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August 27, 2010 by Donald Riker, PhD
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P&G gained right-of-first refusal for the OTC rights to Silenor® in an Rx co-promotion deal with its originator, Somaxon Pharma, San Diego, CA (press release). Silenor® is a "new" Rx treatment for sleep disruption and insomnia that resurrects a well-known compound (doxepin) that first entered the US Rx market in 1969. Arguably there has been no new active ingredient introduced into the OTC sleep aid category in 30+ years.
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August 16, 2010 by Administrator
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OTC Product News will automatically deliver our insightful editorials directly to your in-box as soon as they are published. We do that through the RSS function, or Really Simple Syndication. That's the orange icon shown in the picture to the left and available in the upper right-hand side of our home page. Keep current with OTC/PN by clicking on this icon and choose to be updated by either:
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August 14, 2010 by Donald Riker, PhD
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 The lay press [UK Guardian] reported the publication of research done by well-known asthma physicians Drs. Richard Beasley, Julian Crane and others [reference] concluding that the development of asthma in early adolescents is associated with the previous use of acetaminophen (eg-Tylenol). If true this association is troubling since acetaminophen is the preferred analgesic and antipyretic of parents and pediatricians when treating kids for pain and fever. These findings come on the heels of J&J/McNeil’s disastrous bungling and recall of the Tylenol brand in the US and long-standing worries about acetaminophen liver toxicity [FDA Comments].
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August 02, 2010 by Donald Riker, PhD
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 What could be more revealing of a frustrated consumer than his determination to find new cures for his problem? We often think of gauging consumer need by asking unsolicited questions in focus groups, surveys or one-on-one's. OTC Product News has uncovered an obscure source of volunteered needs by the most unsatisfied of consumers.
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July 21, 2010 by Donald Riker, PhD
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 "We then call the one object, cause; the other, effect. We suppose that there is some connexion between them; some power in the one, by which it infallibly produces the other, and operates with the greatest certainty and strongest necessity... experience only teaches us, how one event constantly follows another; without instructing us in the secret connexion, which binds them together, and renders them inseparable."
-David Hume
Enquiries Concerning the Human Understanding and Principles of Morals, 1737
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July 19, 2010 by Donald Riker, PhD
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 OTC Product News recognized the danger early on: that the collapse of J&J's quality systems would endanger its brand heritage and corporate integrity. Now yet another plant is under inspection by the FDA this time a Merck/J&J joint venture facility managed by J&J that makes Pepcid, Imodium, and Mylanta, all OTC gastrointestinal products [CNN/Money]. If the same corrupted quality system controls J&J's prescription products the contagion could become a pandemic threatening it to the core.
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July 16, 2010 by Donald Riker, PhD
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 In a hard-to-find, unsigned statement McNeil, not "J&J", issued a Kremlinesque announcement of job lay-offs of 75% of standing headcount and an extended shut-down at its Fort Washington plant lasting into 2011 following its plant contamination and cavalier management. The fact that this statement was not issued as a corporate press release on its websites confirms more "skulking on the Schuylkill".
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July 14, 2010 by Donald Riker, PhD
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 Boehringer Ingelheim locks up a promising OTC nasal spray technology to prevent the common cold --- just what Zicam [Matrixx] needed. Unfortunately the product roll out appears to be entirely outside the US.
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July 09, 2010 by Donald Riker, PhD
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The looming scope and severity of the initial J&J Tylenol recall was appreciated here at OTC Product News as soon as the first report surfaced. Now the recall has become a rolling blackout of the Tylenol brand---their most recent announcement came on July 8.
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July 05, 2010 by Donald Riker, PhD
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In the midst of the Tylenol public relations fiasco J&J now launches Precise™, a wholly new brand of topical heating patch --- a weird product presentation and an odd gambit --- its positioning muddled much like the handling of the Tylenol crisis. The last major new branded entry in this segment was Chattem’s ill-fated Icy Hot Heat Therapy which burned nearly 1,000 users.
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June 19, 2010 by Donald Riker, PhD
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 Meerkats (Suricata suricatta) are small social mammals of the mongoose family found in the South African and Botswana desert. The photo to the left demonstrates perhaps their most endearing pose as some in this highly social group stand on alert. While this behavior is adaptive in the Kalahari it is not so adaptive in the retail aisle ... see how meerkats can affect retailers and health & beauty care manufacturers using pump bottles...
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