In this Issue

Overall, the sale of all sleep remedies were up 6.1% to $707.9 million across total U.S. multi-outlets for the 52 weeks ended Nov. 27, 2016, according to IRI. Procter & Gamble’s ZzzQuil still leads the category. Sales of the liquid formulation are outpacing category growth with an uptick of 8.4% to $85.3 million, or 12% of total category sales.

(To view the full Cough-Cold Report, click here.)

Diabetes has become a worldwide epidemic. According to data recently published by the Brussels-based International Diabetes Federation, by 2040 more than 642 million people worldwide will suffer from diabetes, up from 415 million in 2015, the last year for which the organization has statistics. In North America, this figure is expected to jump from the current 30 million cases to around 41 million.

(To view the full Category Review, click here.)

Generics have made a huge difference to the U.S. healthcare system’s bottom line in the past decade, a savings that takes 13 figures to tabulate.

(To view the full Category Review, click here.)

Increasingly, pharmacies are turning to automation as a way to increase efficiency and free up their pharmacists — employing everything from lower-cost, in-store automation to sophisticated robotics systems that help make central fill operations more efficient and reduce dispensing costs.

(To view the full Category Review, click here.)

After four decades in retailing, Panzer has been lucky enough to have a number of great mentors in business, but the Albertson’s healthcare chief tells DSN some of the most important lessons he ever learned came as a young cowhand on his grandmother’s Santa Fe ranch.

A number of recent product offerings in the VMS space may represent white-space opportunities — or products that help create a marketing or merchandising niche that resonates with today’s consumer.

Drug Store News spoke with Troy Talarico, VP sales Fusion Diet Systems, regarding the consumer diet aid trend favoring meal-replacement offerings over quick-fix solutions.

(Click here to view the full VMS Report.)

DSN: What are the factors driving the growth in sales of diet aids and meal-replacement solutions across retail pharmacy?

Nutrex is introducing a new pre-workout product called OutLift that is differentiated by having no proprietary blend (full disclosure ingredients) and contains no “banned” ingredients. Fully-disclosed labels means the formulation of the product isn’t hiding within a proprietary ingredient. “It’s 10 clinically-dosed ingredients,” said Raul Gil, Nutrex research VP sales.