Where has all the Pepcid Complete gone?
That’s the question people who suffer from heartburn have been asking on blogs and in pharmacies ever since the product, made by Johnson & Johnson Merck Consumer Pharmaceuticals, a joint venture of the two drug giants, began to disappear from store shelves last fall.
The product’s Web site, for example, has a “buy now” button for Pepcid Complete. But that sends viewers to a link on drugstore.com for a different product, Pepcid AC.
The lack of a concrete explanation from the company about the reason behind the product’s disappearance has led to frustration and speculation among consumers — as well as high asking prices on Amazon.com ($75) and bids of $26 on eBay for 50-count bottles.
The curious disappearance of Pepcid Complete comes as Johnson & Johnson is trying to rectify manufacturing problems at its McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit that have resulted in product recalls dating to September 2009; McNeil provides manufacturing services for the joint venture with Merck that markets Pepcid.
But the dearth of Pepcid Complete — like the recent supply interruption of o.b. tampons, another popular consumer product from Johnson & Johnson — illustrates the company’s continuing communication problems with consumers. (The tampons are now back at some retailers, according to the product’s Web site.)
Last July, the Food and Drug Administration issued a 12-page inspection report, faulting a company plant in Lancaster, Pa., that makes Pepcid products for numerous manufacturing lapses. The problems cited by the F.D.A. included failure to thoroughly investigate consumer complaints of drug mix-ups and failure to investigate the quality of drug batches made during equipment malfunctions.
Last August, the joint venture recalled one lot, or about 15,000 bottles, of Pepcid Complete in tropical fruit flavor because of defective containers.
After that, consumers began to report the disappearance from stores of Pepcid Complete in flavors — cool mint and berry — that had not been involved in the recall.
In response to an inquiry last month, Bonnie Jacobs, a spokeswoman for McNeil, wrote in an e-mail, “When it comes to quality, we are evaluating our processes and making improvements at all the plants that manufacture our OTC [over-the-counter] products,” including those made by the joint venture with Merck. “As we do so, some products, such as Pepcid Complete, may occasionally become temporarily unavailable,” she wrote.
Ms. Jacobs added that the Pepcid Complete supply situation was not related to a safety issue nor was it related to the same issue behind last summer’s Pepcid recall. Consumers can expect to see Pepcid Complete back on store shelves starting this month, she said. But she declined to elaborate about the product’s current unavailability.
After my inquiry, the Pepcid Web site posted an announcement on Feb. 22, apologizing for any inconvenience and assuring customers that “we are working diligently to get your products back as quickly as possible.”
But the incomplete explanation does not sit well with some loyal consumers, like Brian Oakes, an independent trader in Warren, N.J., who sent me an e-mail asking for information about Pepcid’s vanishing act.
In a follow-up phone interview, Mr. Oakes said, “It’s amazing how they could pull a product like this off the shelves and not tell anyone why.”
