Why Was Nupercainal Discontinued?

Nupercainal hemorrhoidal ointment was discontinued when Novartis, the pharmaceutical company that had been producing it, as BioSpace reports, shut down a key manufacturing facility in 2011 due to quality concerns, according to FiercePharmaManufacturing. However, Ducere Pharma bought the rights to Nupercainal from Novartis in 2013 and later relaunched the drug.

Prior to its discontinuation, Nupercainal was being manufactured by Novartis at its facility in Lincoln, Nebraska, according to BioSpace. In 2011, the Food and Drug Administration conducted an inspection of the Nebraska facility and found numerous instances where the company failed to meet standards for quality, including the failure to follow procedures for properly investigating and responding to complaints from consumers about bottles of drugs containing other pills, as reported by Forbes. As a result of these quality issues, Novartis shut down this facility and thus halted the production of Nupercainal.

In 2013, Ducere Pharma, a company that reintroduces abandoned pharmaceutical brands, bought the rights to Nupercainal and five other over-the-counter brands from Novartis, including Cruex, a toenail fungus medication; Comtrex, a cold reliever; Myflex, a pain relief cream; and Doan’s, an oral pain reliever, as BioSpace.com reports. According to Nupercainal’s official site as of August 2015, the drug is available at Walgreens and CVS pharmacies.