Columbia Labs

Replens, Diasorb, Vaporizer in a Bottle and Legatrin brands to be sold to an unnamed party as focus shifts to prescription products, the firm acknowledges March 23. The divestiture plan, announced last autumn, will be completed in about 30 days (1"The Tan Sheet" Oct. 18, 1999, p. 10). The company says March 20 it has reacquired U.S. rights to Advantage-S nonoxynol-9 spermicidal gel, its sole remaining OTC, by settling a legal dispute with former licensee Lake Consumer Products for $1.2 mil. in cash and stock. Study results on Advantage-S and HIV/STD prevention are expected in about 90 days in a U.N. Global Program on AIDS report. Advantage-S sales improved to $400,000 in 1999 from $340,000 in 1998, during part of which litigation made the product unavailable