Salix's giant inflatable 'Captain Colon' embarks on colon health awareness tour

The inflatable stolen colon is back—in triplicate. Salix Pharmaceutical employees donated money to the Colon Cancer Coalition to purchase a replacement after the company's 10-foot-tall inflatable teaching tool was stolen last October. Quest Diagnostics made the same offer.

After a flurry of media coverage and a police hunt, the original stolen colon was recovered about a week later. Still, Salix and Quest offered their donations, so the coalition bought two more colons. The new inflatable colons will travel around the country as part of the Colon Cancer Coalition’s "Get Your Rear in Gear" events meant to drive awareness of colon health and the importance of colonoscopy screening. 

Salix’s contribution—dubbed Captain Colon—made its debut in New York on Friday, set up in Herald Square Park for people to walk through the tunnel-like intestinal track to learn about colon health, disease prevention and the importance of screening. The event, held March 1, also kicked off Colorectal Cancer Awareness month. Salix's donated money came from internal fundraisers among employees, who voted unanimously to direct the funds for the replacement colon. 

"This is a good opportunity for us to partner to give back, which is a core value for us at Salix. In addition, patient education is key and the more we can partner with organizations to do that, the more we think we can impact or catch colon cancer," Nicola Kayel, VP of GI marketing at Salix, said.

Salix, the GI arm of Bausch Health, markets treatments including Xifaxan, which was approved to treat IBS with diarrhea, opioid-induced constipation drug Relistor and the prescription bowel prep liquid Plenvu. Last week, Salix announced its successful bid for bankrupt Synergy Pharmaceutical's assets: chronic idiopathic constipation drug Trulance and investigational compound dolcanatide.

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