Joaquin Duato’s commute ends where Johnson & Johnson began.
“Every morning, I go to work at the same place where Johnson & Johnson started in 1886,” the J&J Chairman and CEO said Tuesday at the ribbon-cutting of the New Jersey Innovation Hub at HELIX in New Brunswick.
Duato said the hub reminded him of how the company got its start.
“Our company started with two brothers that saw a problem and applied science to try to solve it,” he said.
The problem was infection. Duato said more Civil War soldiers died of infections than of wounds from battle, at a time when germ theory wasn’t understood. The brothers used sterile techniques to cut infections and deaths, which he said “had a transformative effect in patient care.”
“That is the same spirit that guides Johnson & Johnson today,” he said. Duato pointed to work in oncology, immunology, neuroscience and cardiovascular care, as well as gene therapy, cell therapy and robotic surgery.
The company has changed a lot. Its address hasn’t.
“Through all that change that Johnson & Johnson has gone through the years, we have never left New Jersey, and this state has been central in our past and is also central in our future,” Duato said.
Duato, a native of Spain, made the same point about the state’s talent.
“As you can see by my accent, I’m not from over here, but I’ve called New Jersey home for the last 25 years,” he said. “I think that’s one of the strengths of our state, that it’s open for talent from all over the world.”
The Johnsons weren’t the only innovators in town.
DEVCO President Chris Paladino told the crowd about the early brainstorming sessions he had with New Brunswick Mayor Jim Cahill. They talked about the Johnson brothers having lunch with Thomas Edison at Fred Kilmer’s pharmacy across the street. They talked about Albert Einstein and David Sarnoff regularly visiting the RCA experimental radio station in
New Brunswick. And they talked about Selman Waksman’s microbiology research at Rutgers, which led to streptomycin and a Nobel Prize.
Paladino said Cahill’s message was simple: The city needed to rekindle that spirit.
Portal Innovations founder and CEO John Flavin, who started his first biotech company with his brother, invoked the Johnson brothers, too. He put them alongside Edison, Einstein and Bell Labs as part of the innovation history that drew Portal to New Jersey.
Duato said the hub is about keeping that history going.
“It’s more than a laboratory and office space,” he said. “It’s a place where students, researchers, entrepreneurs, investors and established companies like us can work together to accelerate innovation.”
J&J is the naming sponsor of the Johnson & Johnson Exchange, the hub’s central gathering space.
Duato said New Jersey’s mix of scientific talent, universities, health care expertise, manufacturing and entrepreneurial energy is hard to match. He noted that eight of the 10 largest pharmaceutical companies have a presence in the state. He also said it can’t be taken for granted.
“That’s a strength, but as you know, things change, and leadership is never guaranteed,” he said. “If we want to continue in this leadership position, we have to renew our investment in science, in talent and in the next generation of innovators. That’s why this hub is so important.”
After 140 years in New Brunswick, Duato said, J&J plans to be part of what comes next.
“Johnson & Johnson is proud to be a member of this community, and we look forward to what we will build together,” he said.
