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Over the past twenty two years I have been injected, against my will, with 3
different drugs manufactured and promoted by the Belgian drug company
Janssen Pharmaceutica. These injections were painful and unnecessary. Rather
than improving my health, they caused considerable pain and suffering as well
as the development of ‘side-effects’ also known as ‘adverse effects’. These
have included Parkinsonism, weight gain, reduced creativity, anhedonia (lack
of pleasure), sterility and loss of libido, hypersalivation and ‘drooling’,
akathesia (physical restlessness) and difficulty in speaking. They have also put
me at risk of longer term illness and early death.
Janssen Pharmaceutica
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Janssen Pharmaceutica
Industry Pharmaceutical
Founded 1953
Website www.janssenpharmaceuticalsinc.com
Janssen Pharmaceutica is a pharmaceutical company headquartered in Beerse, Belgium. 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 (J&J PRD), now renamed to Janssen Research and Development
(JRD), 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.
Contents
1History
o 1.1Drugs developed
o 1.2In China
2Controversies
3See also
4References
5Sources
6External links
History[edit]
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 (USP: acetaminophen, often referred to generically under the trademark Tylenol)
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. [1]
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 (ambucetamide), 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 (named after Constant 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 (JRF) 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 (Janssen-Cilag), 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 (CMD) 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 (JJPRD) organization. The research activities of the Janssen Research
Foundation (JRF) and the R.W. Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute (PRI) (United States)
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 (DRC), and the Drug Safety Evaluation Center (DSEC). On 27
October 2004, the Paul Janssen Research Center, for discovery research, was inaugurated.
In March 2015, Janssen licensed tipifarnib (a farnesyl transferase inhibitor) 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
[2]
the rights to the anti-inflammatory drug candidate GLPG1690 as well as two other compounds
including GLPG1205 (a first-in-class inhibitor of GPR84). [3]
In May 2016, the company launched a collaboration MacroGenics and their preclinical cancer
treatment, MGD015. The deal could net MacroGenics more than $740 million. [4]
In September 2017 it was announced that Janssen teamed up with the Biomedical Advanced
Research and Development Authority (BARDA), 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.
[5]
Drugs developed[edit]
Risperdal tablets
Janssen Pharmaceutica has developed and brought to the market about 70 new active
substances (NCE), of which the most well-known are (name may differ):
Xi'an-Janssen
Controversies[edit]
Juries in several US states have found that Janssen Pharmaceutical and its parent company
Johnson & Johnson deceptively promoted the antipsychotic drug Risperdal (risperidone). By
2012, four states had been awarded damages, including Louisiana ($258 million in 2010), South
Carolina ($327 million in 2011), Texas ($158 million in 2012), and most notably Arkansas ($1.2
billion in 2012) - whose Attorney General stated: “These two companies put profits before people,
and they are rightfully being held responsible for their actions". [15]
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
[16]
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 [17][18]
that Johnson & Johnson and Janssen were warned by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) 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
[16]
say “was actively involved” in the fraud, nevertheless become the new CEO of Johnson &
Johnson in 2012.[19]