Johnson & Johnson Business Information, Profile, and History

Company Perspectives:

Our Credo: We believe our first responsibility is to the doctors, nur ses and patients, to mothers and fathers and all others who use our p roducts and services. In meeting their needs everything we do must be of high quality.

History of Johnson & Johnson

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is one of the largest healthcare firm s in the world and one of the most diversified. Its operations are or ganized into three business segments: pharmaceutical, which generates 47 percent of revenues and 58 percent of operating profits; medical devices and diagnostics, which accounts for 36 percent of revenues an d 31 percent of operating profits; and consumer, which contributes 17 percent of revenues and 11 percent of operating profits. J&J's p harmaceutical products include drugs for family planning, mental illn ess, nervous system diseases, gastroenterology, oncology, immunothera py, cardiovascular disease, pain management, allergies, and other are as. The medical devices and diagnostics segment includes surgical and patient care equipment and devices, diagnostic products, joint repla cements, coronary stents, and contact lenses. The company's well-know n line of consumer products includes the Johnson's baby care line, th e Neutrogena skin and hair care line, o.b. and Stayfree feminine hygi ene products, the Reach oral care line, Band-Aid brand adhesive banda ges, Imodium A-D diarrhea treatment, Mylanta gastrointestinal product s, Pepcid AC acid controller, Tylenol, Motrin, and St. Joseph pain re lievers, and Benecol and Splenda sweeteners. J&J generates about 40 percent of its revenues outside the United States, through its net work of 200 operating companies in 57 countries, selling products aro und the world.

Early History: From Surgical Dressings to Baby Cream

J&J traces its beginnings to the late 1800s, when Joseph Lister's discovery that airborne germs were a source of infection in operatin g rooms sparked the imagination of Robert Wood Johnson, a New England druggist. Johnson joined forces with his brothers, James Wood Johnso n and Edward Mead Johnson, and the three began producing dressings in 1886 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, with 14 employees in a former wal lpaper factory.

Because Lister's recommended method for sterilization, spraying the o perating room with carbolic acid, was found to be impractical and cum bersome, Johnson & Johnson (which was incorporated in 1887) found a ready market for its product. The percentage of deaths due to infe ctions 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 m edical compounds mixed in an adhesive. Soon afterward, the company de signed a soft, absorbent cotton-and-gauze dressing, and Robert Wood J ohnson's dream was realized. Mass production began and the dressings were shipped in large quantities throughout the United States. By 189 0 J&J was using dry heat to sterilize the bandages.

The establishment of a bacteriological laboratory in 1891 gave resear ch a boost, and by the following year the company had met accepted re quirements for a sterile product. By introducing dry heat, steam, and pressure throughout the manufacturing process, J&J was able to g uarantee the sterility of its bandages. The adhesive bandage was furt her improved in 1899 when, with the cooperation of surgeons, J&J introduced a zinc oxide-based adhesive plaster that was stronger and overcame much of the problem of the skin irritation that plagued many patients. J&J's fourth original design was an improved method fo r sterilizing catgut sutures.

From the beginning, J&J was an advocate of antiseptic surgical pr ocedures. In 1888 the company published Modern Methods of Antisept ic Wound Treatment, a text used by physicians for many years. Tha t same year, Fred B. Kilmer began his 45-year stint as scientific dir ector at J&J. A well-known science and medicine writer, and fathe r of poet Joyce Kilmer, Fred Kilmer wrote influential articles for J& amp;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 brothe r James. It was then that the company began to grow quickly. To guara ntee a source for the company's increasing need for textile materials , J&J purchased Chicopee Manufacturing Corporation in 1916. The f irst international affiliate was founded in Canada in 1919. A few yea rs later, in 1923, Robert W. Johnson's sons, Robert Johnson and J. Se ward Johnson, took an around-the-world tour that convinced them that J&J should expand overseas, and Johnson & Johnson Limited was established in Great Britain a year later. Diversification continued with the introduction in 1921 of Band-Aid brand adhesive bandages an d Johnson's Baby Cream (Johnson's Baby Powder had debuted in 1893) an d the debut of the company's first feminine hygiene product, Modess s anitary napkins, in 1927.

1932-63: The General at the Helm

The younger Robert Johnson, who came to be known as "the General," ha d joined the company as a mill hand while still in his teens. By the age of 25 he had become a vice-president, and he was elected presiden t in 1932. Described as dynamic and restless with a keen sense of dut y, Johnson had attained the rank of brigadier general in World War II and served as vice chairman of the War Production Board.

The General firmly believed in decentralization in business; he was t he driving force behind J&J's organizational structure, in which divisions and affiliates were given autonomy to direct their own oper ations. This policy coincided with a move into pharmaceuticals, hygie ne products, and textiles. During Robert Johnson's tenure, the divisi on for the manufacture of surgical packs and gowns became Surgikos, I nc.; the department for sanitary napkin production was initially call ed the Modess division and then became the Personal Products Company; birth control products were under the supervision of the Ortho Pharm aceutical Corporation; and the separate division for suture business became Ethicon, Inc. Under the General's leadership, annual sales gre w from $11 million to $700 million at the time of his death i n 1968.

Following his father's lead as a champion of social issues, Johnson s poke in favor of raising the minimum wage, improving conditions in fa ctories, and emphasizing his business's responsibility to society. Jo hnson called for management to treat workers with respect and to crea te programs that would improve workers' skills and better prepare the m for success in a modern industrial society. In 1943 Johnson wrote a credo outlining the company's four areas of social responsibility: f irst to its customers; second to its employees; third to the communit y and environment; and fourth to the stockholders. On the heels of th e credo came the company's change from family-owned firm to public co mpany, as J&J was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1944.

In 1959 J&J acquired McNeil Laboratories, Inc., maker of a non-as pirin (acetaminophen) pain reliever called Tylenol, which was at that time available only by prescription. Just one year after the acquisi tion, McNeil launched Tylenol as an over-the-counter (OTC) medication . Also in 1959, Cilag-Chemie, a Swiss pharmaceutical firm, was purcha sed, followed in two years by the purchase of Janssen Pharmaceutica, maker of the major antipsychotic drug Haldol, which had been introduc ed in 1958.

In 1963 Johnson retired. Although he remained active in the business, chairmanship of the company went outside the family for the first ti me. Johnson's immediate successor was Philip Hofmann, who, much like the General, had started as a shipping clerk and worked his way up th e ladder. During Hofmann's ten-year term as chairman, J&J's domes tic and overseas affiliates flourished. Hofmann was another firm beli ever in decentralization and encouraged the training of local experts to supervise operations in their respective countries. Foreign manag ement was organized along product lines rather than geographically, w ith plant managers reporting to a person with expertise in the field.

1960s and 1970s: Increased Promotion of Consumer Products

In the early 1960s federal regulation of the healthcare industry was increasing. When James Burke, who had come to J&J from the market ing department of the Procter & Gamble Company, became president of J&J's Domestic Operating Company in 1966, the company was look ing for ways to increase profits from its consumer products to offset possible slowdowns in the professional products divisions. By luring top marketing people from Procter & Gamble, Burke was able to pu t together several highly successful advertising campaigns. The first introduced Carefree and Stayfree sanitary napkins into a market that was dominated by the acknowledged feminine products leader, Kimberly -Clark Corporation. Usually limited to women's magazines, advertiseme nts for feminine hygiene products were low-key and discreet. Under Bu rke's direction, J&J took a more open approach and advertised Car efree and Stayfree on television. By 1978 J&J had captured half o f the market. Meantime, the company expanded its feminine hygiene lin e through the 1973 acquisition of the German firm Dr. Carl Hahn G.m.b .H., maker of the o.b. brand of tampons.

One of Burke's biggest challenges was Tylenol. Ever since J&J had acquired McNeil Laboratories, maker of Tylenol, the drug had been ma rketed as a high-priced product. Burke saw other possibilities, and i n 1975 he got the chance he was waiting for. Bristol-Myers Company in troduced Datril and advertised that it had the same ingredients as Ty lenol but was available at a significantly lower price. Burke convinc ed J&J Chairman Richard Sellars that they should meet this compet ition head on by dropping Tylenol's price to meet Datril's. With Sell ars's approval, Burke took Tylenol into the mass-marketing arena, sla shed its price, and ended up beating not only Datril, but number one Anacin as well. This signaled the beginning of an ongoing battle betw een American Home Products Corporation, maker of Anacin, and McNeil L aboratories.

Sellars, Hofmann's protégé, had become chairman in 1973 , and served in that position for three years. Burke succeeded Sellar s in 1976 as CEO and chairman of the board, and David R. Clare was ap pointed president. J&J had always maintained a balance between th e many divisions in its operations, particularly between mass consume r products and specialized professional products. No single J&J p roduct accounted for as much as 5 percent of the company's total sale s. With Burke at the helm, consumer products began to be promoted agg ressively, and Tylenol pain reliever became J&J's number one sell er.

At the same time, Burke did not turn his back on the company's positi on as a leader in professional healthcare products. In May 1977 Extra corporeal Medical Specialties, a manufacturer of kidney dialysis and intravenous treatment products, became part of the corporation. Three years later, J&J acquired Iolab Corporation, maker of ocular len ses for cataract surgery, and effectively entered the field of eye ca re and ophthalmic pharmaceuticals. In 1981 the company extended its i nvolvement in eye care through the acquisition of Frontier Contact Le nses. The increased in-house development of critical care products re sulted in the creation of Critikon, Inc., in 1979, and in 1983 Johnso n & Johnson Hospital Services was created to develop and implemen t corporate marketing programs.

1980s Tylenol Tampering Tragedy

In September 1982 tragedy struck J&J when seven people died from ingesting Tylenol capsules that had been laced with cyanide. Advertis ing was canceled immediately, and J&J recalled all Tylenol produc ts from store shelves. After the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) f ound that the tampering had been done at the retail level rather than during manufacturing, J&J was left with the problem of how to sa ve its number one product and its reputation. In the week after the d eaths, J&J's stock dropped 18 percent and its prime competitors' products, Datril and Anacin-3, were in such demand that supplies were back-ordered.

J&J was able to recoup its losses through several marketing strat egies. The company ran a one-time ad that explained how to exchange T ylenol capsules for tablets or refunds and worked closely with the pr ess, responding directly to reporters' questions as a means of keepin g the public up to date. The company also placed a coupon for $2. 50 off any Tylenol product in newspapers across the country to reimbu rse consumers for Tylenol capsules they may have discarded during the tampering incident and offer an incentive to purchase Tylenol in oth er forms.

Within weeks of the poisoning incidents, the FDA issued guidelines fo r tamper-resistant packaging for the entire food and drug industry. T o bolster public confidence in its product, J&J used three layers of protection, two more than recommended, when Tylenol was put back on store shelves. Within months of the cyanide poisoning, J&J was gaining back its share of the pain-reliever market, and soon regaine d more than 90 percent of its former customers. By 1989 Tylenol sales were $500 million annually, and in 1990 the line was expanded in to the burgeoning cold remedy market with several Tylenol Cold produc ts; the following year saw the launch of Tylenol P.M., a sleep aid. J ames Burke's savvy, yet honest, handling of the Tylenol tampering inc ident earned him a spot in the National Business Hall of Fame, an hon or awarded in 1990. Litigation over the incident was finally resolved in 1991, almost a decade after the initial tampering. McNeil Labs se ttled with over 30 survivors of the poisonings for more than $35 million.

In 1989 Bristol-Myers launched an aggressive advertising campaign tha t positioned its Nuprin brand ibuprofen pain reliever in direct compe tition with Tylenol. The move compounded market share erosion from Am erican Home Products' Advil ibuprofen. Both products claimed to work better than Tylenol's acetaminophen formulation.

There were a number of other important developments in the second hal f of the 1980s. In 1986 J&J acquired LifeScan, Inc., maker of at- home blood-monitoring products for diabetics. That same year, the com pany expanded its world leading position in baby care products throug h the acquisition of Penaten G.m.b.H., the market leader in Germany. Following the acquisition of Frontier Contact Lenses, which was renam ed Vistakon, J&J introduced the Acuvue brand of disposable contac t lenses in the United States in 1988. The popularity of the Acuvue l enses helped propel Vistakon into the number one position in contact lenses worldwide. In 1989 J&J and drug giant Merck & Co., Inc . entered into a joint venture, Johnson & Johnson-Merck Consumer Pharmaceuticals Co., to develop OTC versions of Merck's prescription medications, initially for the U.S. market, later expanded to Europe and Canada. One of the first product lines developed by this venture was the Mylanta brand of gastrointestinal products.

Burke and Clare retired in 1989 and were succeeded by three executive s: CEO and Chairman Ralph S. Larsen, who came from the consumer secto r; Vice-Chairman Robert E. Campbell, who had headed the professional sector; and President Robert N. Wilson, who had headed the pharmaceut ical sector. The three men were responsible for overseeing the networ k of 168 companies in 53 countries.

Larsen moved quickly to reduce some of the inefficiencies that a hist ory of decentralization had caused. In 1989 the infant products divis ion was joined with the health and dental units to form a broader con sumer products segment, eliminating approximately 300 jobs in the pro cess. Over the next two years, the reorganization was extended to ove rseas units. The number of professional operating departments in Euro pe was reduced from 28 to 18 through consolidation under three primar y companies: Ethicon, Johnson & Johnson Medical, and Johnson &amp ; Johnson Professional Products. In 1990, meantime, J&J formed Or tho Biotech Inc. to consolidate the company's research in the burgeon ing biotechnology field, an area J&J had been active in since the 1970s.

Dealmaking in the 1990s

J&J was able to counter increasing criticisms of rising healthcar e costs in the United States and around the world in the 1990s due in part to the company's longstanding history of social responsibility. The company pioneered several progressive programs including child c are, family leave, and "corporate wellness" that were beginning to be recognized as healthcare cost reducers and productivity enhancers. I n addition, weighted average compound prices of J&J's healthcare products, including prescription and OTC drugs and hospital and profe ssional products, grew more slowly than the U.S. consumer price index from 1980 through 1992. These practices supported the company's clai m that it was part of the solution to the healthcare crisis. In 1992 J&J instituted its "Signature of Quality" program, which urged th e corporation's operating companies to focus on three general goals: "Continuously improving customer satisfaction, cost efficiency and th e speed of bringing new products to market."

J&J grew at a relatively slow pace in the early 1990s, in part be cause of the difficult economic climate. Revenues increased from $ ;11.23 billion in 1990 to $14.14 billion in 1993, an increase of just 26 percent. A series of acquisitions in the mid-1990s, however, ushered in a period of more rapid growth, with revenues hitting $ 21.62 billion by 1996, a leap of 53 percent from the 1993 level. The skin care line had received a boost in 1993 through the purchase of R oC S.A. of France, a maker of hypoallergenic facial, hand, body, and other products under the RoC name. More significant was the acquisiti on the following year of Neutrogena Corporation for nearly $1 bil lion. Neutrogena was well-known for its line of dermatologist-recomme nded skin and hair care products. J&J spent another billion dolla rs in 1995 for the clinical diagnostics unit of Eastman Kodak Company , which was particularly strong in the areas of clinical chemistry, w hich involves the analysis of simple compounds in the body, and immun o-diagnostics. In 1997 J&J combined its existing Ortho Diagnostic s Systems unit with the operations acquired from Kodak to form Ortho- Clinical Diagnostics, Inc. (LifeScan remained a separately run diagno stics company.)

Another subsidiary that grew through acquisitions in this period was Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc., which had been spun off from Ethicon in 1 992 to concentrate on endoscopic, or minimally invasive, surgical ins truments. J&J acquired Indigo Medical, which specialized in minim ally invasive technology in urology and related areas, in 1996, while Biopsys Medical, Inc., specializing in minimally invasive breast bio psies, was purchased in 1997. Another large acquisition occurred in 1 996 when J&J spent about $1.8 billion for Cordis Corporation, a world leader in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases through i ts stents, balloons, and catheters. In 1997, in exchange for several consumer products, J&J acquired the OTC rights to the Motrin bran d of ibuprofen pain relievers from Pharmacia & Upjohn. Other impo rtant developments during this period included the 1995 introduction of an Acuvue disposable contact lens designed to be worn for just one day but priced at a reasonable level, and the 1995 U.S. approval of the antacid Pepcid AC, an OTC version of Merck's Pepcid that was deve loped by the Johnson & Johnson-Merck joint venture.

The company's aggressive program of acquisition continued in the late 1990s, beginning with the 1998 purchase of DePuy, Inc. for $3.7 billion in cash, J&J's largest acquisition yet. DePuy was a leade r in orthopedic products, such as hip replacement devices. J&J al ready marketed one of the leading knee replacement devices in the Uni ted States, making for a nice fit between the two companies. On the n egative side, J&J was forced to initiate a restructuring in 1998 following a number of difficulties. J&J had been a pioneer in the market for coronary stents, devices used to keep arteries open follo wing angioplasty, but its stent sales fell from $700 million in 1 996 to just over $200 million in 1998 after competitors introduce d second-generation stents and J&J did not. Also troubled was the firm's pharmaceutical operation, which in 1997 and 1998 had seen nin e drugs in the development pipeline fail in testing, fail to get gove rnment approval, or be delayed. In late 1998 J&J announced that i t would reduce its workforce by 4,100 and close 36 plants around the world over the succeeding 18 months. Taking $697 million in restr ucturing and in-process research and development charges, J&J aim ed to save between $250 million and $300 million per year thr ough this effort.

To bolster its drug R&D efforts, J&J completed its first majo r pharmaceutical deal since the 1961 purchase of Janssen Pharmaceutic a. In October 1999 J&J merged with major biotechnology firm Cento cor, Inc. in a $4.9 billion stock-for-stock transaction, the larg est such deal in company history. With Centocor and Ortho Biotech und er its wing, J&J was now one of the world's leading biotech firms . Soon after the merger with Centocor was completed, the FDA approved a key Centocor-developed drug, Remicade, for the treatment of rheuma toid arthritis. Centocor was also developing other pharmaceuticals in the areas of cancer, autoimmune diseases, and cardiology. Also in 19 99 J&J acquired the dermatological skin care business of S.C. Joh nson & Son, Inc., which was primarily made up of the Aveeno brand , for an undisclosed amount. Finally, the company introduced Splenda, a no-calorie sweetener that by 2003 would garner the top position in U.S. retail sales of tabletop sweeteners. Despite its late 1990s tro ubles, J&J reported record results for 1999, earning $4.17 bi llion on revenues of $27.47 billion. Net earnings had nearly quad rupled since 1989, while net sales nearly tripled over the same perio d.

Early 2000s Developments: ALZA, Cypher, Guidant

The year 2000 got off to a rough start for the company, as it was for ced to withdraw from the market a prescription heartburn medication, Propulsid, after the drug had been linked to 100 deaths and hundreds of cases of cardiac irregularity. Propulsid had garnered nearly $ 1 billion in sales in 1999. By 2004 the number of persons who had all egedly died from the use of the drug had risen to more than 415, and more than 400 lawsuits representing the interests of about 5,900 plai ntiffs had been filed against J&J's Janssen unit, the maker of Pr opulsid. In early 2004 Janssen reached an agreement to settle lawsuit s involving approximately 4,000 plaintiffs, whereby it would pay comp ensation totaling between $69.5 million and $90 million as we ll as administrative and legal fees amounting to $37.5 million. O n a more positive note, J&J's pharmaceutical business was led in the early 2000s by a true blockbuster, Procrit (marketed as Eprex in Europe), an anemia medication licensed from Amgen, Inc. and introduce d by J&J in 1991. Sales of Procrit exceeded $3 billion per ye ar in the first years of the new century. It accounted for as much as 10 percent of the company's overall revenues, which surpassed the 36;30 billion mark for the first time in 2001 and $40 billion jus t two years later.

In the meantime, Johnson & Johnson expanded its OTC pain reliever lineup in 2000 by acquiring the St. Joseph brand, best known for its orange-flavored, low-dose aspirin, which was in wide use as a doctor -recommended daily therapy. Several more key acquisitions followed. I n June 2001 J&J acquired ALZA Corporation in a $12.3 billion stock-swap transaction, the company's largest purchase yet. ALZA, bas ed in Mountain View, California, was a leading developer of drug-deli very technologies, such as time-release capsules and transdermal patc hes. Sales of the firm's two biggest-selling drugs, Concerta, a treat ment for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and Ditropan XL, a urinary incontinence remedy, were expected to surge based on J&J 's worldwide marketing prowess. Also in 2001, J&J's LifeScan unit was bolstered through the $1.3 billion purchase of the diabetes- care-products business of Inverness Medical Technology Inc., producer of devices used by diabetes patients to monitor their blood-sugar le vels.

Larsen retired from the company in early 2002. Taking over as CEO and only the sixth chairman in the history of Johnson & Johnson was William C. Weldon, who had joined the firm in 1971 and had most recen tly served as head of the pharmaceuticals side since 1998. Weldon too k over at a time when some of J&J's top-selling drugs, including Procrit, were faced with plateauing sales because of increased compet ition. One of the company's key achievements of 2003 was the receipt of FDA approval for Cordis's Cypher, a stent coated with a drug desig ned to reduce reblockage of blood vessels. Though J&J succeeded i n being first to market with a drug-coated stent, and the product ach ieved strong first-year sales of $1.4 billion, Cypher quickly fac ed stiff competition from Boston Scientific Corporation's Taxus drug- coated stent. In pharmaceuticals, J&J once again turned acquisiti ve to bolster a somewhat somnolent drug-development pipeline, buying Scios Inc. in April 2003. Scios, a biotech firm specializing in treat ments for cardiovascular and inflammatory disease, brought with it Na trecor, touted as the first new treatment for congestive heart failur e in 15 years. Sales of Natrecor rose to $384 million by 2004, bu t the potential blockbuster status of the drug came into question fol lowing reports that it was damaging patients' kidneys. In mid-2005 a panel composed of independent experts recommended that use of Natreco r be restricted to acutely sick hospitalized patients and endorsed J& amp;J's plans for additional studies of the drug.

During 2004 revenues reached $47.35 billion and increased for the 71st consecutive year. That year, J&J also continued its record of issuing dividends to shareholders every quarter since 1944, increa sed its dividend for the 43rd straight year, and achieved a double-di git increase in earnings for the 19th consecutive year. The firm now ranked as the fourth largest pharmaceutical company in the world, tra iling only Pfizer Inc., GlaxoSmithKline plc, and Sanofi-Aventis, and the number two biotech company, after Amgen. Johnson & Johnson al so held sway as the largest manufacturer of medical devices and diagn ostics tools in the world, a position it aimed to bolster by acquirin g Indianapolis-based Guidant Corporation (and merging Cordis into it) , in a deal announced in December 2004 that was initially valued at & #36;25.4 billion. Guidant, with annual sales of about $3.8 billio n, focused on implantable devices to treat abnormal heart rhythms, in cluding implantable cardiac defibrillators and pacemakers, as well as catheters and stents. The deal, expected to be completed in late 200 5, became questionable after Guidant was forced to recall tens of tho usands of its defibrillators and pacemakers because of malfunctions. Further clouding Johnson & Johnson's future were reports that the drug-coated stents being produced by both J&J and Boston Scienti fic might pose a higher long-term risk of life-threatening blood clot s than the old-fashioned bare-metal type.

Principal Subsidiaries: ALZA Corporation; BabyCenter, L.L.C.; Biosense Webster, Inc.; Centocor, Inc.; Codman & Shurtleff, Inc.; Cordis Corporation; DePuy, Inc.; Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc.; Ethicon , Inc.; Independence Technology, L.L.C.; Janssen Pharmaceutica Produc ts, L.P.; Johnson & Johnson Consumer Products Company; Johnson &a mp; Johnson Development Corporation; Johnson & Johnson Gateway, L LC; Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems Inc.; Johnson & Joh nson - Merck Consumer Pharmaceuticals Co. (50%); Johnson & Jo hnson Pediatric Institute, L.L.C.; Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutic al Research & Development, L.L.C.; Johnson & Johnson Sales an d Logistics Company; Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc.; LifeSca n, Inc.; McNeil Nutritionals, LLC; Neutrogena Corporation; Noramco, I nc.; Ortho Biotech Products, L.P.; Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, Inc.; Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, Inc.; Scios, Inc.; Therakos, Inc.; Trans Form Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; VISTAKON Pharmaceuticals, L.L.C.; Cilag A G (Switzerland); Greiter (International) AG (Switzerland); Janssen An imal Health BVBA (Belgium); Janssen-Cilag B.V. (Netherlands); Janssen -Ortho Inc. (Canada); Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V.; Johnson & Johns on AB (Sweden); Johnson & Johnson Comércio e Distribui&cce dil;ao Ltda. (Brazil); Johnson & Johnson Consumer France SAS; Joh nson & Johnson de Argentina, S.A.C.e I.; Johnson & Johnson de Colombia S.A.; Johnson & Johnson Gesellschaft m.b.H. (Austria); Johnson & Johnson GmbH (Germany); Johnson & Johnson Inc. (Can ada); Johnson & Johnson K.K. (Japan); Johnson & Johnson Korea , Ltd.; Johnson & Johnson Limited (India); Johnson & Johnson, s.r.o. (Czech Republic); McNeil Consumer Healthcare (Canada); McNeil Europe (Germany); McNeil Limited (U.K.); PENATEN (Germany); Tibotec Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (Ireland); Virco BVBA (Belgium); Xian-Janssen Ph armaceutical Ltd. (China).

Principal Operating Units: Consumer; Medical Devices and Diagn ostics; Pharmaceutical.

Principal Competitors: The Procter & Gamble Company; Bayer AG; Merck & Co., Inc.; Pfizer Inc.; Unilever; Novartis AG; Astra Zeneca PLC; Abbott Laboratories; Medtronic, Inc.; Boston Scientific C orporation; Amgen, Inc.; Eli Lilly and Company; Kimberly-Clark Corpor ation.

Chronology

• Key Dates:
• 1886: Johnson brothers begin producing surgical dressings in N ew Brunswick, New Jersey.
• 1887: Company is incorporated as Johnson & Johnson (J& J).
• 1893: Johnson's Baby Powder is introduced.
• 1919: International expansion begins with the establishment of Johnson & Johnson Canada.
• 1921: Band-Aid brand adhesive bandages make their debut.
• 1924: Overseas expansion begins with the establishment of John son & Johnson Limited in the United Kingdom.
• 1932: Robert Johnson, known as "the General," takes over leade rship as president.
• 1943: Johnson writes the company credo.
• 1944: Company goes public on the New York Stock Exchange.
• 1959: McNeil Laboratories, Inc. (McNeil Labs) is acquired.
• 1960: McNeil Labs introduces Tylenol as an over-the-counter (O TC) pain reliever.
• 1961: Janssen Pharmaceutica is acquired.
• 1975: Through a significant price decrease, Tylenol is transfo rmed into a mass-marketed product.
• 1982: Tylenol tampering tragedy occurs.
• 1988: Acuvue disposable contact lenses are introduced.
• 1989: J&J and Merck form joint venture to develop OTC vers ions of Merck's prescription medications.
• 1994: Neutrogena Corporation is acquired.
• 1995: Merck and J&J launch Pepcid AC; company acquires the clinical diagnostics unit of Eastman Kodak Company.
• 1996: J&J acquires Cordis Corporation.
• 1998: DePuy, Inc. is acquired, and a companywide restructuring is launched.
• 1999: Centocor, Inc. merges with J&J.
• 2001: ALZA Corporation is purchased for $13.4 billion.
• 2004: J&J reaches agreement to acquire Guidant Corporation for $25.4 billion.