There used to be an acne medicine cream called "limotren" (or at
least, I am almost sure it was called like that), which is no longer
in production for quite some years now. What was the pharmaceutical
company that manufactured that?

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Request for Question Clarification by pinkfreud-ga on 16 Oct 2002 03:33 PDT

In what nation was this product distributed? Can you give us an
approximate time period? Do you know whether it required a physician's
prescription, or was it sold over-the-counter?

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Request for Question Clarification by bcguide-ga on 16 Oct 2002 04:07 PDT

If this was a prescription medication and you be more specific about
when it was in use, it might be searchable in an older PDR. Do you 
have a time span of when it was available?

bcguide-ga

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Clarification of Question by nickro-ga on 16 Oct 2002 04:52 PDT

If a prescription is required depends, I guess, on each country's
laws. In Greece, no prescription was required for that medicine.
Last  time I remember purchasing that cream was around 1994-95.
It was an alcohol based one with a colour like the vazelin's and
rather cheap.
Suddenly it was disappeared from the market without a substitude.
The question remains: which was the company that made it?(Roche and
Geigy could be two possible ones)

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Clarification of Question by nickro-ga on 16 Oct 2002 22:50 PDT

Dear aceresearcher,
Thank you very much for your effort to help me in what I am looking
for. The only problem is that you missed the question. I am refering
to a medicine that is NO LONGER in production. The name, even if not
"Limotren", was something very similar to that, and -anyway- not
"Lemoderm" at all.
Thanks, anyway.

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Clarification of Question by nickro-ga on 04 Nov 2002 01:06 PST

1. It was the brand name.
2. The bloody spelling is correct. 
3.....if there was an answer to my queston, I guess I would have found
it by now... Thanks, anyway...

This site lists prescription and over-the-counter acne medications,
but nothing looks even close:
http://www.acne.org/medications/

The closest I have been able to find are:

Limotrin
I could find no details on this other than that it is produced by
Wockhardt, and this 5-22-2002 UBS Warburg analysis of that company
says it is one of their brands that grew strongly in the last year.
I'm guessing it is a different brand name for the same drugs listed
below.
http://202.87.40.59/Broker%20Research/Warburg/220502-indwoc.pdf

Lamotrigine
This is an anti-convulsant, and one of its side-effects can be acne.
http://www.nursespdr.com/members/database/ndrhtml/lamotrigine.html

and
Lamotrigine
This is an anti-convulsant, and one of its side-effects can be acne.

Lamotrin (from a Bolivian website) appears to be a brand-name for
Lamotrigine:
http://www.galenored.com/profesional/auspicios/lamotrin.htm

lame automated Spanish-to-English translation here:
http://fets3.freetranslation.com:5081/?Language=Spanish%2FEnglish&Url=www.galenored.com%2Fprofesional%2Fauspicios%2Flamotrin.htm&Sequence=core

Sorry I could not be of more assistance.

Are you maybe thinking of Lemoderm?  It is a low-dose topical
hydrocortisone preparation, ie a steroid cream, which could be used to
reduce inflammation of acne.  Some of these are available over the
counter, others need a prescription. 
http://www.mdadvice.com/library/drug/drug6.html gives lots of brands
of topical hydrocortisone preparations which would be equivalent.

I think tehuti has nailed it for you!

However, I could not find "Lemoderm" in the datbase of the US Patent
and Trademark Office, which I found odd. Pharmaceutical companies
usually patent/trademark all their drug names and formulations, and
this database even contains old, expired trademarks. I was able to
find "Lanacort" (another topical steroid), so I really don't think
"Lemoderm" is in there.
http://www.uspto.gov/web/menu/tm.html

I did find other mentions of Lemoderm, but no specific information, at
these sites.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/uspdi/202907.html
http://www.drugs.com/xq/cfm/pageID_0/brand_Lemoderm/qx/index.htm

It took awhile, but I finally found this baby!
Two footnotes referring to Lemoderm on this Drugs.com page (I had to
go through free registration to access it).

158. Cardinale VA, editor. Drug topics redbook. Oradell, NJ: Medical
Economics Company Inc; 1988
337. Lemoderm cream/ointment/lotion package insert (Thames [Mfr.];
Seneca [Distr.]—US), Rev 12/87, Rec 3/22/89.

http://www.drugs.com/xq/cfm/pageID_0/htm_001016/type_pros/bn_Lemoderm/micrpro_medex/qx/index.htm

So, your manufacturer is:
Thames Pharmaceutical Co. Inc., or Thames Pharmacal, Ronkonkoma, NY
Their website, http://www.thamespharm.com, is no longer valid,
probably because they were purchased by Taro Pharmaceutical of Israel
in May.

"Hawthorne, New York, May 8, 2002 - Taro Pharmaceutical Industries
Ltd. (NASDAQ/NMS: TARO) today announced that it has purchased
substantially all the assets of Thames Pharmacal Company, Inc.
("Thames"), a privately-held New York manufacturer of prescription and
over-the-counter pharmaceuticals."
http://www.tarousa.com/Content/ContentUnit.asp?CID=194&u=1017&t=0

Website for US division of Taro Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. 
http://www.taro.com

Contact information for Taro USA
5 Skyline Drive #3, Hawthorne, NY 10532  (914)345-9001  (914) 347-7428

Online contact form for Taro USA
http://www.tarousa.com/Content/DisplayForm.asp?FormTypeID=3

And there the trail runs pretty much dry.
Taro does not show Lemoderm in its product listings on these pages:
http://www.taro.com/Content/productguide.asp
http://www.tarousa.com/Content/productguide.asp

If you are trying to find some to purchase, the only online "sources"
I could find for you are Overseas Drugstore, and they just sell lists
of overseas pharmacies for $17.95; apparent mirror sites, Drugstore
Listings and World Drugstore, sell lists for $19.95, and $17.95,
respectively. I would be wary of purchasing a list from these sites
for a number of reasons, foremost because none of the pharmacies on
the list may be able to provide you with Lemoderm -- it may just be
that they failed to update their list when the drug was discontinued.
http://www.overseasdrugstore.com/
http://www.drugstorelisting.com
http://www.worlddrugstorelist.com

I hope this information provides you with everything you needed.

My apologies; I should have included international contact information for you.

TARO PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRIES LTD. 
POB: 2043 Herzliya, 46120, Israel.
TEL: +972-9-9557942, +972-4-8723257
FAX: +972-9-9557443

http://www.infomedia.co.il/Categories/9/c10_16_0.html

nickro,

I'm sorry if my response did not make clear that it appears the drug
Lemoderm became defunct long before its manufacturer did. That's why I
said I would be skeptical that Overseas Drugstores, et al, would
actually be able to provide you with the names of pharmacies who could
provide it, despite the fact that their website says that they can.

In the US, the pronounciation of Limotren and Lemoderm sound quite
similar -- and the spellings look similar, too. The last dated
reference (drugs.com) I could find showing it to be still in
production was 1989, at least 13 years ago. Before being discontinued,
Lemoderm was produced as a lotion, a cream, and an ointment, and it
was developed to treat the condition you described. For those reasons,
I believed tehuti had identified the drug to which you are referring.
Unfortunately, there is probably no way for us to locate a picture of
the packaging so that you could tell for sure.

Either way, I enjoyed the chase!

Regards,
aceresearcher

We need two pieces of info:

1. Was this the BRAND name or the generic name?

2. Need correct spelling, otherwise, too much chance of a really big error.