Tuesday, February 1, 2000 CONTRACEPTION & FAMILY PLANNING BIRTH CONTROL PILL: Acne-Fighting Ortho Tri-Cyclen Edges Out Competition       Sales of Johnson & Johnson's Ortho Tri-Cyclen have "tripled in the last three years," in part because the number one brand of oral contraceptive can fight acne, the AP/Nando Times reports. The FDA gave Johnson & Johnson permission to sell Ortho Tri-Cyclen for acne in 1997, after clinical trials found that the drug helped clear the skin of more than 80% of women who took it. Although all oral contraceptives "probably help fight acne," the AP/Nando Times reports, only Ortho Tri-Cyclen has FDA approval to tout the added benefit. As it stands, Johnson & Johnson has 40% of the oral contraceptive market, up from 30% in 1997. Medical ethicists doubt the "double-duty pill is encouraging more young girls to have sex," but some maintain that the acne-fighting benefit "provide[s] a smoke-screen" for girls who can "claim they want the drug for acne when their real aim is protection from pregnancy." Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, said, "Sex and lying have a long history of association" (Galewitz, AP/Nando Times, 1/30). Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report