Johnson & Johnson

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) is a global American pharmaceutical, medical devices and consumer packaged goods manufacturer founded in 1886. Its common stock is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the company is listed among the Fortune 500. Johnson & Johnson is known for its corporate responsibility and consistently ranks at the top of Harris Interactive's National Corporate Reputation Survey.^[1]

The corporation's headquarters is located in New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States. Its consumer division is located in Skillman, New Jersey. The corporation includes some 230 subsidiary companies with operations in over 57 countries. Its products are sold in over 175 countries.

Johnson & Johnson's brands include numerous household names of medications and first aid supplies. Among its well-known consumer products are the Band-Aid Brand line of bandages, Tylenol medications, Johnson's baby products, Neutrogena skin and beauty products, Clean & Clear facial wash and Acuvue contact lenses.

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History

Robert Wood Johnson, inspired by a speech by antisepsis advocate Joseph Lister, joined brothers James Wood Johnson and Edward Mead Johnson to create a line of ready-to-use surgical dressings in 1885. The company produced its first products in 1886 and incorporated in 1887.

Robert Wood Johnson served as the first president of the company. He worked to improve sanitation practices in the nineteenth century, and lent his name to a hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Upon his death in 1910, he was succeeded in the presidency by his brother James Wood Johnson until 1932, and then by his son, Robert Wood Johnson II.

Jamie Johnson, great-grandson of the founder, made a documentary called Born Rich about the experience of growing up as the heir to one of the world's greatest fortunes.

Corporate Chairmanship

Robert Wood Johnson I 1887-1910

James Wood Johnson 1910-1932

Robert Wood Johnson II 1932-1963

Philip B. Hofmann 1963-1973

Richard B. Sellars 1973-1976

James E. Burke 1976-1989

Ralph S. Larsen 1989-2002

William C. Weldon 2002-

Corporate governance

Current members of the board of directors of Johnson & Johnson are: Mary Sue Coleman, James G. Cullen, Robert J. Darretta, Michael M.E. Johns, Ann Dibble Jordan, Arnold G. Langbo, Susan L. Lindquist, Leo F. Mullin, Christine A. Poon, Steven S. Reinemund, David Satcher, and William C. Weldon.^[2]

Diversification

Since the 1900s, the company has pursued steady diversification. It added consumer products in the 1920s and created a separate division for surgical products in 1941 which became Ethicon. It expanded into pharmaceuticals with the purchase of McNeil Laboratories, Inc., Cilag, and Janssen Pharmaceutica, and into women's sanitary products and toiletries in the 1970s and 1980s. In recent years, Johnson & Johnson has expanded into such diverse areas as biopharmaceuticals, orthopedic devices, and Internet publishing. Recently, Johnson & Johnson has purchased Pfizer's Consumer Healthcare department. The transition from Pfizer to Johnson and Johnson was completed December 18, 2006.

Johnson & Johnson was named one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers in 2004 by Working Mother.

Along with Gatorade, Johnson & Johnson is one of the founding sponsors of the National Athletic Trainers' Association.  

Headquarters

The company has historically been located on the Delaware and Raritan Canal, in New Brunswick. The company considered moving its headquarters out of New Brunswick in the 1960s, but decided to stay in town after city officials promised to gentrify downtown New Brunswick by demolishing old buildings and constructing new ones. While New Brunswick lost at least one historic edifice (the inn where Rutgers University began) to the redevelopment, the gentrification did attract people back to New Brunswick. Johnson & Johnson hired Henry N. Cobb from Pei Cobb Freed & Partners to design an addition to its headquarters, which took the form of a white tower in a park by the railroad tracks.

1982 Chicago Tylenol murders

In 1982, the company faced the 1982 Chicago Tylenol murders, in which Extra Strength Tylenol capsules were tampered with by one or more unknown suspects. The product was found to be laced with cyanide, which prompted a national recall. The company's response was widely praised by public relations experts and the media.

Use of the Red Cross symbol

Further information: Emblems of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement#Use of the emblems

Johnson & Johnson registered the Red Cross as a U.S. trademark for "medicinal and surgical plasters" in 1905, and has used the design since 1887.^[3] The Geneva Conventions, which reserved the Red Cross emblem for specific uses, were first approved in 1864 and ratified by the United States in 1882; however, the emblem was not protected in U.S. law for the use of the American Red Cross and the U.S. military until after Johnson & Johnson had obtained its trademark. A clause in this law (now 18 U.S.C. 706) permits pre-existing uses of the Red Cross, such as Johnson & Johnson's, to continue.

A declaration made by the U.S. upon its ratification of the 1949 Geneva Conventions includes a reservation that pre-1905 U.S. domestic uses of the Red Cross, such as Johnson & Johnson's, would remain lawful as long as the cross is not used on "aircraft, vessels, vehicles, buildings or other structures, or upon the ground", uses which could be confused with its military uses.^[4] This means that the U.S. did not agree to any interpretation of the 1949 Geneva Conventions that would overrule Johnson & Johnson's trademark. Even as it disputes a recent lawsuit by Johnson & Johnson, the American Red Cross continues to recognize the validity of Johnson & Johnson's trademark.^[5]

In August of 2007, Johnson & Johnson filed a lawsuit against the American Red Cross (ARC), demanding that the charity halt the use of the red cross symbol on products it sells to the public, though the company takes no issue with the charity's use of the mark for non-profit purposes.^[6] The suit also asks for the destruction of all currently existing non-Johnson & Johnson Red Cross Emblem bearing products and demands the American Red Cross pay punitive damages and Johnson & Johnson's legal fees. Since 2004, the Red Cross has worked with several licensing partners to market first aid, preparedness and related products that bear the Red Cross emblem. All money the Red Cross receives from the sale of these products to consumers is reinvested in its humanitarian programs and services. "For a multi-billion dollar drug company to claim that the Red Cross violated a criminal statute that was created to protect the humanitarian mission of the Red Cross - simply so that J&J can make more money - is obscene," said Mark Everson, the chief executive of the charity.^[7]

Johnson & Johnson has replied that it "has great respect for the relief work of ARC and over the decades has consistently supported the organization through cash donations, product donations and employee volunteering. ... After more than a century of strong cooperation in the use of the Red Cross trademark, with both organizations respecting the legal boundaries for each others' unique legal rights, we were very disappointed to find that the American Red Cross started a campaign to license the trademark ... For the past several months, Johnson & Johnson has attempted to resolve this issue through cooperation and discussion with the ARC, and recently offered mediation, to no avail." ^[8]

Subsidiary holdings

Johnson & Johnson is a highly diversified company with at least 230 subsidiaries, which it refers to as the "Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies". Some of these subsidiaries include:

• ALZA Corporation
• Animas Corporation
• BabyCenter, L.L.C.
• Biosense Webster, Inc.
• Centocor, Inc.
• Cilag
• Codman & Shurtleff, Inc.
• Cordis Corporation
• DePuy, Inc.
• Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc.
• Ethicon, Inc.
• Gynecare
• Independence Technology, LLC
• Janssen Pharmaceutica
• Janssen Pharmaceutica Products, L.P.
• Johnson & Johnson, Group of Consumer Companies, Inc.
• Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems Inc.
• Johnson & Johnson - Merck Consumer Pharmaceuticals Co.
• Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development, L.L.C.
• LifeScan, Inc.
• McNeil Consumer & Specialty Pharmaceuticals
• McNeil Nutritionals
• Noramco, Inc.
• Ortho Biotech Products, L.P.
• Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, Inc. OCD
• Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical
• Ortho-Neutrogena (a merge of Neutrogena and Ortho Dermatological)
• Personal Products Company
• Penaten
• Pfizer Consumer
• Pharmaceutical Sourcing Group Americas (PSGA)
• Pharmaceutical Group Strategic Marketing (PGSM)
• Peninsula Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
• Scios Inc.
• Tasmanian Alkaloids
• Therakos, Inc.
• Tibotec
• Transform Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
• Veridex, LLC
• Vistakon

References

Company Websites

• Johnson & Johnson Corporate Homepage
• Johnson & Johnson ties to RWJF

Johnson & Johnson Consumer Brands

• Acuvue
• Aveeno
• Band-Aid
• Carefree
• Clean & Clear
• K-Y
• Neutrogena
• Rembrandt
• Stayfree
• Tylenol

Johnson & Johnson Consumer Brands Websites

• Ambi Skin Care Website
• First-Aid Website
• O.B. Tampons Website
• Purpose Skin Care
• Reach Website
• Johnson's Adult Website
• Johnson's Baby Website
• RoC Skincare Website
• Rembrandt Oral Care Website
• Monistat Website
• Shower to Shower Website

Data

• Yahoo!, Sector; Healthcare, Industry; Major Drugs, market cap ranking (trailing Pfizer at 200.5B on 12-3-2006)

Family history

• Zodiac, a historic schooner built for the Johnson family heirs