Chapter 1158: 396. Another powerful force in New Jersey
After Donnie returned to Atlantic City, the first guest he t was soone with a significant influence in New Jersey.
This person was nad Robert Johnson.
One of the founders of the well-known family business in New Jersey, Johnson & Johnson.
Also one of the most powerful pharmaceutical companies of later centuries, Johnson & Johnson!
However, at this ti, Johnson & Johnson had not yet gone public, and the company belonged to the Johnson family!
“Mr. Johnson, it is a great pleasure to have you here!”
When Donnie saw Robert Johnson, who was already 81 years old, he showed sufficient respect by getting up to welco him personally.
Robert Johnson modestly smiled and said, “Mr. Block, you are too kind. I heard that you encountered so unpleasant matters while in Washington. Are they resolved now?”
After Robert Johnson sat on the sofa, Donnie also sat down and smiled, saying, “They are resolved, thank you very much for your concern, Mr. Johnson!”
Looking at Donnie, Robert Johnson felt not much joy, but rather a great deal of wariness.
When Johnson & Johnson was founded, Donnie Block hadn’t been born yet, but now Donnie Block had indeed beco the undisputed king of New Jersey.
Compared to Donnie Block’s pace of developnt, Johnson & Johnson’s seed to fall short.
As a business also in New Jersey, Robert Johnson was very familiar with Donnie’s character, and he also knew about Donnie’s recent circumstances.
Robert Johnson knew that Venus Bank had already used the Radiation Detector to formally enter the United States pharmaceutical industry, even inviting the bacteriologist Alexander Fleming from the United Kingdom, no, moving his entire research lab to New Jersey.
Moreover, right next to Johnson & Johnson’s production plant, Venus Bank had already started constructing their pharmaceutical production facility!
All these signs indicated that Venus Bank was embarking on a full-scale entry into the pharmaceutical industry.
Robert Johnson also knew that Venus Bank had previously entered the agriculture and livestock industry, and after entering it, their most significant step was acquiring the renowned ADM company in the United States.
Now, what exactly was Donnie’s purpose in inviting him here?
Robert Johnson had a bad feeling!
“Mr. Block, I wonder what the purpose is for which you invited here today?”
Actually, before coming, Robert Johnson had already thought it through: when facing Donnie in New Jersey, it’s better not to harbor too many ideas. Directly asking his purpose might be better.
Donnie smiled and said, “Since Mr. Johnson, you directly asked, I won’t beat around the bush. I hope to invest in Johnson & Johnson with capital in cash, channels, and transportation, of course while still acknowledging the Johnson family’s managent of Johnson & Johnson!”
Inviting Robert Johnson to his office, Donnie also showed Robert Johnson great respect, naturally aiming for a stake in Johnson & Johnson.
However, Donnie did not plan on a direct acquisition.
This involved the situation concerning Johnson & Johnson.
Although Johnson & Johnson was founded by the Johnson family, the company’s products were not invented by Robert Johnson.
Before adhesive bandages were invented, wounds were treated with sothing called a combination dicated patch, and Robert Johnson lived through the Arican Civil War.
At that ti, however, he was too young, only 16, not old enough to enlist, but his two older brothers enlisted.
Thus, Robert Johnson went to a pharmacy as an apprentice and later took on so battlefield dical work.
The talented Robert Johnson quickly learned to make combination dicated patches and then marketed them far and wide.
He even tried to co-found a company with friends to specialize in selling dicated patches, and the sales were excellent.
If things had continued to develop this way, the world might have had a major dicated patch manufacturer, but there would be no Johnson & Johnson today.
The turning point in the story appeared in 1876, when the World Expo was held in Philadelphia, along with a doctors’ gathering called the “International dical Congress,” which claid to have 10 million participants.
At the conference, the famous British doctor Joseph Lister was promoting a new surgical concept: sterile surgery.
The dical field at that ti had not yet realized that surgical infections were caused by bacteria, but attendee Robert knew that Joseph Lister was right.
Among the 720,000 deaths in the Civil War, many died from postoperative infections; the postoperative death rate in hospitals was as high as 90%, and the cotton used in surgical dressings at the ti was even made from the debris cleaned from the floors of textile factories.
At this mont, Robert Johnson clearly realized that the antiseptic surgery advocated by Joseph Lister would be the future of dicine. Antibiotics had not been discovered yet, and the carbolic acid used by Joseph Lister for disinfection was not effective enough. Robert Johnson imdiately thought: perhaps producing ready-to-use surgical dressings could reduce infections.
After so contemplation, he abandoned the dicated patch business and started anew by founding Johnson & Johnson in New Jersey. He also recruited his two brothers into Johnson & Johnson, and the three of them beca the company’s founders.
Johnson & Johnson slowly began to produce the world’s first batch of sterile surgical supplies including plaster, bandages, sutures, cotton wool, and gauze.
Thus, the business-savvy, marketing, and technology-adept Johnson brothers fully committed themselves to the dical goods field, and by the onset of World War I, they had monopolized 90% of the world’s surgical suture, gauze, and bandage supplies.
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