Ovacon Oral Contraceptives
date: label: date made
content: before 1988-03
name: label: maker
content: Syntex Laboratories
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: Syntex Laboratories of Palo Alto, California, produced this Ovacon brand oral contraceptive around 1988-2003. Ovacon was marketed as a “genuine low dose” pill containing .5 milligrams of norethindrone and .035 milligram of ethinyl estradiol. This sample of Ovacon is in a white cardboard envelope that contains one silver blister pack. The 28-pill blister pack contains 21 blue hormonal pills and 7 brown iron supplement pills arrayed in a switchback pattern with arrows directing the user in the correct order to take the medication. A white paper insert contains directions in both English and Arabic, and the bottom of the insert notes that Ovacon was “marketed and distributed by Family Planning Social Marketing Project of Dhaka, Bangladesh.”
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: California, Palo Alto
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: Dr. Linda S. Potter
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1997.0360.02
label: catalog number
content: 1997.0360.02
label: accession number
content: 1997.0360
objectType: label: Object Name
content: contraceptive, oral
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: norethindrone, 0.5 mg (drug (blue tablet) active ingredients)
label: Physical Description
content: ferrous fumarate, 75 mg (drug (brown tablet) active ingredients)
label: Physical Description
content: foil (blister pack material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (envelope material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (leaflet material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (blister pack material)
label: Physical Description
content: ethinyl estradiol, 0.035 mg (drug (blue tablet) active ingredients)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 9.4 cm x 6.4 cm x .3 cm; 3 11/16 in x 2 17/32 in x 1/8 in
label: Measurements
content: overall: 2 1/2 in x 3 3/4 in x 1/4 in; 6.35 cm x 9.525 cm x .635 cm