UPJOHN PHARMACEUTICAL SALESMANS BAG

UPJOHN PHARMACEUTICAL SALESMANS BAG

Approximately 16" x 8 1/2" x 7"

My sister picked this up at a local garage sale, thinking it was a tacklebox. As soon as I saw it. I believed it was a salesman sample bag. It is..and a fantastic find!

The outside looks like alligator skin. It opens to reveals a blood red interior and a pair of tiered trays that open similar to a tackle box.

Head of sales George McClelland in 1910, decided his salespeople should have a badge of distinction. He designed a bag from alligator skin. After WWII the bags were made from calf skin with alligator grain due to cost.

This bag has a very convincing look and feel of alligator compared to known faux bags I've seen. The bag has a much different pattern and look than the one on the website that I'll link in the comments. More research needed.

THE UPJOHN PILL AND GRANILE COMPANY
Physician William E. Upjohn and his brother Henry founded the Upjohn Pill and Granule Co. in 1886.

AN EASY PILL TO SWALLOW
"William Upjohn had patented a process for making a pill capable of crumbling under the pressure of a thumb and therefore being easily digested.". With this new process business prospered and in 1903 the company became The Upjohn Company.

GROWING HORMONES
"Upjohn became the first to market an adrenocortical hormone product in 1935. By the late 1940s, the firm had products in all four steroid classes — androgens, estrogens, progestogens, and adrenocortical hormones."

CORTISONE = CASH ZONE
In 1929, Edward C. Kendall and Harold L. Mason identified cortisone while working at the Mayo Clinic. Within 2 decades the clinic discovered the dramatic effect of injections of this steroid in alleviating symptoms in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

“At the time, cortisone was still being manufactured almost entirely as an extract from animal adrenal glands, making the supply very low and the cost very high,”

EARLY BIRD DOESN'T ALWAYS GET THE WORM
In the late 1940s, Merck & Co. was the first to produce cortisone commercially, but Upjohn was right on their heels and soon had the advantage. Upjohn had developed a process for the large-scale production of cortisone that differed from Merck’s process.

The history of the Upjohn Company is considerable and the list of medications they developed is extensive. A few that you will recognize are Xanax, Halcion, Motrin, Lincocin, and Rogaine.

The company is still in business today, although in 2020 Pfizer completed transactions for the company to merge with Mylan N.V. to form Viatris Inc.