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Diaper rash cream business growing up

BOERNE, Texas – The business of babies' bums is booming at Mission Pharmacol's plant along I-10 West in Boerne.

At the facility, which is part laboratory and part assembly line, tubes of diaper rash cream roll of the line at a rate of 75 a minute.

It's Dr. Smith's Diaper Rash Cream, developed more than 50 years ago by the late local pediatrician and two pharmacists.

"There really was a real Dr. Smith," said Natalie Sirjuesingh, marketing director for Mission Pharmacol.

"Dr. Smith empathized with moms whose babies were suffering from diaper rash," she said. "They developed a product that goes on like a cream and protects like a medicated ointment."

Now Mission Pharmacol, the locally-based pharmaceutical company that bought Dr. Smith's line a few years ago, has a new baby: a spray-on diaper rash cream.

"It was developed with convenience and safety in mind," Sirjuesingh said. "You spray it on. It's a touch-free application."

It took years of research, but they put the zinc oxide potion into an environmentally-friendly aerosol spray.

Call it another sign of growing up. Originally, the diaper rash cream was sold out of a single pharmacy. In the '90s it became a regional product when HEB began to carry it.

"The evolution has been tremendous," Sirjuesingh said. "Last year, we celebrated not only the 50th anniversary of the brand, but were were able to take the product nationally to retailers like Walgreens."

Global distribution is also on the radar, an expansion that could further soothe the bottom line.


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