An advertisement from Kalki 1975 issue rekindled some nostalgia !!
Most likely that you too had these puppy bottles at home — a dog with an open mouth and a smiling face and they were so intricately linked with the brand of colourful pills launched by a Swiss pharmaceutical company in India, that most households kept a bottle handy. Kids savoured its taste, while mothers thought chewing that tablet would make their kid strong !!
Once consumed, the bottles took pride of place in kitchen containing spices or pepper or salt, or kept just as a décor item ! - the once icon healthcare suddenly vanished. It was Calcium Sandoz along with items like Ferradol constituted the dominance of upwardl middle class. With rising incomes, there was a growing emphasis on health and nutrition for the aspirational middle-class and mothers thought a tablet of Calcium a day and a spoon of iron drink would make wonders.
Calcium Sandoz Tablet is used for the treatment of vitamin D and calcium deficiency. It is used for the treatment of osteoporosis or bone-related disorders.
Once a flourishing market, the Sandoz facility was shut down in 2013 (Novartis was the parent company and Sandoz was the company that produced the tablets In India) owing to financial pressures on the parent company and a strategic shift from “generic to differentiated, complex medication”. They were to call it as part of a project portfolio optimisation but simply it was closed as it was no longer generating the revenue expected of it.
After all Company’s health is more important than what the product was thought to be ! – so few scores of people were out of employment when the shutters were down in Bombay. It was stated that though the move was astonishing as India being a low-cost destination for API development, in the case of Sandoz it may be relatively less significant as the company was looking at captive use.
Do you remember chewing Calcium Sandoz and saving some coins in that used plastic bottle !!
With regards – S Sampathkumar18.5.2o24
