CB12

CB12 is an oral-care brand built around a single problem: bad breath. Its core product is a mouthwash that pairs zinc acetate with a low dose of chlorhexidine, an antiseptic long used in dentistry, and adds sodium fluoride to strengthen tooth enamel. Around that rinse the range has grown to include several mouthwash variants, a mouth spray and a chewing gum. The brand is sold mainly through pharmacies and drugstores, and its official websites in Germany and the United Kingdom double as educational guides to halitosis, the medical term for bad breath.

CB12 is not an independent company. Since July 2024 it has belonged to Cooper Consumer Health, a European consumer-healthcare group that took it over as part of its purchase of the over-the-counter business of the pharmaceutical company Viatris [12]. In the 2010s the brand was marketed by the Swedish drug company Meda. Neither the year CB12 was launched nor the people who created it are publicly documented.

No published account states outright where or when CB12 began, and two different countries are attached to its early years. The product description of an older mouthwash listing at an Austrian online grocer says the formula was created at the University of Oslo in Norway [14]. That claim is consistent with a 2007 clinical study, led from the university's Dental Faculty, of a rinse with exactly the concentrations later attributed to CB12. A 2017 post on a chewing-gum industry blog, by contrast, introduces the brand as a product of "the Swedish company MEDA" [13].

The two statements describe different things. One concerns where the formula was developed; the other names the company that owned and sold the brand at the time. Neither amounts to a founding story, and no founder, launch date or original headquarters is documented.

During the Meda years the brand had a visible presence among dental professionals in the United Kingdom. The UK dental trade publication Dental Review ran an article on the chemistry of bad breath in 2016 that closed by recommending CB12 mouthwash, and in 2018 it published a short piece titled "CB12: Fresh Breath Confidence" aimed at dentists and hygienists.

The scientific case CB12 makes rests on volatile sulphur compounds, or VSCs. These are foul-smelling gases, chiefly hydrogen sulphide and methyl mercaptan, released when bacteria in the mouth break down proteins from food remnants and dead cells. Dental Review's 2016 article described how these bacteria thrive below the gum line and on the back of the tongue, and noted that tests had shown a combination of zinc acetate and chlorhexidine diacetate could convert the gases into odourless, insoluble compounds [11].

The most concrete research behind the formula is a double-blind clinical study published in The Journal of Clinical Dentistry in 2007 [8]. Its first author, Per Stanley Thrane, worked at the Dental Faculty at the University of Oslo, and the team tested a new rinse containing 0.3% zinc and 0.025% chlorhexidine against seven other formulations, including widely used commercial products. Ten healthy volunteers rinsed with each formulation on separate days, and the researchers measured hydrogen sulphide in their breath over the following three hours.

One hour after rinsing, the zinc-chlorhexidine combination had cut hydrogen sulphide levels to 0.16% of the control value, and after three hours they remained below 1%. The authors concluded that combining the two ingredients in low concentrations appeared to be the most efficient way then known to remove the gases behind bad breath, and suggested the two substances worked together rather than simply adding up.

The study abstract does not mention CB12 by name. The link rests on product copy for the mouthwash, which gives the same concentrations of 0.3% zinc and 0.025% chlorhexidine and states that this combination is found only in CB12 [14]. The company itself refers to "the patented CB12 formula" on its UK website, naming zinc and chlorhexidine as its two functional ingredients.

Keeping chlorhexidine at a low dose is central to the product's design. Chlorhexidine is a well-established dental antiseptic, but the brand pairs a small amount of it with zinc rather than relying on it alone. Sodium fluoride is added to the mouthwashes for tooth enamel.

CB12 has passed through several corporate owners. Meda, the Swedish pharmaceutical company associated with the brand in the 2010s, itself became part of the US drug maker Mylan in 2016 [9]. By the time of the next change, CB12 sat within the over-the-counter division of Viatris.

On 3 July 2024 Cooper Consumer Health, which issued its announcement from Paris, completed the acquisition of that Viatris business [7]. The deal brought more than 200 brands in some 50 countries into Cooper's portfolio, along with manufacturing sites in Mérignac, France, and Confienza, Italy, and a research and development centre in Monza, Italy. Cooper said the purchase doubled its revenues to about €1.2 billion. Its own announcement highlighted the feminine-hygiene brand Saugella, the antiseptic Betadine and the cholesterol supplement Armolipid; an M&A deal database lists CB12 alongside those three names [12].

Today the brand's national websites are run by local Cooper subsidiaries. The German site is published by Cooper Consumer Health Deutschland GmbH, based in Mannheim, whose managing directors include Cooper's group chief executive, Bart Meermans [4]. The UK site is operated by Cooper Consumer Health UK Ltd, registered in Hitchin, Hertfordshire.

CB12 presents itself as a specialist in one complaint rather than a general oral-care line. The German site calls the brand "the expert against bad breath", and its slogan translates as "Don't let bad breath ruin your day. With CB12 you'll feel the difference."

The central argument of its marketing is the difference between covering up an odour and removing its cause. According to the company, many people do not realise that products with a strong mint taste often mask bad breath only for a short time, whereas its mouthwash neutralises the sulphur compounds responsible and prevents new ones from forming [3]. Both the German and UK sites end their explanations with the same advice: ask a pharmacist about CB12. That pharmacy-first framing places the brand closer to over-the-counter healthcare than to cosmetic breath fresheners.

Much of the German website is given over to education rather than products. It treats bad breath as a social taboo that deserves open discussion, explains that around 90% of cases begin in the mouth, and lists causes from gum disease and poor hygiene to high-protein diets, dry mouth and certain illnesses. Articles on the site cover morning breath, home remedies and whether bad breath can come from the stomach, and the homepage cites peer-reviewed literature on halitosis.

### Different claims in different markets

The brand's headline claim about how long its mouthwash works is not the same everywhere. The German site describes a scientifically proven effect against the cause of bad breath lasting 16 hours [1]. The UK site instead promises "12H protection against bad breath" [6], the same 12-hour figure used in Dental Review's 2018 piece and on older retail listings. One article teaser on the German site also mentions "up to 12 hours". The figures reflect separate national versions of the claim rather than a single global specification.

The current German range lists five mouthwashes: Zahnfleischschutz (gum protection), Sensitive for sensitive teeth, White, Mint and Mild Mint. Each is described as alcohol-free, and the variants differ mainly in flavour, from mint and peppermint to menthol [5]. The fluoride-containing rinses carry 0.05% sodium fluoride and are labelled as unsuitable for children under 12.

An older listing from the Meda period, however, includes alcohol in the mouthwash's ingredient list, which suggests the formulation has changed over time; the alcohol-free description applies to the current German range.

For use away from home, the brand offers CB12 Mundspray, a pocket-sized, alcohol-free mouth spray, and CB12 Boost, a sugar-free chewing gum containing zinc and fluoride. In Germany the Eucalyptus White version of the gum is marketed as a food supplement. The company presents the gum and spray as complements to the mouthwash rather than replacements for it.

No third-party certifications are documented for the range.

No awards are documented for CB12. Its press coverage has come mainly from the UK dental trade. Dental Review's 2018 article described the mouthwash as "developed by dentists" and "clinically proven", and said it could keep breath pleasant for up to 12 hours after a single rinse [10]. The piece closes by inviting readers to contact CB12, and reads as promotional copy rather than independent review. The earlier 2016 article on sulphur compounds likewise ended with a recommendation of the brand.

CB12 is an acquired brand: it operates as part of Cooper Consumer Health rather than as an independent company. It remains in active sale. Its German and UK websites carried 2026 copyright notices from Cooper, an article teaser on the German site referred to studies from 2026, and the range is sold through pharmacies, drugstore chains and online retailers.