Helen Of Troy's Oxo Brand To Develop New Injection Device

Consumer products company Helen of Troy Limited (NASDAQ:HELE) is all set to boost its presence in the health and wellness business. As a part of this strategy, Helen of Troy’s brand Oxo in partnership with Brussels, Belgium-based biopharmaceutical company UCB, develop new certolizumab pegol (Cimzia) AutoClicks Prefilled Pen in the National Health Services (NHS), UK.

These prefilled pens can be administered to cure diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, active psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and axial spondyloarthritis. The validation for the use of these pens as injections was given by the European Medicine's Agency's (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP).

The injections are extremely user-friendly and are specially designed keeping the hand disability of the patients in mind. Further, these feature a wide grip and a button-free delivery system that is beneficial for the patients. It has a large viewing window which enables patients to know about the start and the completion of the injection simply with double clicks. This ensures patients get the full dose of their medicine. The injections come at a monthly £715 (2 treatments doses of 200mg) for a patient.

Oxo brand, taken over by Helen of Troy in 2004, forms a part of the latter’s Housewares segment. Oxo’s products include kitchen tools, cutlery, bar and wine accessories as well as household cleaning tools, food storage containers and tea kettles. It products also include trash cans, storage and organization products, hand tools, gardening tools, kitchen mitts and trivets, barbecue tools and baby and toddler care products. The OXO brand is widely known for its user-friendly consumer products.

Recently, in Mar 2016, Helen of Troy reinforced its Housewares segment by the takeover of the brand Hydro Flask and all membership units of Steel Technology, LLC in a cash deal worth $210 million. Apart from this, the company took over the Vicks Vaposteam business from the Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) in Mar 2015 following its venture into vitamin supplements space with the Healthy Directions buyout in 2014.

Zacks Rank

Helen of Troy carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

Better ranked stocks in the cosmetics and toiletries sector include Avon Products Inc. (NYSE:AVP) and Nu Skin Enterprises Inc. (NYSE:NUS) .

Avon Products Inc. carries a Zacls Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and carries a long term growth rate of 5%. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Nu Skin Enterprises Inc. carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and has a long-term growth rate of 7.8%.

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