GSK has been found promoting Crocin Pain Relief, its recently launched brand extension of Crocin, as an OTC product by resorting to massive print and electronic advertising. Each Crocin Pain Relief tablet, marketed in colourful aluminum strips of 10, contains 650 mg of paracetamol and 50 mg of caffeine.

While the media advertising does not warn the people of the dangers of possible over consumption of the combination, the company warns the patients to seek medical advice on the strip. The company also failed to differentiate the new and existing Crocin brand in the ad campaign causing confusion among the general public. The new combination was launched in September 2003.

Although overdosage of paracetamol is a potential cause for liver damage leading to even death, the company and the drug approval agency have not bothered to restrict this paracetamol extra quantity and caffeine combination product in the prescription category.

Industry analysts are skeptical about the new product. Since the company does not differentiate the two drugs in terms of communication strategies, it is bound to confuse the customer who is buying the product OTC for the first time, feels an industry source. According to them, the drug needs the doctor's prescription for the initial shift.

Though the company has given the dosage information on the tablet strip, it may not adequately serve the purpose as it is only in English. At the same time, the TV advertisements which covers the family viewers all across the society is silent about the dangers of the paracetamol overdosage.

Interestingly, despite the company has overruled a doctor's intervention by choosing the OTC route, it has mentioned on the strip that the dosage should be "as directed by physician."

The British company, which has decided to extend the 40-year old Crocin brand to pain killers, a category which generates the highest number of prescriptions from doctors, has simply made this combination drug by adding 30 per cent more of paracetamol and combining it with 50 mg of caffeine.

It may be recalled that the company was earlier forced to withdraw Crocin 1000, another brand extension introduced a couple of years ago following instances of increased side effects due to paracetamol overdosage. The market sources feel that Crocin pain relief is nothing but a re-introduction of the same product in a different form.

According to market sources this is part of the company's strategy to explore different avenues encashing the brand name, as the market for Crocin had saturated. The company has also realized that the real potential lies in the pain management segment where the number of prescriptions is on a rise. Recently the company also stated that it has decided to extend the heritage of Crocin to strong pain killers because they see a huge opportunity in this business.