Janssen Pharmaceutica


Janssen Pharmaceutica is a pharmaceutical company headquartered in Beerse, Belgium and owned by Johnson & Johnson. It was founded in 1953 by Paul Janssen.
In 1961, Janssen Pharmaceutica was purchased by New Jersey-based American corporation Johnson & Johnson, and became part of Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Development, now renamed to Janssen Research and Development, which conducts research and development activities related to a wide range of human medical disorders, including mental illness, neurological disorders, anaesthesia and analgesia, gastrointestinal disorders, fungal infection, HIV/AIDS, allergies and cancer. Janssen and Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical have been placed in the Ortho-McNeil-Janssen group within Johnson & Johnson Company.

History

The early roots of what would become Janssen Pharmaceutica date back to 1933. In 1933, Constant Janssen, the father of Paul Janssen, acquired the right to distribute the pharmaceutical products of Richter, a Hungarian pharmaceutical company, for Belgium, the Netherlands and Belgian Congo. On 23 October 1934, he founded the N.V. Produkten Richter in Turnhout. In 1937, Constant Janssen acquired an old factory building in the Statiestraat 78 in Turnhout for his growing company, which he expanded during World War II into a four-storey building. Still a student, Paul Janssen assisted in the development of paracetamol under the name Perdolan, which would later become well-known. After the war, the name for the company products was changed to Eupharma, although the company name Richter would remain until 1956.
Paul Janssen founded his own research laboratory in 1953 on the third floor of the building in the Statiestraat, still within the Richter-Eurpharma company of his father. In 1955, he and his team developed their first drug: Neomeritine, an antispasmodic found to be particularly effective for the relief of menstrual pain. On 5 April 1956, the name of the company was changed to NV Laboratoria Pharmaceutica C. Janssen. On 27 April 1957, the company opened a new research facility in Beerse, but the move to Beerse would not be completed until 1971–1972. On 2 May 1958, the research department in Beerse became a separate legal entity, the N.V. Research Laboratorium C. Janssen.
On 24 October 1961, the company was acquired by the American corporation Johnson & Johnson. The negotiations with Johnson & Johnson were led by Frans Van den Bergh, head of the Board of Directors. On 10 February 1964, the name was changed to Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V. and the seat of the company in Turnhout was also transferred to Beerse. The company was led by Paul Janssen, Bob Stouthuysen and Frans Van Den Bergh. When, in 1971-1972 the pharmaceutical production also moved to Beerse, the move from Turnhout was completed. Between 1990 and 2004, Janssen Pharmaceutica expanded worldwide, and the company grew in size to about 28000 employees worldwide.
From the beginning, Janssen Pharmaceutica emphasized as its core activity research for the development of new drugs. The research department which was established in Beerse in 1957, developed into a large research campus. In 1987, the Janssen Research Foundation was founded which performs research into new drugs at Beerse and in other laboratories around the globe. Janssen Pharmaceutica became the Flemish company with the largest budget for research and development. Beside the headquarters in Beerse with its research departments, pharmaceutical production and the administrative departments, Janssen Pharmaceutica in Belgium still has offices in Berchem, a chemical factory in Geel, and Janssen Biotech in Olen.
The Chemical Production plant in Geel makes the active ingredients for the company's medicines. In 1975, the first plant of a new chemical factory Plant I was established in Geel, Plant II was opened in 1977, Plant III' in 1984, and Plant IV in 1995. In 1999 the remaining chemical production in Beerse was transferred to Geel. About 80% of its active components are manufactured here. The site in Geel also manufactures about two-thirds of the worldwide chemical production of the pharmaceutical sector of Johnson & Johnson. In 1995, the Center for Molecular Design was founded by Paul Janssen and Paul Lewi.
In 1999, clinical research and non-clinical development become a global organization within Johnson & Johnson. In 2001, part of the research activities was transferred to the United States with the reorganization of research activities in the Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Development organization. The research activities of the Janssen Research Foundation and the R.W. Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute were merged into the new global research organization. A new building for pharmaceutical development was completed in Beerse in 2001. In 2002, a new logistics and informatics centre was opened at a new site, Beerse 2. In 2003 two new research buildings were constructed, the Discovery Research Center, and the Drug Safety Evaluation Center. On 27 October 2004, the Paul Janssen Research Center, for discovery research, was inaugurated.
In March 2015, Janssen licensed tipifarnib to Kura Oncology who will assume sole responsibility for developing and commercialising the anti-cancer drug. Later in the same month the company announced that Galapagos Pharma and regained the rights to the anti-inflammatory drug candidate GLPG1690 as well as two other compounds including GLPG1205.
In May 2016, the company launched a collaboration MacroGenics and their preclinical cancer treatment, MGD015. The deal could net MacroGenics more than $740 million.
In September 2017 it was announced that Janssen teamed up with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, a unit of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to create pandemic flu vaccines. BARDA is giving Janssen $43 million in the first year and $273 million over five years for the contract. One of the projects in the contract is the development of a universal flu vaccine. The intent of the vaccine would be to protect people against all or most flu strains.
On 5 March 2019, the Food and Drug Administration approved Janssen's Spravato for treatment-resistant major depressive disorder. This marked the first approval of a new type of antidepressant in decades.

Drugs developed

R-codeNameBrand nameSynthetizedMarketed
R5ambucetamideNeomeritine19531955
R79isopropamide iodidePriamide-Janssen19541955
R253diisopromineBilagol19551956
R516cinnarizineStugeron19551958
R875dextromoramidePalfium19551957
R1132diphenoxylateReasec19561960
R1625haloperidolHaldol19581959
R2498trifluperidolTriperidol19591961
R3345pipamperoneDipiperon19601961
R3365piritramideDipidolor19601967
R4263fentanylSublimaze19601963
R4584benperidolFrenactyl19611965
R4749droperidolDehydrobenzperidol19611963
R4845bezitramideBurgodin19611971
R6218fluspirileneImap19631971
R6238pimozideOrap19631970
R7904lidoflazineClinium19641969
R11333bromperidolImpromen19661981
R12564levamisoleErgamisol19661969
R13672haloperidol decanoateHaldol decanoas19671981
R14889miconazole nitrateDaktarin19671971
R14950flunarizineSibelium19671977
R15889lorcainideRemivox19681983
R16341penfluridolSemap19681973
R16470dexetimideTremblex19681972
R16659etomidateHypnomidate19641977
R17635mebendazoleVermox19681972
R18553loperamideImodium19691973
R33800sufentanilSufenta19741979
R33812domperidoneMotilium19741978
R35443oxatomideTinset19751981
R39209alfentanilRapifen19761983
R33799carfentanilWildnil19761980?
R41400ketoconazoleNizoral19761981
R43512astemizoleHismanal19771983
R46541bromperidol decanoateImpromen decanoas19781984
R49945ketanserin tartrateSufrexal19801987
R50547levocabastineLivostin/Livocab19791989
R51211itraconazoleSporanox19801986
R51619cisapridePrepulsid19801989
R64766risperidoneRisperdal19841993
R207910bedaquilineSirturo20042012

Janssen Pharmaceutica has developed and brought to the market about 70 new active substances, of which the most well-known are :
Eight Janssen drugs have been included on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines:
On March 27, 2020, the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority allocated $456 million for Janssen to develop a vaccine against the novel coronavirus.

In China

Janssen Pharmaceutica was the first Western pharmaceutical company to set up a pharmaceutical factory in the People's Republic of China.
In 1976, Paul Janssen met Ma Haide, a Lebanese-American doctor who had started working in China in 1933. After three days of meetings, the two agreed to bring a modernized pharmaceutical business to China. When Chairman Deng Xiaoping opened China to the West in 1978, Janssen Pharmaceutica sent Paul Appermont and Joos Horsten to set up the project.
In 1983, Janssen signed a cooperation contract to modernize production in an old chemical factory in the city of Hanzhong, in Shaanxi province. This factory would soon produce the active compound of some Janssen products, such as mebendazole. In 1985, now operating as Xian-Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a new large factory was opened in the city of Xi'an, also in Shaanxi province.

Controversies

Juries in several US states have found that Janssen Pharmaceutical and its parent company Johnson & Johnson deceptively promoted the antipsychotic drug Risperdal. By 2012, four states had been awarded damages, including Louisiana, South Carolina, Texas, and most notably Arkansas - whose Attorney General stated: “These two companies put profits before people, and they are rightfully being held responsible for their actions".
In a related issue, Risperdal sales practices resulted in a 2012 provisional settlement totaling $2.3 billion. The United States Department of Justice began investigating Risperdal sales practices in 2004, and in 2010 joined a whistleblowers suit alleging bribes paid to Omnicare, the largest company supplying pharmaceutical drugs to nursing homes. The allegations include that Johnson & Johnson and Janssen were warned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration not to promote Risperdal as effective and safe for elderly patients when in fact it is associated with early death, but they did so; and that they in fact bribed Omnicare pharmacists tens of millions of dollars to promote the drug to care home physicians for this unapproved use. A settlement was provisionally agreed with Johnson & Johnson of around $2.2 billion for this and related allegations, with Omnicare having already settled for around $100 million. Former head of sales and president of Janssen, Alex Gorsky, who the Dept of Justice say “was actively involved” in the fraud, nevertheless became the new CEO of Johnson & Johnson in 2012.