Excedrin

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Excedrin is an over-the-counter headache pain reliever, typically in the form of tablets or caplets. It contains acetaminophen, acetylsalicylic acid, and caffeine. Until late 2005 it was manufactured by Bristol-Myers Squibb, but in July 2005 it was purchased by (and is now produced by) Novartis, along with other products from BMS's over-the-counter business. It is one of the top ten selling over-the-counter medicine brands in the United States^[1].

The brand became famous after advertisements in which Excedrin cured especially unpleasant and excruciating headaches (which were termed in the advertisements as "Excedrin headaches," later called "Excedrin tension headaches"). The advertisements, which first started in the 1960s [2], continue today.

1 Versions
2 Tamperings
3 Ownership
4 References

[edit] Versions

Over the years, different types of the drug were introduced^[3]^[4]:

1960 Excedrin Extra Strength, the formula changed for the last time in 1978^[5]¹
1969 Excedrin PM, a nighttime headache product
1998 Excedrin Migraine¹
2002 Excedrin QuickTabs, melt-in-your-mouth tablets
2003 Excedrin Tension Headaches

 ^{1 Amount of active ingredients in these two are exactly the same.}

[edit] Tamperings

See Stella Nickell for information on the 1986 Excedrin tampering murders in the Seattle area.

[edit] Ownership

In 2005, Bristol-Myers Squibb and announced the sale of its North American consumer medicine business (including Excedrin, Comtrex and Keri brands) to Novartis for 660 million dollars, in order to focus on drugs for ten most profitable disease areas^[6].

[edit] References

↑ "Novartis swallows Excedrin". Daily Mail, April 15, 2005 [7]
↑ "Relief for Tension Headache Pain - Bristol-Myers Squibb Launches Excedrin(R) Tension Headache". BMS News Release, June 2003 [8]
↑ "Excedrin.com > Product Guide" Nov. 12, 2006

[9]

↑ "Bristol-Myers Squibb Announces Injectable Acetaminophen Licencing Agreement; - Agreement Expands Existing Pain Management Portfolio". BMS News Release, January 28, 2002 [10]
↑ "Tylenol Terrorist". Crime Library. [11]