Active Ingredients (in each 5 mL teaspoon) Aluminum hydroxide 200 mg (equivalent to dried gel, USP) Magnesium hydroxide 200 mg Simethicone 20 mg
At first, I chalked it up to competition from the new-fangled H2 blockers (pepcid, prilosec, zantac, tagamet, etc.). But the more I thought about it, the less sense that made. Entire classes of well-established products in the marketplace made by various manufacturers do not simply disappear overnight just because something better comes along. People are resistant to change. Old timers hang on to what works for them, to the familiar. Why change? That alone should keep the best products on the shelf for a long time.
Every once in a while I'll check the news aggregators for stories about Maalox. But nothing. Odd, to say the least. It really is as if a cloak of secrecy has been thrown over the situation. So naturally, like some of the contributors at ASK, I'm beginning to suspect the government is behind it. But why? What's in Maalox that the gov't doesn't want people to possess, and why the secrecy if it is something that's bad for us? I can't accept the "we're remodeling the plant" excuse. Gaviscon is also gone from store shelves and it's made by GlaxoSmithKline. So Novartis' remodeled plant explanation appears to be a bald-face lie, which increases my suspicions even more. Why would they do that?
Okay, I'm done. Slap some sense into me.
I heard the same thing as the author of this article. It could be it’s cheaper for them to produce under store names rather than their own brand. I checked with my pharmacy. They only had a couple of bottles of their own brand and no info on the original.
I would caution even though this is a good temporary fix; it can do more harm than not as in over indulging. After gall bladder surgery; I tried everything including Maalox which worked the best for a short period. Than I stopped everything and I hardly have any problems.
Changing the subject here —sorry, but what happened to Bufferin? I haven’t been able to find it for months.
Novartis is not a name I would have associated with Maalox. LOL!
But, apparently, it's true:
Maalox® is a relief to enjoy life
To our valued consumers, Novartis Consumer Health, the maker of Maalox®, is taking pre-emptive actions to ensure our products meet the highest quality standards, including temporarily voluntarily suspending operations at the Novartis Consumer Health Lincoln facility that produces Maalox® as well as suspending shipments from the site. As a result, Maalox® products are temporarily unavailable.
We apologize for the inconvenience that this might cause consumers and we are working hard to resume production at our Lincoln facility and return Maalox® back on to store shelves as soon as possible.
If you have questions or difficulty finding Maalox®, please call our customer service representatives toll-free at: 1-800-452-0051
Here is another discussion of the shortage
http://www.amazon.com/gp/forum/cd/discussion.html/ref=cm_cd_pg_pg1?ie=UTF8&cdForum=Fx20DX5GEB7TUX8&cdPage=1&cdThread=TxHDEY3KMVWXUU
Also, I see where Amazon is selling it for $75/bottle
WTH?
Active Ingredients (in each 5 mL teaspoon) Aluminum hydroxide 200 mg (equivalent to dried gel, USP) Magnesium hydroxide 200 mg Simethicone 20 mg
Maybe they are having a Maalox Moment?
I absolutely love Theraflu hot drinks when I’m sick, but they disappeared from store shelves last summer. I thought they’d just been discontinued. I guess I’ll have to do a little research.
There used to be a Norwegian variant of Maalox, but it too disappeared from the shelves literally overnight. Two years ago or thereabouts.
Strange thing, it used to be heavily advertized. On television and elsewhere. Suddenly you couldn’t even find old ads.
All I know is if you stop eating sugary carbs you will never need another maalox again.
“Sugary” includes starches like potato and wheat.
Seriously. If you have chronic heartburn, cut the carbs and it will disappear in 3 days. Forever.
Eat meat and green vegetables.
Put three tablespoons of baking soda in about a 1/2 cup of water and drink.
I don’t think anyone knows what’s going on with Novartis- maybe not even them. The same thing has been happening with their heart worm preventative, Interceptor, for going on a year and a half. The ingredient (Milbemycin oxime) is available as usual in Australia, but it cannot be sold to US clients. There are many rumors- including patent expiration, trying to force clients to use much more (double) expensive combination drugs, etc, & FDA dragging their feet- but who knows?
They’re screwing over veterinarians as much as patients. For some dogs, it is life or death. (Seen both ivermectin toxicity & heavy pos HWs. Heartworms are kinder.)
It doesn’t make sense. They are losing profits & trust, big time.
We all know what a racket the pharmaceutical companies are running anyway, but Novartis flat takes the cake. All I can offer is to rant & rave with you.
Take a swig or tablespoon. Works like a charm and is good for you too!
That’s the same lame excuse they’re giving us about .22 long rifle ammo.
Remember Leggo my Eggo? Same deal, couldn’t get waffles and they said the factory was having proplems. But now you can get them. Probably some EPA hell inflicted on the company or FDA hell.
I tried Gaviscon a few years ago and it immediately became my new favorite. Try it, the Maalox shortage might not even effect you.
The Maalox plant is being retooled to make .22LR ammo lol ... there are better profit margins in ammo.
When Maalox first disappeared from shelves around here I did a little research and discovered that they had an issue with the FDA over an error in their labeling. Apparently, there’s a small amount of alcohol in the formulation and the amount listed in their ingredients list was incorrect. The amount was so small though that I couldn’t understand why they couldn’t correct the problem with a small stick on label. So I always felt that something else was going on.
The Novartis entire plant was shut down because of something wrong on the Excedrin line. Not only human medicines were affected. I give my Labs their brand of monthly heartworm medicine and I had to switch. The vet recently told me that the old medicine is starting back into production very soon. Tyhpical govt - problem over here in this corner, shut the whole damn place down.
Tums, tu tums tums