science

Upjohn

Upjohn is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Upjohn rather than just read about it. In short: The Upjohn Company was an American pharmaceutical manufacturing firm (est. 1886) in Hastings, Michigan, by Dr. William E.

Key takeaways

Upjohn belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Upjohn to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Upjohn from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

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.

History

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. Subsequently, Upjohn (together with Pharmacia) biochemically converted cortisone into the more potent steroid prednisone via bacterial fermentation. 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. Upjohn's best known drugs before its acquisition by Pfizer were Xanax, Halcion, Motrin, Lincocin, and Rogaine. In 1995, Upjohn merged with Pharmacia AB to form Pharmacia & Upjohn. 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, Pfizer planned to divest itself of this business in 2020. In July 2019, Pfizer announced plans to merge Upjohn with Mylan. The merger was expected to close in the first half of 2020, was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and finally completed in November 2020. The resultant entity was named Viatris.

See also W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research Upjohn Co. v. United States (449 U.S. 383) (1981)

References

Further reading Carlisle, Robert D B (1987). A Century of Caring: The Upjohn Story. Elmsford, New York: The Benjamin Company. ISBN 0-87502-191-3.

External links

Memories of The Upjohn Company Upjohn first company location historical marker

Illustrations

Logo of Upjohn Pill & Granule, later The Upjohn Company

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Upjohn

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Upjohn claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Upjohn before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Upjohn ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Upjohn

In research: Upjohn appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Upjohn in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Upjohn is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1886 establishments in Michigan, 1995 disestablishments in Michigan, 1995 mergers and acquisitions, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Upjohn outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Upjohn in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Upjohn means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Upjohn out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Upjohn in simple terms?

The Upjohn Company was an American pharmaceutical manufacturing firm (est. 1886) in Hastings, Michigan, by Dr. William E.

Why does Upjohn matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Upjohn?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Upjohn.