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NEW YORK — Help Remedies, a maker of "minimalist" over-the-counter medicines, is hitting the shelves at Walgreens.
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Help Remedies’ single-ingredient OTC products are designed to provide simple solutions to basic health issues. |
The company said Tuesday that its seven, single-ingredient OTC products will make their debut this month in Walgreens drug stores nationwide.
Help Remedies’ current retail distribution includes Duane Reade, Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy and some Target stores, as well as boutique hotels.
According to Help Remedies, its nonprescription products are designed to provide simple solutions to basic health care issues, which is reflected in their sleek yet bare-bones packaging.
The line includes a sleep aid — on the package, it says "Help – I can’t sleep" — as well as an antihistamine (Help – I have allergies), a hydrocolloid bandage for blisters (Help – I have a blister), a nasal decongestant (Help – I have a stuffy nose), an adhesive bandage (Help – I’ve cut myself), an ibuprofen pain reliever (Help – I have an aching body) and an acetaminophen pain reliever (Help – I have a headache).
The packaging embodies Help Remedies’ "Take Less" message: less drugs (all of its medicines are made with single active ingredients), less dyes (Help products are made with no dyes and the fewest possible coatings) and less confusion (each product is titled after the symptom it’s meant to treat, instead of bearing a brand name).
"Drug companies’ ongoing need to make more and sell more results in a proliferation of complicated and unclear products — mixed active ingredients, higher dosages, unnecessary dyes and coatings. All of this nonsense makes for a confused consumer, who very often has little idea what drugs they are actually consuming when they reach for a bottle of pain medicine," stated Help Remedies chief executive officer Richard Fine, who co-founded in 2008 along with fellow former advertising executive Nathan Frank.
OTC confusion and overdose is a concern among pharmacists, according to David Pompei, Help Remedies’ newly appointed medical director, who first came across Help – I have a headache in his local drug store. "Some people think that by adding more warnings to the label, you solve the problem of confusion in the drug aisle," he commented. "But the truth is, the longer the label, the less likely people are to read it. When I saw Help I immediately recognized what it represented — a badly needed move towards simplicity."
