The Contraceptive Sponge Is Being Manufactured Again Today.

Contraceptive Sponge Makes a Return to Pharmacy Shelves

• May 22, 2009

The contraceptive sponge has bounced back — yet again.

And this time information technology is repackaged for a younger generation who may non think the Today Sponge — or the 1995 episode of "Seinfeld" in which Elaine hoarded her stash, for use only with boyfriends she accounted "spongeworthy."

At ane time the Today Sponge, a spermicide-coated polyurethane bulwark placed in the vagina to inhibit sperm, was the most popular form of over-the-counter birth control for women. Now, a new distributor is introducing it over again this weekend, hoping to reclaim that status.

Introduced in 1983, the sponge get-go disappeared from drugstores in 1994 afterwards some manufacturing problems. It reappeared in 2005 under new ownership, which spent millions to promote the brand before selling it to another company. That new proprietor declared bankruptcy in belatedly 2007, taking the Today Sponge out of production last year.

Left stranded were any number of loyal devotees who draw themselves as "sponge fans," eagerly awaiting its latest comeback.

"I was completely devastated when it disappeared the commencement fourth dimension," said Louise Rozett, a freelance volume editor in Brooklyn, who had used the sponge to avoid hormone-based birth control pills. "I was and then angry when it disappeared again."

The new distributor hopes to bring some stability to the brand. The Today Sponge is scheduled to go on sale past this weekend at half-dozen,500 CVS and Longs Drug Stores, the distributor said. This summer, it is scheduled to too go on sale at half-dozen,700 Walgreens stores.

Notably, though, for all of the production's pop-culture spongeworthiness, the new benefactor has simply modest sales expectations.

Compared with the birth command pill and condoms, the Today Sponge may generate comparatively little revenue. It can accept a failure charge per unit of more than than ten percent. And information technology does not protect against sexually transmitted diseases.

"I remember the previous owners thought, 'It'south such an iconic brand thanks to Seinfeld, information technology's going to be swept off the shelves,' " said David Mayer, president of Mayer Laboratories in Berkeley, Calif., the benefactor, whose visitor also makes the Kimono brand of condoms. "I think the sponge has a place, simply information technology's not going to become the be-all to all women."

At its pinnacle, when the brand's original maker spent $x million a twelvemonth on advertisement, the brand had annual wholesale revenue of $22 million, Mr. Mayer said.

Paradigm

Credit... Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

But he expects significantly decreased sales now. This is partly because his company plans to spend simply $1 meg on advertising this year. Another reason is that health experts who one time thought the spermicide component inhibited sexually transmitted diseases now warn that the material may actually increase the risk of manual, he said.

If the reintroduction of the sponge attracts both new customers and its previous loyal audition, the brand might now sell two meg sponges a year, packaged in boxes of three at a retail toll of $14.99, Mr. Mayer said.

At a wholesale price of $9 a parcel, that would work out to about $vi million annually in wholesale acquirement — a minuscule amount compared with the nearly $3.5 billion that Americans spent on prescription birth control pills terminal year, according to IMS Wellness, a medical information company. And it would exist far behind the approximately $263 million the nation spent on condoms in the concluding 12 months, according to Data Resources Inc., a market research company.

Still, past experience indicates that the sponge will have a clientele amongst women who seek command over their own contraceptives and the convenience of a product that does non require a doctor's prescription.

And whatever its business organisation prospects in 2009, the Today Sponge has a cultural status that transcends its role as a mere drugstore convenience. The "Seinfeld" riff helped recast birth control not as a medical conclusion but a lifestyle pick, suggesting a brand marketing strategy afterwards employed past estrogen pills like Seasonale and Yaz.

Moreover, despite a popular culture that freely discusses and depicts sex, "spongeworthy" has come up to symbolize the rare, successful comedic send-upwardly of pregnancy prevention.

"Every one who is sexually active and has used nascency control has a bad birth-command story," said Andrea Tone, the writer of "Devices and Desires: A History of Contraceptives in America" who concur the Canada research chair in the social history of medicine at McGill University in Montreal. But "we don't practise great condom scenes or great diaphragms on the ceiling scenes, even though it'south such dandy textile for comedy."

Originally developed in the 1980s, the Today Sponge was pulled off the market place in 1994 after inspectors from the Nutrient and Drug Administration found bacterial contamination at its manufacturing establish. The brand's owner at the time, Whitehall-Robins Healthcare, decided that the brand's acquirement was likewise pocket-size to justify bringing the plant into line with manufacturing standards, co-ordinate to an F.D.A. argument at the fourth dimension.

Then came its brief revival, ending in bankruptcy.

"Women become fond of sure devices and then what practise you do when it is discontinued?" said Dr. Troy, the medical historian. She recounted aircraft a few "sponge care packages" from Canada, where she said the Today Sponge had remained continuously on auction since 2003, to friends in the U.s..

"The sponge was popular enough that people missed it," Dr. Troy said. "And there was enough hush-hush talk about it that at that place is probably an expected and ready market."

Ms. Rozett in Brooklyn is ane of the sponge-prepare customers. On Wednesday, she sent an e-postal service message to CVS customer service asking when the Today Sponge would go on sale at her local shop.

"I was then frustrated," she said, "past the fact that they were giving it to united states of america and taking information technology abroad, giving it to u.s.a. and taking it away."

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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/23/business/23sponge.html

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