Sheffield Pharmaceuticals
{{Short description|American pharmaceutical company}}
{{Infobox company
|name = Sheffield Pharmaceuticals
|logo = Sheffield pharmaceuticals logo.png
|logo_size = 200px
|type = Private
|foundation = {{start date and age|1880}} (as Sheffield Dentifrice Company)
|founder = Washington Sheffield
|location = New London, Connecticut, United States
|industry = Pharmaceutical
|products = Pharmaceutical products
|homepage = {{URL|www.sheffield-pharmaceuticals.com/}}
}}
Sheffield Pharmaceuticals is a manufacturer of over the counter pharmaceutical products to retailers in the United States.{{cite web|url=http://www.sheffield-pharmaceuticals.com/?p=01|title=About Us|publisher=Sheffield Pharmaceuticals homepage|access-date=17 August 2014}} It manufactures and sells products under its own labels and privately for other companies, and is an FDA registered cGMP facility. The company was founded in 1880 as the Sheffield Dentifrice Company by Washington Sheffield, the inventor of modern toothpaste.
History
File:Figure-5---Sheffield's-Tooth-Powder.png
Sheffield was a respected dentist and dental surgeon of his time. In the mid-1870s, he thought of a new tooth cleaning product in a cream form as a replacement for the tooth powders common at the time.{{cite news|title=A Local Industry|newspaper=New London Evening Telegram|date=March 8, 1882|page=Vol. 9 No. 2795, page 4}} He made his own dental cream in his office, added mint extracts to it so as to improve the flavor, and used it on his patients who expressed their liking for it. After establishing his company in 1880, with the help of his son, he constructed a manufacturing plant on his property to produce a mouthwash he had previously invented as well as the new toothpaste (which was then called “Dr. Sheffield’s Crème Angelique Dentifrice”).
File:Figure-8---Creme-Angelique,-Illustration.png
The first advertisement published for Dr. Sheffield's Crème Angelique Dentifrice (the first commercial toothpaste) toothpaste appeared in the New London Telegram on March 12, 1881.{{cite news|title=Dr. Sheffield's Crème Angelique Dentifrice|date=March 12, 1881|work=New London Telegram}}
In 1986, the company was purchased by the Faria family, who continue to operate in New London, Connecticut.{{cite web|url=http://www.sheffield-pharmaceuticals.com/?p=02|title=History|publisher=Sheffield Pharmaceuticals homepage|access-date=17 August 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141106020007/http://www.sheffield-pharmaceuticals.com/?p=02|archive-date=6 November 2014}}
In 2016, Sheffield began distribution in China of its Dr. Sheffield's brand toothpaste.{{Cite web|last=Hallenbeck|first=Brian|date=2016-11-02|title=Sheffield Pharmaceuticals extending its global reach|url=https://www.theday.com/article/20161102/BIZ02/161109838|access-date=2020-08-20|website=The Day|language=en-US}}
Overseas competition
In 2007, the company reported that it was being undercut by low-cost, counterfeit toothpaste products from China, which were increasingly coming under fire for being tainted with poisonous chemicals.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1915&dat=20070727&id=qP4gAAAAIBAJ&sjid=uHMFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1099,5087973|title=Counterfeits Squeezing Sheffield|last=Cronin|first=Anthony|date=July 27, 2007|work=The Day|access-date=18 August 2014}} They lobbied Connecticut's state business advocate, Rob Simmons, to ask for increased regulatory oversight into the Chinese and Indonesian imports due to reports of the products being tainted with diethylene glycol, a poisonous substance typically used in antifreeze. The imports were being manufactured with the cheaper, but incorrect, ingredients as a way to illegally undercut the price. Company President Thomas Faria reported that the toothpaste imports were being offered at a cost to retailers of 9 cents a tube, and that he could not even purchase the correct ingredients to make his product at that price.
References
{{reflist}}
{{Pharmaceutical companies of the United States}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheffield Pharmaceuticals}}
Category:1880 establishments in Connecticut
Category:American companies established in 1880
Category:Pharmaceutical companies established in 1880
Category:Dental companies of the United States
Category:Personal care companies of the United States
Category:Pharmaceutical companies of the United States
Category:Manufacturing companies based in Connecticut