Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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The Wall Street Journal - Friday, 27 June 1997
"We thought consumer demand would be greater than it was. We were on the market for about a year, and in that time did about 90,000 tests," said a spokesman for Johnson & Johnson, a personal-care and hygienic-products maker. The company wouldn't say how many tests it had expected to sell.
The only other competitor in the market now is Home Access Health Corp., Hoffman Estates, Ill., which first began selling its product last August.
"Clearly, consumers have been voting with their pocketbooks," said Richard A. Quattrocchi, president of closely held Home Access Health. He said Home Access has sold about 150,000 tests so far this year.
Confide, which was approved for sale by the Food and Drug Administration in May 1996, went on the market nationally in September 1996.
Direct Access said it stopped shipping Confide yesterday and is asking retail and wholesale customers to remove shelf stocks immediately and return all inventories. The tests, which consumers mail back to the company for results, will continue to be processed until Aug. 8. Any customer submitting test results after this date will be informed of steps to take for a refund.
The Confide Result Center will continue to operate until Aug. 29, in order to transmit results and provide counseling and referral services. Anyone calling after this date will be referred to the National AIDS Hotline.
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