ModiCon Oral Contraceptive

ModiCon Oral Contraceptive

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Description (Brief)
The popularity of “the Pill” created a new market for pharmaceutical companies. For the first time, healthy women would be taking medication for an extended period of time. Pill manufacturers developed unique packaging in order to distinguish their product from those of their competitors and build brand loyalty. Packaging design often incorporated a “memory aid” to assist women in tracking their daily pill regimen, as well as styled cases to allow pills to be discreetly carried in bags and purses. The National Museum of American History’s Division of Medicine and Science’s collection of oral contraceptives illustrates some of the changes that the packaging and marketing of the Pill underwent from its inception in 1960 to the present.
The Ortho Pharmaceutical Corporation of Raritan, New Jersey, produced this ModiCon brand oral contraceptive around 1977. The foil package contains a 21-pill Dialpak dispenser. Ortho trademarked the term DialPak in 1965, and was the first company to release their medication in a memory-aid device, now ubiquitous among makers of oral contraceptives.
Location
Currently not on view
Object Name
pharmaceutical, dispenser of
contraceptive, oral
Other Terms
pharmaceutical, dispenser of; Pharmaceutical; Contraceptive; Oral Contraceptive; Tablet
date made
1977-1980
maker
Ortho Pharmaceutical Corporation
place made
United States: New Jersey, Raritan
Physical Description
foil (package material)
norethindrone, 0.5 mg (drug active ingredients)
ethinyl estradiol, 0.035 mg (drug active ingredients)
Measurements
overall: 13.2 cm x 7.6 cm x 1.8 cm; 5 3/16 in x 3 in x 11/16 in
overall: 3/4 in x 3 1/4 in x 5 1/4 in; 1.905 cm x 8.255 cm x 13.335 cm
ID Number
1981.0760.034.A
catalog number
1981.0760.034.A
accession number
1981.0760
Credit Line
Gift of Gladys Abell and Lester D. Johnson, Jr., M.D.
subject
Birth Control/Contraception
Women's Health
See more items in
Medicine and Science: Medicine
Health & Medicine
Birth Control
Data Source
National Museum of American History
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