Tylenol Precise heats up external analgesics sales



McNeil Consumer Healthcare recently parlayed its Tylenol brand franchise into external analgesics to quite a bit of success. For the four weeks ended Dec. 26, 2010, Precise “from the makers of Tylenol” became the No. 3 best-selling heat patch, with $1.9 million in sales across food, drug and mass (excluding Walmart), according to Symphony­IRI Group. And its pain-relieving cream similarly broke in among the top-selling brands — No. 9 with $1.3 million in sales for the four-week period.


Labeled Tylenol Precise, McNeil introduced three SKUs all told: two patches (one for arms, neck and legs; the other for back and body) and a cream. The air-activated heat therapy will go up against Pfizer Consumer’s ThermaCare, which is experiencing a slight resurgence in sales under its relatively new stewardship. Wyeth Consumer, now part of Pfizer, had purchased the rights to ThermaCare from Procter & Gamble two years ago.


Both the Tylenol Precise cream and patches retail for around $7.99.