J&J Moves Back Into IUD Market, Buying GynoPharma

For an undisclosed sum, Johnson & Johnson has acquired New-Jersey-based GynoPharma, which holds a 95% share of the US intrauterine device market. GynoPharma will keep its name and be merged into J&J's Ortho McNeil subsidiary, which has the largest domestic stake in oral contraceptives. Alza is the only other US company that sells IUDs.

The most-recently reported figures of GynoPharma's annual sales of $25 million indicate that IUDs account for only a small share of the USA's $1.25 billion total contraceptives market. Only 1% of fertile women have used the IUD, which is not recommended for young, single women. Oral contraceptives remain the most popular choice among women, and Ortho McNeil has the top position with its Ortho-Novum, Ortho-Cept, Ortho-Cyclen and Ortho-Tricyclic pills. J&J left the domestic IUD market some 10 years ago, when it pulled its Lippes Loop IUD off the market after negative publicity about the Dalkon Shield, but continued to sell the devices abroad.

IUDs Coming Back In Favor Currently, media reports about IUDs have been positive (including an April study in the American Journal of Public Health), and GynoPharma has had only one suit against its ParaGard 380A since it was introduced in 1988. According to an Ortho spokesman, the climate is right for a re-entry, and the stigma of the Dalkon Shield has passed. He added that the time is right to have a long-lasting, reversible contraceptive device. The device is sold to doctors for $200, with a total fitting cost to women of about $400.