Wyeth Consumer Healthcare, a division of Wyeth, has signed an agreement to purchase ThermaCare, a leading over-the-counter heat wrap, from Procter & Gamble. The transaction is expected to close within the next few months.

ThermaCare fits Wyeth Consumer Healthcare’s strategy to accelerate growth through innovation, organic geographic growth and strategic acquisitions in the division’s base business, which includes some of the world’s best-selling pain management, respiratory, nutritional, gastrointestinal and topical products. ThermaCare will join the company’s pain franchise that includes Advil—one of the world’s leading oral pain relievers—and will enhance Wyeth’s global position in pain management.

“ThermaCare is a great brand and a strategic fit for our pain management franchise,” says Cavan Redmond, president, Wyeth Consumer Healthcare. “We are excited about the brand’s growth potential. Millions of consumers have relied on ThermaCare for consistent, uniform heat to help them be as active as they want to be.”

ThermaCare is currently sold in the U.S., Canada, Germany, the UK, Ireland, Switzerland and Austria. They are made in an Albany, GA facility that will be maintain by Wyeth after the transaction.

P&G first introduced Thermacare in the U.S. in 2002. They use heat therapy to relieve minor arthritis, muscle, joint and menstrual pain. The ThermaCare line currently contains six products: heat wraps for the lower back and hips, and neck and shoulders; heat patches for menstrual pain; and heat wraps for arthritis in the hands and wrists, knees and elbows, and neck and shoulders. Arthritis Heat Wraps were launched in the U.S. in September 2007.