Rolaids Back on U.S. Store Shelves

Sanofi’s U.S. consumer products subsidiary Chattem Inc. acquired the rights to the Rolaids brand from McNeil-PPC, Inc. — a division of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) — in January of this year and has lived up to its promise to get the product back on store shelves by the end of 2013. J&J pulled Rolaids from the market in December 2010 following the discovery of contamination in the tablets which were made under contract.

J&J reportedly paid $16.6 billion to Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) to acquire the Rolaids brand in 2006. The terms of the sale to Sanofi was not disclosed.

TV chef Guy Fieri has been hired to market Rolaids and Chattem said it will resurrect one of the most recognizable taglines in advertising history to support the product launch: “How do you spell relief? R-O-L-A-I-D-S.”

Maybe you had to be there.

Shares of Sanofi are up about 0.2% Monday afternoon at $48.08 in a 52-week range of $42.20 to $55.94.