In this Issue

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.)

Last year, Drug Store News projected that GSK Consumer Healthcare’s Flonase allergy franchise would be challenged with the introduction of two new nasal corticosteroids to the market — McNeil Consumer’s Rhinocort and Bayer’s ClariSpray.

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

As a growing number of older Americans are making home healthcare increasingly attractive for drug store retailers, those in the industry say participating in this multifaceted market requires getting over some significant hurdles.

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

CVS Health senior educator Kristene Diggins and others involved in the fight against diabetes said they expect drug stores and retail clinics to play a bigger role in coming years.

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

Generics continue to grow as a proportion of the total prescriptions dispensed every year, and as that number has grown, so have the savings that generics bring to the healthcare system. The Generic Pharmaceutical Association has been front and center, touting the benefits that generics bring for lawmakers, payers and, most importantly, patients. Drug Store News spoke with GPhA president and CEO Chip Davis about the organization’s efforts in 2016 and plans for the remainder of 2017.

Americans can’t do enough for their furry friends. To that end, growth continues to be the watchword in the pet care category.

Research released by the American Pet Products Association, or the APPA, indicated that American consumers would spend a total of $62.75 billion on pet supplies and care in 2016, up from $60.28 in 2015 and $58.04 in 2014.

In the United States, colds account for more visits to the doctor than any other condition, according to the American Lung Association. The common culprit behind spreading rhinovirus, the virus behind as many as 40% of all colds, is children — pediatric patients on average suffer from the symptoms of a cold between six and eight times each year. And given how highly contagious many colds are, that may explain why many adults get sick, too.