Mission Pharmacal renews support for March of Dimes event

SAN ANTONIO — Drug maker Mission Pharmacal has raised nearly $850,000 for the March of Dimes since it began supporting the group, the company said, marking its fourth year of support for the organization.

The organization was originally founded in 1938 by president Franklin D. Roosevelt to help fight polio, but shifted its focus to care for expectant mothers and babies after the polio epidemic ended. Mission said one key element of its support role was as a national sponsor of March for Babies, the group's main fundraising event. Employees of the company work for the event by volunteering to staff tables and provide information, as well as by raising funding through more than 15,000 obstetrician-gynecologist offices. The events will mostly take place later this month and next month in hundreds of communities across the country.

"No other organization has played a bigger role in the health of America's babies and families than the March of Dimes," Mission VP marketing Natalie Sirjuesingh said. "More than 4 million babies were born in the United States, and the March of Dimes helped each and every one through 75 years of research, education, vaccines and breakthroughs."

Mission said its employees would staff information booths at March for Babies walks in San Antonio, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, New York, Durham, N.C., Newtown, Pa., and Davie, Fla., while also providing information about products like the CitraNatal line of prenatal vitamins and Dr. Smith's Diaper Rash ointment.