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BLOG: Why do they call it Muro 128?
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“Why do they call it Muro-128?” This one stumped me.
As I’ve mentioned before, I write this column each month based on a question. Sometimes it’s a question I’ve wondered myself, but usually it comes from an intern or a resident at the hospital.
We had just given a sample of sodium chloride ointment to a patient for treatment after a recurrent corneal erosion; and the intern turned to me and asked the question at the top of this column. I told her I didn’t know. But I know that we use it as a proprietary eponym: a brand name that has come to be used generically.
The classic example that most people think of here is Kleenex vs. facial tissue. Muro 128 (sodium chloride solution, Bausch + Lomb) doesn’t make the top 50 list in a quick Google search of proprietary eponyms, but it’s definitely top five in the eye care world. As an aside, you should Google proprietary eponyms, it’s pretty interesting.
Words on the list that surprised me: Astroturf, Jacuzzi, Laundromat, Mace, Microchip, TV Dinner, Brassiere and Escalator. But a Google search of the above question landed me nowhere. I had to dig a little farther. Being an old journalism major, I called up Bausch + Lomb, called up Muro Pharmaceuticals and knocked on at least four doors until I found the answer.
In 1958 Muro Pharmacal Labs was founded and it manufactured ophthalmic drugs. It was named Muro for the Italian word for “wall,” which I think is fitting given the barrier that the cornea plays in penetration of ocular drugs. With tight junctions, pH sensitivity and the hydrophobic nature of the epithelium and hydrophilic nature of the stroma, it’s difficult for modern-day drug companies to pass medication through the cornea, let alone in the 1950s. In 1968 Muro was sold to George Behrakis, a pharmacist from Lowell, Mass., who had worked with Johnson & Johnson during the creation of Tylenol (acetaminophen, McNeill). During the Behrakis years, Muro added asthma and respiratory medications to its product line, and in 1978 the name was changed to Muro Pharmaceuticals, and the company moved to Andover, Mass.
During these years, Muro continued to grow its ophthalmic medication product line, and one of its best sellers was its sodium chloride solution and ointment. Muro named this particular medication “Muro 128” after Route 128, which is one of the main highways that encircles Boston and heads north towards (but not directly to) Andover.
Muro sold its line of ophthalmic medications to Bausch + Lomb in 1986 and then sold its respiratory medication line to the German company Degussa in 1996. Bausch + Lomb kept the Muro 128 name when it bought the line and continues to sell sodium chloride solution and ointment under that name to this day.
Muro is now a privately held company that still manufactures and distributes respiratory and allergy pharmaceutical products. They’ve moved several times, but always in the Northeast area of Massachusetts, and they’re still open today. Just head to Boston and take Route 128 north.