Upjohn's Pills

William Erastus Upjohn was born June 5, 1853, to Dr Uriah Upjohn and Maria Mills Upjohn. He completed high school in Ann Arbor and worked part-time in a local pharmacy. W.E. is reported to have developed an interest in machinery from observing farm equipment.  He graduated from medical school in 1875 and, at the age of 22, returned to Hastings to begin his practice under the careful eye of his uncle, Dr. William U. Upjohn. In 1878, he married Rachel Babcock, the daughter of a Kalamazoo pharmacist. They had five children, one of whom died in infancy. The other four were Rachel Winifred Upjohn Light, William Harold Upjohn, Dorothy Upjohn Dalton, and Genevieve Upjohn Gilmore.

While he practiced medicine, W.E. also continued his interest in mechanical devices. It is speculated that the debt incurred from an unsuccessful clock project stimulated Upjohn's interest in solving the medical problem of an effective pill. In the 1900s, pills were made from a paste. The pill was coated with a thin layer of shellac to prevent it from drying out. But pills that were kept for any length of time dried out anyway. Such a pill often did not dissolve and passed undigested through the patient’s body with no effect on their ailment. In the early 1880s, W. E. Upjohn turned his attention to the problem and began experimenting, behind locked doors, with possible solutions. Rather than start with a paste, Dr. Upjohn introduced a starter particle into a revolving pan. As the pan revolved, the starter was sprayed with powdered medicine and a fine mist, gradually accumulating into a pill of appropriate dosage. Dr. Upjohn built his new pill layer by layer, like a snowball rolling down a hill. The resulting product was essentially dry to begin with and could not dry out over time. It easily dissolved when ingested. It was also friable--it could be crushed under your thumb.

His ingenuity had solved two problems: how to deliver medicine that would dissolve in the body and how to ensure precise control over the amount and quality of the active ingredients. Dr. Upjohn received a patent for his process in 1885. With brothers Henry, James, and Frederick as partners, William E. Upjohn founded the Upjohn Pill and Granule Company. And in the friable pill, they found both a product and a trademark symbol that helped their enterprise grow. 

To read more, visit: 

https://kalamazoomuseum.org/images/museon/2004-Winter-MuseON.pdf