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Sunday, June 10, 2012

Johnson & Johnson

 Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) is an American multinational medical devices, pharmaceutical 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 consistently ranks at the top of Harris Interactive's National Corporate Reputation Survey, ranking as the world's most respected company by Barron's Magazine,and was the first corporation awarded the Benjamin Franklin Award for Public Diplomacy by the U.S. State Department for its funding of international education programs. A suit brought by the United States Department of Justice in 2010, however, alleges that, from 1999 to 2004, the company illegally marketed drugs including antipsychotics to Omnicare, a pharmacy that dispenses the drugs in nursing homes. Johnson & Johnson responded that the payments were lawful and appropriate.

The corporation's headquarters is located in New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States with the consumer division being located in Skillman, New Jersey. The corporation includes some 250 subsidiary companies with operations in over 57 countries and products sold in over 175 countries. Johnson & Johnson had worldwide pharmaceutical sales of $65 billion for the calendar year of 2011.

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.

In 2012, Johnson & Johnson announced that they will start to fund the therapeutic device company Clarimedix Inc. to support "proof of concept" study.

Corporate governance

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


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 the 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 across the railroad tracks from the older portion of the headquarters. The stretch of Delaware and Raritan canal by the company's headquarters was replaced by a stretch of Route 18 in the late 1970s, after a lengthy dispute.
Environmental record

Johnson & Johnson has set several positive goals to keep the company environmentally friendly and was ranked third among the United States's largest companies in Newsweek's "Green Rankings". Some examples are the reduction in water use, waste, and energy use and an increased level of transparency.Johnson & Johnson agreed to change its packaging of plastic bottles due to harmful chemicals used in the manufacturing process, switching their packaging of liquids to safe non-polycarbonate containers. The corporation is working with the Climate Northwest Initiative and the EPA National Environmental Performance Track program. As a member of the national Green Power Partnership, Johnson & Johnson operates the largest solar power generator in Pennsylvania at its site in Spring House, PA.
Internet communication

Johnson & Johnson is known for having registered many high profile internet domains during the early internet years 1996 to 2000. The Johnson & Johnson internet portfolio includes 29,925 internet domains, more than most of the large internet and technology companies. The portfolio includes generic expressions like Babypowder.com as well as a couple of very short domains; 2 of the 676 two letter domains, jj.com and ky.com, are owned by Johnson & Johnson.
Recalls
1982 Chicago Tylenol murders

On September 29, 1982, a "Tylenol scare" began when the first of seven individuals died in metropolitan Chicago, after ingesting Extra Strength Tylenol that had been deliberately laced with cyanide. Within a week, the company pulled 31 million bottles of capsules back from retailers, making it one of the first major recalls in American history.The incident led to reforms in the packaging of over-the-counter substances and to federal anti-tampering laws. The case remains unsolved and no suspects have been charged. Johnson & Johnson's quick response, including a nationwide recall, was widely praised by public relations experts and the media and was the gold standard for corporate crisis management.
2010 children's product recall


On April 30, 2010, McNeil Consumer Healthcare, a subsidiary of Johnson and Johnson, voluntarily recalled 43 over-the-counter children's medicines, including Tylenol, Tylenol Plus, Motrin, Zyrtec and Benadryl. The recall was conducted after a routine inspection at a manufacturing facility in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, United States revealed that some "products may not fully meet the required manufacturing specifications". Affected products may contain a "higher concentration of active ingredients" or exhibit other manufacturing defects.Products shipped to Canada, Dominican Republic, Guam, Guatemala, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Fiji were included in the recall.In a statement, Johnson & Johnson said "a comprehensive quality assessment across its manufacturing operations" was underway. A dedicated website was established by the company listing affected products and other consumer information.
2010 Hip replacement recall


On August 29, 2010, DePuy, a subsidiary of American giant Johnson & Johnson, recalled its ASR (articular surface replacement) hip prostheses from the market. DePuy said the recall was due to unpublished National Joint Registry data showing a 12% revision rate for resurfacing at five years and an ASR XL revision rate of 13%. All hip prostheses fail in some patients, but it is expected that the rate will be about 1% a year. Pathologically, the failing prosthesis had several effects. Metal debris from wear of the implant led to a reaction that destroyed the soft tissues surrounding the joint, leaving some patients with long term disability. Ions of cobalt and chromium—the metals from which the implant was made—were also released into the blood and cerebral spinal fluid in some patients.
Litigation
Use of the Red Cross symbol
Flag of the Red Cross


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. 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 by 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. 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.

In August 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.[30] In May 2008, the judge in the case dismissed most of Johnson & Johnson's claims, and a month later the two organizations announced a settlement had been reached in which both parties would continue to use the symbol.
Boston Scientific lawsuits

Beginning in 2003, Johnson & Johnson and Boston Scientific have been involved in a series of litigations involving patents covering heart stent medical devices. Both parties claimed that the other had infringed upon their patents. The litigation was settled once Boston Scientific agreed to pay $716 million to Johnson & Johnson in September 2009 and an additional $1.73 billion in February 2010.
Patent-infringement case against Abbott

In 2007, Johnson & Johnson sued Abbott Laboratories over the development and sale of the arthritis drug Humira. Johnson & Johnson claimed that Abbott used technology patented by New York University and licensed exclusively to Johnson & Johnson's Centocor division to develop Humira. Johnson & Johnson won the court case, and in 2009 Abbott was ordered to pay Johnson & Johnson $1.17 billion in lost revenues and $504 million in royalties. The judge also added $175.6 million in interest to bring the total to $1.84 billion. This was the largest patent-infringement award in U.S. history.



The United States Department of Justice unsuccessfully brought suit against the company in 2010, alleging that Johnson & Johnson illegally marketed its drugs through Omnicare, a company that supplies pharmaceutical drugs to nursing homes. The alleged kickbacks amounted to "tens of millions of dollars" according to The Wall Street Journal. Johnson & Johnson responded that such rebates are a "standard practice in the health care industry and have been used widely by governmental and private payers" and that Johnson & Johnson's rebate programs "have been and remain lawful and appropriate". The judge sided with Johnson & Johnson and the lawsuit was dismissed in September 2011.
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