ModiCon Oral Contraceptive
date: label: date made
content: 1976-1977
name: label: maker
content: Ortho Pharmaceutical Corporation
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: The popularity of “the Pill” created a new market for pharmaceutical companies. For the first time, healthy women would be taking medication for an extended period of time. Pill manufacturers developed unique packaging in order to distinguish their product from those of their competitors and build brand loyalty. Packaging design often incorporated a “memory aid” to assist women in tracking their daily pill regimen, as well as styled cases to allow pills to be discreetly carried in bags and purses. The National Museum of American History’s Division of Medicine and Science’s collection of oral contraceptives illustrates some of the changes that the packaging and marketing of the Pill underwent from its inception in 1960 to the present.
label: Description (Brief)
content: The Ortho Pharmaceutical Corporation of Raritan, New Jersey, produced this ModiCon brand oral contraceptive around 1977. The foil package contains a 21-pill Dialpak dispenser. Ortho trademarked the term DialPak in 1965, and was the first company to release their medication in a memory-aid device, now ubiquitous among makers of oral contraceptives.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New Jersey, Raritan
topic: label: Subject
content: Birth Control/Contraception
label: Subject
content: Women's Health
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
label: See more items in
content: Health & Medicine
label: See more items in
content: Birth Control
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Gladys Abell and Lester D. Johnson, Jr., M.D.
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1981.0760.034.B
label: accession number
content: 1981.0760
label: catalog number
content: 1981.0760.034.B
objectType: label: Object Name
content: contraceptive, oral
label: Other Terms
content: Contraceptives; Patent Medicines; Drugs; Non-Liquid
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: norethindrone, 0.5 mg (drug active ingredients)
label: Physical Description
content: ethinyl estradiol, 0.035 mg (drug active ingredients)
label: Physical Description
content: foil (package material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 12.5 cm x 8.2 cm x 1 cm; 4 15/16 in x 3 1/4 in x 3/8 in
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1/2 in x 3 1/4 in x 5 in; 1.27 cm x 8.255 cm x 12.7 cm