Nutritional healthcare leader SmithKline Beecham Consumer Healthcare's Crocin 1000, promoted since the middle of last year as a pain reliever for chronic conditions like osteoarthritis, rheumatic arthritis, headache, toothache, period pain and muscle pain, is almost out of the market, according to trade sources.

A leading retailer said that sales occur only when some outstation customers arrive. The local customers are not at all interested in the product. The product is not at all moving, he said on condition of anonymity.

A leader of retailers also echoed the same when he said the product was not selling at all and has joined the gang of other paracetamol brands namely Disprin Paracetamol and Aspro in going out of the market.

A leading wholesaler cum retailer said that doctors are not prescribing the product and they are unable to sell even one bottle in a month. The product is expected to move into oblivion, he said.

SmithKline comments were not available.

Crocin 1000 mg, a brand extension of Crocin 500 mg, ran into trouble after the consumer action groups and drug experts raised serious concerns over the safety of the drug in the wake of a study conducted last year by Dr. William Lee of the University of Texas which proved that there was a direct link between paracetamol overdose and liver failure.

Dr Lee had tracked more than 300 cases of acute liver failures at 22 hospitals in the US and found 38 percent of these associated with excessive paracetamol usage. The study also found the paracetamol link to 35 percent of the 307 adults suffering from severe liver damage at 6 US hospitals. In UK, 20 people had to undergo liver transplant as a result of paracetamol induced liver poisoning in 1997. The British government had subsequently imposed restrictions on the sale of paracetamol preparations as over-the-counter products.

SBCH, which was established in 1958, is an Indian associate of GlaxoSmithKline plc. of the U.K, a global science based healthcare company. Its flagship product is Horlicks, a widely regarded 130-year-old brand, and other products include household names such as Eno and Aquafresh.