Chattem, which Sanofi Aventis is buying for $1.9bn to bring its Allegra anti-allergy drug to the over-the-counter market, has some striking products – Gold Bond, Icy Hot and Selsun Blue to name three.
The company also has an intriguing history reaching back to the days of the snake oil salesman, before the 1906 Food and Drugs Act cleared up some of the dubious claims and salesmanship of the era.
As Chattem’s official history puts it:
The company was founded as the Chattanooga Medicine Company on February 21, 1879. It began operations in a small unpretentious 2-story brick building located on a muddy, unpaved road called Market Street in the heart of downtown Chattanooga . . .
The first product was Thedford’s Black Draught, a senna based laxative, originally developed in 1840 by Dr. A.Q. Simmons of Snow Hill, Georgia . . . Legend has it that in the early days of the British Navy it was customary for the sailors to be given a weekly infusion of senna along with their customary lot of rum. Since the mariner’s diet consisted largely of salt pork, bully beef and hardtack, the custom was in the best interest of all onboard . . .
With Black Draught successfully on its way, the Company acquired a second product called Dr McElree’s Wine of Cardui, a preparation or tonic for women based on the sedative and antispasmodic properties of Cnicus benedictus. While knowledge of the complex drug properties of botanical Cnicus benedictus extended back hundreds of years in Central Europe, there is no recorded history of the plant or its seeds being transported to the United States. Yet in 1833, Mrs. Francis Smith was growing it in her Fayetteville, Tennessee garden.
Reportedly, Mrs. Smith became acquainted with a Cherokee Indian who stopped temporarily in her town. Mrs. Smith observed this Indian bring dramatic relief to a young girl suffering from dysmenorrhea by using a compound from the dried leaves of this botanical plant. The husband of Mrs. Smith persuaded the Indian to give them a handful of dried leaves and a few seeds.
These days, Chattem still sells dietary supplements but its biggest area is medicated skin care, with products such as Cortizone and Balmex. The aforementioned Icy Hot is one of its topical anaesthetics, along with Aspercreme.
Sanofi Aventis is acquiring it to expand in OTC treatments and reduce its dependence on the still-troubled patented blockbuster business. A stream of patented blockbusters are now coming off patent at the large pharmaceutical companies and other drugs are being switched.
Sanofi Aventis is converting Allegra, which has 7.8m patients in the US, in order to keep leading its position in the market for fexofenadine, the underlying chemical entity.
To do so, it is keeping some interesting company.
