Vicks is an American brand of

over-the-counter Over-the-counter (OTC) drugs are medicines sold directly to a consumer without a requirement for a prescription from a healthcare professional, as opposed to prescription drugs, which may be supplied only to consumers possessing a valid prescr ...

medication A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field and re ...

s owned by the American companies

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer hea ...

and

Helen of Troy Limited Helen of Troy Limited is an American publicly traded designer, developer and worldwide marketer of consumer brand-name housewares, health and home, and beauty products under owned and licensed brands. It is the parent corporation of OXO Internat ...

. Vicks manufactures

NyQuil Cold medicines are a group of medications taken individually or in combination as a treatment for the symptoms of the common cold and similar conditions of the upper respiratory tract. The term encompasses a broad array of drugs, including a ...

and its sister medication,

DayQuil Cold medicines are a group of medications taken individually or in combination as a treatment for the symptoms of the common cold and similar conditions of the upper respiratory tract. The term encompasses a broad array of drugs, including a ...

as well as other medications in the “Quil” line. Vicks also produces the Formula 44 brand of

cough medicine Cold medicines are a group of medications taken individually or in combination as a treatment for the symptoms of the common cold and similar conditions of the upper respiratory tract. The term encompasses a broad array of drugs, including a ...

cough drops A throat lozenge (also known as a cough drop, sore throat sweet, troche, cachou, pastille or cough sweet) is a small, typically medicated tablet intended to be dissolved slowly in the mouth to temporarily stop coughs, lubricate, and soothe irri ...

Vicks VapoRub Vicks VapoRub is a mentholated topical ointment, part of the Vicks brand of over-the-counter medications owned by the American consumer goods company Procter & Gamble. VapoRub is intended for use on the chest, back and throat for cough suppres ...

, and a number of inhaled breathing treatments. For much of its history, Vicks products were manufactured by the family-owned company Richardson-Vicks, Inc., based in

Greensboro, North Carolina Greensboro (; formerly Greensborough) is a city in and the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. It is the third-most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte and Raleigh, the 69th-most populous city in the Un ...

. Richardson-Vicks, Inc., was eventually sold to Procter & Gamble in 1985. Procter & Gamble divested the Vicks VapoSteam U.S. liquid inhalant business and sold it to Helen of Troy in 2015.

History

In 1890, pharmacist

Lunsford Richardson Lunsford Richardson (December 29, 1854 - August 21, 1919) was an American pharmacist from Selma, North Carolina, and the founder of Vick Chemical Company (which became Richardson Vicks Inc.). Early life Lunsford was born in 1854 on a farm near ...

Selma, North Carolina Selma is a town in Johnston County, North Carolina, United States. In 2010, the population was 6,073, and as of 2018 the estimated population was 6,913. Selma is part of the Raleigh-Durham-Cary Combined Statistical Area. The area has a populati ...

, took over the retail drug business of his brother-in-law Dr. John Vick, of

. After Dr. John Vick saw an ad for ''Vick's Seeds'', Lunsford Richardson began marketing ''Vick’s Family Remedies''. The basic ingredients of the range included

castor oil Castor oil is a vegetable oil pressed from castor beans. It is a colourless or pale yellow liquid with a distinct taste and odor. Its boiling point is and its density is 0.961 g/cm3. It includes a mixture of triglycerides in which about ...

, liniment, and 'dead shot'

vermifuge Anthelmintics or antihelminthics are a group of antiparasitic drugs that expel parasitic worms (helminths) and other internal parasites from the body by either stunning or killing them and without causing significant damage to the host. They may ...

. The most popular remedy was ''Croup and Pneumonia Salve'', which was first compounded in 1891, in Greensboro. It was introduced in 1905 with the name Vick's Magic Croup Salve and rebranded as VapoRub in 1912 at the instigation of H. Smith Richardson, Lunsford's oldest son; Smith had gained valuable sales and marketing experience while working for a period in New York and Massachusetts after attending college. Smith Richardson assumed the presidency of the company in 1919 upon his father's death. The

flu epidemic of 1918 The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...

increased sales of VapoRub from $900,000 to $2.9 million in just one year. In 1931, the company began selling cough drops. In 1948,

Edward Mabry Edward Loughlin Mabry (1897–1989), was an American writer, poet, and chemical tycoon. Chemical tycoon During World War I Edward Mabry joined the Vick Chemical Company, founded by Lunsford Richardson in 1898. Vicks today is best known for ...

became president of Vicks, then known as the Vick Chemical Company. In 1952, Vicks began selling cough syrup, and in 1959 they introduced Sinex Nasal Spray. The company began selling NyQuil in 1966. The parent company became

Richardson-Merrell Marion Merrell Dow and its predecessor Marion Laboratories was a U.S. pharmaceutical company based in Kansas City, Missouri from 1950 until 1996. The company specialized in bringing to market drugs that had been discovered but unmarketed by other ...

and then in 1982 divided into prescription drug company Merrell Dow (sold to

Dow Chemical Company The Dow Chemical Company, officially Dow Inc., is an American multinational chemical corporation headquartered in Midland, Michigan, United States. The company is among the three largest chemical producers in the world. Dow manufactures plastic ...

) and over-the-counter drug company Richardson-Vicks which retained the Vicks brand. The company archives (including related personal records of the Richardson family) from at least about 1920 or so, up to the 1985 sale to Procter & Gamble, are housed at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

. In March 2015, Procter & Gamble sold the Vicks VapoSteam U.S. liquid inhalant business to Helen of Troy Ltd.

References

External links

Vicks brand website

Vicks brand website - Canada

Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Wick

Vick Chemical Company
at the ''Encyclopedia of North Carolina''

{{Procter & Gamble Vicks brands, Procter & Gamble brands Ointments Products introduced in 1890