From Fougera to HR Pharmaceuticals

Surgilube went on sale in 1932, made by E. Fougera and Co of New York, a firm that had been importing and compounding pharmaceuticals since 1849. The product was straightforward for its time: a sterile, water-soluble lubricating jelly for surgical use, in a metal tube. The formula found its audience, and it has never really left.

In the decades after, the brand moved to Savage Laboratories, and tubes with the Savage name are the ones most older clinicians remember. Corporate ownership above Savage changed several times, the tube stayed the same, and stock photography from that era still circulates in listings today, which is why a search result can show three different boxes for the same product.

In 2016 HR Pharmaceuticals of York, Pennsylvania acquired the brand and moved production under its own name. Current boxes carry the HR nameplate and the updated labeling: paraben-free, carbomer-free, sterile, bacteriostatic. The NDC labeler code changed accordingly, which matters if an old reorder sheet still lists a Savage-era number.

How to tell what you are looking at

• Current production: HR Pharmaceuticals on the box, NDC starting 0281.
• Older photos: Savage or Fougera branding. The listing may still ship current stock; photos age slower than inventory.
• When in doubt, the expiration date on the arriving box is the ground truth.

A buyer write-up on one of the case listings put it well: the listing text looked like old Sandoz-era information, the seller confirmed current HR stock, and the delivered boxes carried a three-year date. Listings inherit clutter. The product underneath has been remarkably constant for ninety years.