Dissolvable Pills: An Important Invention by Upjohn

The Upjohn Company was a major name in the pharmaceutical business for many years. Its founder, Dr. W.E. Upjohn, invented the dissolvable pill at a time when liquid and powder measurements were inexact. The “friable” pill was a huge step forward in medicine. For the first time, doctors could provide a patient with an accurately-dosed amount of medicine that would dissolve as it went through the body.

For more than 40 years, Dr. Upjohn led the family business. But later on, he dedicated himself to “the most important thing I ever did in my life:” He found ways to help people during the economic depression.

His contributions to the pharmaceutical field changed the face of medicine, and he is still well-remembered for the many ways he helped people in his hometown of Kalamazoo, Michigan.

William Upjohn’s Early Life

William Upjohn was one of 12 children born to parents in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The family lived on a farm, and his father, Dr. Uriah Upjohn, took care of local patients. The children all had farm chores.

William (known as W.E.) was always looking for ways to simplify his tasks. Among his accomplishments were a feed cutter, a cultivator, and a knot-tyer for hay binding machines. This gave him a head start in business as W.E. patented the knot-tyer. Patent rights were purchased by a local company for $1500.

Upjohn also thought riding in buggies was bumpier than necessary, and he created a shock-absorber that could be mounted underneath a carriage to smooth the ride. His experience inventing items for the home and farm undoubtedly paid off when he went into medicine.

After he finished high school, W.E. and several siblings wanted to attend medical school. (In the late 19^th century, medical school was a two-year program.) William Upjohn graduated from the University of Michigan in 1875. He joined his uncle’s medical practice in the rural community of Hastings, Michigan.

Early Medicines

The state of medicine in the late 1800s was highly experimental. There were very few proven “cures,” and there was no regulation. The packaging on patent medicines could over-promise and generally under-deliver.

“Medicine men” still traveled the country explaining why their elixir worked.  However, the content of most mixtures was water, sugar, and alcohol. Some of the medicines replaced alcohol with opium. When alcohol or opium were present, people usually felt the medicine was effective.

But medical science was progressing. During the Civil War the medical community had access to chloroform and ether to ease pain during surgery. The use of both of these chemical mixtures were introduced in the earlier part of the 19^th century.

Other medicines of the day included mercury and arsenic. They were highly toxic, but if used carefully, they were helpful with venereal diseases such as syphilis.

A vaccine for smallpox had been around for about one hundred years, but it was not widely used. Another vaccine for cholera was recently discovered and was not known by most members of the public.

No Reliable Measurement Methods

In cooking and in medicine, there were few ways to measure accurately. Up until the early 20^th century, cooks relied on general measurements—a “dash of salt” or a “teacup full of flour.” (See Fannie Farmer: Cookbook Author Who Instituted Exact Measuring.”)

This problem was also an issue with medications. Medicines were dispensed in liquid or powder form, and there was no standardized way to measure anything.

Aspirin

Aspirin was the first true leap forward. For years, people knew to chew on willow bark to ease aches and pains. An Italian chemist discovered that “salicin” was the compound that helped reduce inflammation. He found a way to extract the salicin from the tree bark so that it could be used medicinally.

But as salicin travels through the human body, it becomes acidic. The medicine worked, but in some people, it causes gastric distress. Felix Hoffman, a chemist who worked for Frederich Bayer & Company, developed a way to alter the acetylsalicylic acid so that it no longer caused gastric distress. His process altered the acid—it did not coat it.

The medicine was initially sold as a powder, but soon Bayer found a way to manufacture a tablet form.

Others Working on Pills

During the first days of W.E. Upjohn’s medical practice, there were a few ways to dispense medicine. Liquids and powders were used, but patients generally didn’t like the taste. There were pills being made, but Dr. Upjohn saw how ineffective they were.

The coatings on these first pills were very hard and generally insoluble. Doctors found that the pills usually traveled through a person’s digestive system whole. If the pill didn’t dissolve, it was totally useless to the person taking it.

Upjohn Starts Experimenting

Dr. Upjohn loved to solve problems, and this particular situation fascinated him. In 1880, he set up part of the attic in his home as a work area.

Dr. Upjohn finally came up with something that satisfied him. He worked with a base particle that he sprayed with layers of medicine. The pill strength built up layer by layer. 

He soon had a “friable” pill. The light coating Upjohn used gave the pill a solid form until it was swallowed. Then it dissolved. The friable pill was also crushable. This was one of the tests he used on his pills.

In 1884, he applied for a patent on his new invention. The patent was granted in February 1885 marking a breakthrough in drug design.

Building Up the Business

Upjohn knew the next step was a machine to mass-produce pills in this method, and he soon developed and patented one.  With the ability to grow the business, he talked to family members about joining the company. Eventually, four of them did, but brother Henry, also a physician, joined him first and remained with the company for longer than the others did.

W.E. and Henry decided to locate the factory in Kalamazoo, Michigan. They named the company the Upjohn Pill and Granule Company. Brother Henry preferred running the manufacturing side of the business. This was agreeable for W.E. who loved thinking about how to sell the product.

Marketing the Friable Pill

Because the “crushability” of the pills was W.E.’s “test” as he created the pills, he decided to offer his potential customers the same opportunity.

The company sent doctors a small pine board with two types of pills—Upjohn’s new friable pills and the older type of pills with the hard shell. The literature inside the package suggested that the recipient try to crush both pills. Only the friable pill would break up, and Upjohn’s literature pointed out that this meant it would break down in a patient’s stomach as well.

For many years, a sketch of a thumb crushing a pill on a pine board was the symbol of the company.

As the company grew, the company’s name was simplified to The Upjohn Pharmaceutical Company and eventually the Upjohn Company.

Early Days in Business

One of the Upjohn brothers’ first medicines was quinine pills. Quinine was the first line of defense against malaria, and it became more effective when could be delivered in pill form where the dosage could be standardized.

When W.E. Upjohn returned to Kalamazoo with his family, he intended to be a contributing member of the community.  In 1892, he was elected to serve as a city alderman and worked with the community to form a commission-manager form of government. In 1918, he became the first mayor.

His municipal work made him aware of what the city needed, and over time, he donated property for a city park and also paid for the creation of a civic auditorium.

The Upjohn Company was a Good Place to Work

Dr. Upjohn believed in respect for his workers. At a time when the customary work week was six days, Upjohn reduced his company’s work week to 5.5 days with no reduction in employee salaries. This in effect gave everyone in the entire company a raise.

As the success of the company grew, W.E. Upjohn became willing to delegate his position as head of the company. He wanted time to participate in civic affairs.

The Company Continues

In W.E. Upjohn’s succession plan, he intended that his son, Harold, would run the company. Harold stepped in as general manager in 1925, and W.E.  took early retirement.

When Harold died unexpectedly in 1928, W.E. returned to full-time management until a successor could be found.  

His nephew, Dr. L.N. Upjohn cleared his schedule to take on the role, letting Dr. Upjohn fully retire in 1930. The company continued to grow and add to a long list of patents they held on medicines and on dispensers.

Gardening and His Country Home

Like other well-to-do society members, W.E. Upjohn wanted a country home where he could enjoy the outdoors. He bought a farm in Augusta, Michigan. Eventually, he turned the creamery into a home for his family, calling it Brook Lodge.

Upjohn became obsessed with gardening. He eventually planted and maintained 14 acres of peonies. He grew 600 different varieties from seed, and of that number, he chose 175 varieties to feature in a seed catalogue he produced. Local people loved coming to see the beauty of the gardens.

Helping During the Depression

By the time of his retirement, the U.S. economy was in trouble. After the stock market crash, nothing rebounded. People were having trouble finding work and feeding their families.

Dr. W.E. Upjohn dedicated himself to finding solutions. In late 1931, he purchased a 1200-acre farm in Richland, Michigan and set it up so that 100 people could provide for their families by working the land. If the farm produced more than was needed by those living there, then anything remaining could be sold locally.

Dr. W.E. Upjohn referred to it as “the most important thing I ever did.”

Though W.E. Upjohn died in 1932, he lived long enough to understand how important work was to each individual—not only for providing a living but for providing a sense of identity.

Toward the end of the 1930s, people were finding jobs so they could leave the farm. If the farm was sold, Upjohn specified that the funds should be used to create the Upjohn Unemployment Trustee Corp. It still operates today. It is known as the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. Its purpose is to study methods to combat unemployment and ease the distress caused by being out of work.

What Happened to the Upjohn Company?

The dissolvable pill continues to be a vital part of pharmaceuticals, and timed-release systems have been added to the basic friable pill. Otherwise, over the next 100 years the company produced over 186 different medications in pill form, many of which are well-known (e.g. Lipitor and Xanax). 

Upjon was so well-known that in the 1980s, an Upjohn Pharmacy was featured on Main Street in Disneyland.

In 1995 the company merged and became Pharmacia, becoming Pharmacia and Upjohn. This merger then combined with Monsanto and Searle to become Pharmacia Corp. In 2002, it was acquired by Pfizer.

In 2015, Pfizer resurrected the Upjohn name for off-patent drugs. Then in 2020, Pfizer’s Upjohn division merged with Mylan to form a new company called Viatris.

Brook Lodge

As for Brook Lodge, Upjohn’s summer home, people and companies continued to use the beautiful property. During World War II, the family gave access to the Red Cross to use the buildings and grounds for recovering patients.

Later, Brook Lodge was used as a conference center. However, as the facility became more costly to maintain, it was donated to Michigan State University. The university continued to make use of it but the recession in 2008-09 forced it to close. The university put it up for sale. The last mention of it in the media was in 2020, noting that Brook Lodge was on the market.

 

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