HEALTH

AMITYVILLE, N.Y. — Drug maker Hi-Tech Pharmacal has bought a line of homeopathic nasal spray products from Dynova Labs, the company said Thursday.

Hi-Tech announced the acquisition of Sinus Buster and Allergy Buster for $1.25 million and an addition $1.25 million that it will deposit in an escrow account. The company also will pay Dynova a royalty on net sales for up to three and a half years or up to $1.75 million. The products, which Hi-Tech will sell through its Health Care Products over-the-counter division, had sales of $3.3 million in 2011.

Within the past month, two Ohio-based traditional retailers announced plans to test-market automated retail vending machines. It’s not so much thinking outside of the box as it is figuring out how to get that box to where the consumers are, wherever they are — the airport, the hospital, convention centers, exercise facilities, on a college campus or in a hotel. 


The number of patients with diabetes is not decreasing any time soon, and one of the most important fronts in the battle lies at the pharmacy counter.


In a recent campaign, Walgreens used LocalResponse’s Direct Response to reach customers in-store to disseminate store promotions, such as flu shots and coupons for Kraft Foods’ Halls cough drops. Average click-through rates for Direct Response are greater than 50%, according to LocalResponse. Specifically, those consumers who “checked in” at their local Walgreens, be it through third-party apps like FourSquare, Google Places or Yelp, were targeted with a Halls-branded message.

LAS VEGAS — Hyland's has extended its Defend lineup of cough-cold products with a pair of adult cough syrups — Defend Cough & Cold and Defend Cough & Cold Night — last week at the ECRM Cough & Cold and Allergy EPPS.

The products, which carry a suggested retail price of $9.99, are being promoted through Hyland's "Action Moms" campaign, an interactive campaign that ties Hyland's adult cough-cold products to a key target demographic: the do-everything mom.

While the in-store experience is still important to many shoppers, greater consumer adoption of emerging technologies is undoubtedly reshaping the retail landscape. Today, stores are just one part of a larger, more connected consumer experience. For retailers, this means they must rethink how they can transform stores, strategies and operating models into a store of the future: Store 3.0.


The market for drugs to treat diabetes — especially Type 2 diabetes — has shown quite a bit of activity lately. At the end of January, the Food and Drug Administration approved Bydureon (exenatide), a once-weekly version of the drug Byetta, which was originally developed by Alkermes and subsequently developed further under an alliance between Amylin Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly that the two companies formed in 2002. In November 2011, however, Amylin and Lilly terminated their alliance in the wake of an announced diabetes drug partnership between Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim.

WASHINgTON — A Consumer Healthcare Products Association study earlier this year supported what everyone has known all along: Use of over-the-counter medicines saves the U.S. healthcare system money. A lot of it. 


For every dollar spent on over-the-counter medicines, the U.S. healthcare system realizes a savings of between $6 and $7, or $102 billion all told, according to CHPA’s study, “The Value of OTC Medicine to the United States.”