Strepsils

About Strepsils

Strepsils is a brand of medicated throat lozenges sold by the British consumer-health group Reckitt, which calls it the world's number one medicated sore-throat remedy and says more than 50 countries carry it.^[1] The core lozenge pairs two mild antiseptics, amylmetacresol 0.6 mg and 2,4-dichlorobenzyl alcohol 1.2 mg, while the Strepsils Extra lozenges carry hexylresorcinol 2.4 mg instead.^[2][3] Boots Healthcare introduced the name in 1950 as a mouthwash and in 1958 as lozenges, and Reckitt Benckiser bought the Boots healthcare business in 2006.^[4] The name comes from the Streptococcus bacterium behind some sore throats.^[4]

Reckitt Benckiser agreed in October 2005 to pay £1.93bn for Boots Healthcare International, the non-prescription drugs division whose brands were Nurofen, Strepsils and Clearasil, in a sale that helped clear the way for Boots' merger with Alliance UniChem.^[5] Companies House shows that the division's company, Boots Healthcare International Limited, incorporated in August 1992, was renamed Reckitt Benckiser Healthcare International Limited on 6 April 2006.^[6] In the United Kingdom the marketing authorisations for the Strepsils lozenges sit with Reckitt Benckiser Healthcare (UK) Limited of Slough.^[3] German pharmacies sell the counterpart range as Dobendan, taken over from Boots in 2006; it carried a "Strepsils" suffix from 2009, and in May 2013 Reckitt dropped that suffix from the pharmacy-only lozenges Dobendan Direkt and Dolo-Dobendan while the general-sale variants kept the double name. The same trade report called Strepsils the best-selling sore-throat product in the world.^[7] In North America Reckitt sells sore-throat lozenges under the Cepacol name, but on a different formula: benzocaine with menthol or dextromethorphan rather than the Strepsils antiseptics.^[8]