Ortho-Cept Oral Contraceptive

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.

Description (Brief)

The Ortho Pharmaceutical Corporation of Raritan, New Jersey, produced this Ortho-Tri-Cyclen 28 oral contraceptive around 1992. The 28-pill regimen is in a red foil wrapper that contains a DialPak dispenser and a booklet entitled “Questions and answers on Ortho-Cyclen tablets.” 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.

Date Made: 1994-1996Product Expiration Date: 1996-12

Maker: Ortho Pharmaceutical CorporationDiosynth bv

Location: Currently not on view

Place Made: United States: New Jersey, RaritanNetherlands: North Brabant, Oss

Subject: Birth Control/ContraceptionWomen's Health

Subject:

See more items in: Medicine and Science: Medicine, Health & Medicine, Birth Control

Exhibition:

Exhibition Location:

Credit Line: Gift of Gladys Johnson

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Id Number: 2004.0118.08Accession Number: 2004.0118Catalog Number: 2004.0118.08

Object Name: contraceptive, oral

Physical Description: desogestrel, 0.15 mg (drug (orange tablet) active ingredients)ethinyl estradiol, 0.03 mg (drug (orange tablet) active ingredients)foil (package material)paper (booklet material)plastic (package material)Measurements: overall: 14.25 cm x 9.5 cm x 1.5 cm; 5 5/8 in x 3 3/4 in x 9/16 inoverall: 3/4 in x 3 7/8 in x 5 3/4 in; 1.905 cm x 9.8425 cm x 14.605 cm

Guid: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746ab-6638-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

Record Id: nmah_1273028

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