Johnson & Johnson

Overseas expansion begins with the establishment of Johnson & Johnson Limited in the United Kingdom. Through a significant price decrease, Tylenol is transformed into a mass-marketed product. One of America's most admired companies, Johnson & Johnson (J & J) is one of the largest healthcare firms in the world and one of the most diversified. Its operations are organized into three business segments: pharmaceutical, which generates 39 percent of revenues and 61 percent of operating income; professional, which accounts for 36 percent of revenues and 27 percent of operating income; and consumer, which contributes 25 percent of revenues and 12 percent of operating income. J & J's pharmaceutical products--which are sold under such brands as Janssen Pharmaceutica, Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, and Centocor--include drugs for family planning, mental illness, gastroenterology, oncology, pain management, and other areas. The professional segment includes surgical and patient care equipment and devices, diagnostic products, joint replacements, and disposable contact lenses. The company's well-known line of consumer products includes the Johnson's baby care line, the Neutrogena skin and hair care line, Tylenol and Motrin pain relievers, o.b. and Stayfree feminine hygiene products, the Reach oral care line, Band-Aid brand adhesive bandages, Imodium A-D diarrhea treatment, Mylanta gastrointestinal products, and Pepcid AC acid controller. J & J generates about half of its revenues outside the United States, through its network of 190 operating companies in 51 countries and its marketing organization that sells in more than 175 countries. J & J traces its beginnings to the late 1800s, when Joseph Lister's discovery that airborne germs were a source of infection in operating rooms sparked the imagination of Robert Wood Johnson, a New England druggist. Johnson joined forces with his brothers, James Wood Johnson and Edward Mead Johnson, and the three began producing dressings in 1886 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, with 14 employees in a former wallpaper factory. Because Lister's recommended method for sterilization--spraying the operating room with carbolic acid--was found to be impractical and cumbersome, Johnson & Johnson (which was incorporated in 1887) found a ready market for its product. The percentage of deaths due to infections following surgery was quite high and hospitals were eager to find a solution. J & J's first product was an improved medicinal plaster that used medical compounds mixed in an adhesive. Soon afterward, the company designed a soft, absorbent cotton-and-gauze dressing, and Robert Wood Johnson's dream was realized. Mass production began and the dressings were shipped in large quantities throughout the United States. By 1890 J & J was using dry heat to sterilize the bandages. From the beginning, J & J was an advocate of antiseptic surgical procedures. In 1888 the company published Modern Methods of Antiseptic Wound Treatment, a text used by physicians for many years. That same year, Fred B. Kilmer began his 45-year stint as scientific director at J & J. A well-known science and medicine writer, and father of poet Joyce Kilmer, Fred Kilmer wrote influential articles for J & J's publications, including Red Cross Notes and the Red Cross Messenger. Physicians, pharmacists, and the general public were encouraged to use antiseptic methods, and J & J products were promoted. R.W. Johnson died in 1910 and was succeeded as chairman by his brother James. It was then that the company began to grow quickly. To guarantee a source for the company's increasing need for textile materials, J & J purchased Chicopee Manufacturing Corporation in 1916. The first international affiliate was founded in Canada in 1919. A few years later, in 1923, Robert W. Johnson's sons, Robert Johnson and J. Seward Johnson, took an around-the-world tour that convinced them that J & J should expand overseas, and Johnson & Johnson Limited was established