No More Pain: History of Advil (Ibuprofen)

In 1984, Pfizer Inc. introduces a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (ibuprofen) drug to the United States labeled under the name Advil. Advil is used to reduce fever and relieve pain. Pfizer is the world largest pharmaceutical company founded by Charles Pfizer in 1849. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) or ibuprofen is a copied of propionic acid discovered by Dr. Stewart Adams and his colleagues known as the Boots Group in the United Kingdom, 1961. The Boots group investigated that carboxylic acid as the cause that gave aspirin its anti-inflammatory property. They found propionic to be twice as strong as aspirin. The Boots Group started officially selling ibuprofen in 1964. In 1969, ibuprofen originally served to treat patients with rheumatoid arthritis in the UK and was made available in the US in 1974.

Ibuprofen causes fewer side effects than aspirin and more effective for dental pain and soft-tissue injury. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a disease that causes chronic inflammation in the joints, body tissue and organs.

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The Boots Group initially licenses ibuprofen to two pharmaceutical companies. Wyeth Whitehall Laboratories was the first pharmaceutical company licensed. Wyeth Whitehall Laboratories sold ibuprofen as the name Advil as the United States distributor. Bristol-Meyers were the second company licensed and marketed ibuprofen as Nuprin. In 1983, The Food and Drug Administration approved over the counter status for ibuprofen in the United States. Over 100 million people had been treated with ibuprofen in over 110 countries by 1985. By 1985, ibuprofen was in high demand. The Boots Group kept the patent to ibuprofen until 1985, allowing a number of new manufacturers companies to market their own product form of ibuprofen. Wyeth Whitehall Laboratories understood that Boots could not keep up with the high demand. The Boots Group manufacturer was still making all products manually by hand operation. Due to high demand, Michael Dryden of Whitehall R&D formed a team to create an automated manufacturing process. The first production operation of units started in 1987.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4Mwbh9Dejk

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By 1988, Wyeth Whitehall Laboratories build two massive manufacture facilities, first one in Hammonton, New Jersey and the second in Guayama, Puerto Rico. Both facilities produce approximately 32,400,000 tablets per day. Wyeth closed the Hammonton facility and moved all production to Guayama, Puerto Rico in 2004, making it the only U.S. facility to manufacturer Advil. In 2009, Pfizer acquired Wyeth in a cash and stock merger. Pfizer gained the rights and control of all Wyeth products including Advil. As of today, Pfizer/Wyeth produces several kinds of Advil pain relievers for customers, Advil PM, Advil Cold and Sinus, Advil Liqui-Gels, Advil Migraine, and Advil Allergy Sinus.