Apothecary Products

Minneapolis investment firm Norwest Equity Partners (NEP) purchased Apothecary Products Inc., a Burnsville, Minnesota-based health care and pharmacy products supplier with a manufacturing facility in St. Charles, Mich. The transaction closed Friday, but financial terms were not disclosed.

Melissa Hoose, senior graphic artist at the Michigan facility of Apothecary Products Inc., passed away last Friday morning with her husband at her side after a courageous battle with cancer. She was 36.

Burnsville, Minnesota-based Apothecary Products Inc., announced it will be making the following changes to its promotional products division:
Shannon Carrick and Barb LeBrun were named territory sales account managers for the API Line. Both will be based out of the corporate facility in Burnsville, Minnesota.

Burnsville, Minnesota-based Apothecary Products, parent company of API Line and Optico/Karlen, announced Ron Barg has been promoted to the position of president. Previously Barg held the position of chief financial officer. Barg’s understanding of the unique needs of promotional product distributors will ensure the company’s ability to exceed customers’ expectations for many more years. The company feels customers around the globe will continue to receive the world-class customer service they have come to expect with API Line and Optico/Karlen. About Apothecary Products: Founded in 1975, Apothecary Products, is a leader in the consumer health care and pharmacy supply markets with the Ezy Dose,

FOR YEARS, PHARMACEUTICAL companies abided by stringent guidelines when marketing products directly to consumers—even describing the condition a drug was designed to treat was cost-prohibitive. However, in August of 1997, the Food and Drug Administration revised the rules. It wasn’t long before an evening of television was not complete without families frolicking free of nasal allergies, thirty-somethings rediscovering life after depression and Bob Dole telling the world how his marriage was reinvigorated. Good news for the pharmaceutical companies, but not for the promotional companies previously responsible for most of the industry’s advertising, right? Wrong. A decade later, the pharmaceutical industry continues to grow at an