Health Sciences · Temerty Faculty of Medicine
A yellow/ off-white ~7 cm tall cardboard carton contains a glass vial filled with an amber liquid (10 cc heparin) as well as a folded paper informational insert. The vial has a metal cap with an integrated pull tab for opening.
Accession Number: 2026.med.67
Alternative Name:
Primary Materials: Glass, Cardboard.
Printed on phial: “P5476SJ”
Printed on insert: “ZLA 8 3-47”
Height = 6.7, Width = 2.8, Length = 2.8.
Heparin is a blood anticoagulant. It increases the activity of antithrombin, a protein produced by the liver that regulates blood clotting. It is a biological medicine, meaning that it is derived from animal tissues (in this case, beef lung).
The development of Heparin in the mid 1930s facilitated or improved a number of medical therapies. This included the prevention of blood clots during the use of cardiopulmonary bypass technology, which revolutionized cardiac surgery around the middle of the 20th century. Heparin is still widely used today.
The carton is has areas of discolouration and damage, but its labelling is entirely legible. The carton is torn at the bottom. The vial is unopened.
2026.med.68 represents the same item from the same manufacturer, likely made several years earlier. There are differences in the design of the box and the metal seal on the vial.
The Upjohn Company. Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA.
Date of Manufacture: c. 1940s.
Provenance:
Jeremy Winkworth (2025) “Heparin” Memories of The Upjohn Company. Website. (Archived 10 February 2026.)
Newell D. Jenkins (1973) “Heparin Standards: Relation to Sources.” JAMA : The Journal of the American Medical Association 226(11): 1359–1359.
In 1939, Roche-Organon produced the first clinically usable heparin to be manufactured in the United States.
In 1942, Upjohn began manufacturing heparin at its Kalamazoo plant, which had been established in 1886. Like Roche-Organon, their manufacturing process using bovine lung tissue was essentially the same as that introduced by Drs. David A. Scott (1892-1971) and Arthur F. Charles (1905-1972) of Connaught laboratories in Toronto. (See Winkworth, “Heparin” for archival photos of heparin manufacturing at Upjohn’s Kalamazoo plant.)
A letter to the JAMA published on 10 December 1973, noted: “Upjohn sources indicate that Upjohn is presently, and has been for several years, the sole commercial supplier of bovine lung heparin in the non-Communist world.” (Jenkins 1973, 1359)