer, Upjohn’s most well-known drugs were Xanax, Halcion, Motrin, Lincocin, and Rogaine.

In 1995, Upjohn merged with Pharmacia AB to form Pharmacia & Upjohn. Pfizer owned the company from 2002 until 2020. In 2015, Pfizer revived the Upjohn name for a division that makes and licenses drugs whose patents had expired. By 2019, Pfizer planned to sell this division in 2020.

In July 2019, Pfizer announced plans to merge Upjohn with Mylan. The merger was expected to complete in 2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was finally completed in November 2020, forming a new company named Viatris.