In this Issue

Growing caregiver market seeks medication management solutions
AARP’s Project Catalyst — an initiative aimed at sparking healthcare innovation focused on people ages 50 years and older — in a report from April projects that by 2020, 117 million Americans will need some sort of caregiving assistance. At that point, the size of the market for the 45 million unpaid and 5 million paid caregivers is estimated to reach $72 billion, with RAND estimating opportunity costs around caregivers to be $522 billion every year, based on income unpaid caregivers lose in time spent on eldercare.
Growth categories will pay dividends
In 2017, there will be three growth categories within the OTC sector that will continue to post dividends to retail pharmacy’s bottom line across the self-care aisle. We’re calling them the old, the now and the future.

(Click here to view the full Category Review.)

Improving adherence: Q&A with Synergy Medical's Mark Rinker

For almost 10 years, Synergy Medical has been providing proven and reliable technology for blister card automation, which now is used daily for 145,000 lives. Since the first installation in January 2008, there have been hundreds of SynMed installations in retail drug stores, long-term care institutions and in pharmacy chains that have centralized their blister card production service (central fill operations). SynMed clients are found throughout Canada, the United States and in Europe.
Hard sodas, flavored beers make a splash

Beer is still America’s No. 1 alcoholic beverage, but retail experts say that U.S. consumers are buying less of it as they turn to other alcohol types, such as hard soda, cider and wine.

(To view the full Category Review, click here.)
Omnis Health launches new gestational diabetes care kit

NASHVILLE — Earlier this year, Omnis Health created a dedicated diabetes-management solution for some 375,000 women diagnosed with gestational diabetes who are extremely passionate, both about managing their condition and the health of their newborns. It’s certainly a niche category, but the retailer who provides a direct solution to gestational diabetes may capture that family’s entire health spend moving forward.
ADA recommends diabetes patients get a move on — every 30 minutes

Retailers may soon want to add fitness guides and office-friendly exercise equipment to their diabetes sets. The American Diabetes Association last month released new guidance suggesting physical movement improves blood-sugar management for people who have sedentary jobs, and in people who are overweight, obese and who have difficulty maintaining blood sugars in a healthy range.

(To view the full Diabetes Report, click here.)
Fear and loathing along the path to purchase 2016

President Donald Trump — nobody saw that coming.

Except maybe one man Drug Store News interviewed for our January 2011 cover story: Stewart “Stewie Rah-Rah” Rahr, the freewheeling billionaire-philanthropist and former owner/founder of Kinray, the largest privately-held drug distribution company at the time he sold it to Cardinal Health for some $1.3 billion.
AZO launches new defense against UTIs

CROMWELL, Conn. — I-Health launched a new product women can use to fight urinary tract infections. AZO Urinary Tract Defense features the only antibacterial UTI ingredient available without a prescription to help defend against the progression of an infection until a doctor can be consulted. The tablets also offer general pain relief to alleviate discomfort, the company noted. The new offering could be a boost to a slightly declining category. Sales of vaginal treatments were down 0.8% to $288.4 million for the 52 weeks ended Oct. 2 across total U.S. multi-outlets, IRI reported.
Tapping into the Hispanic OTC market

Segmenting the go-to-market strategy to fully incorporate the Hispanic consumer in any OTC product launch is a great way to accelerate sales growth, noted Carlos Gutierrez, VP strategy and insights healthcare at Univision Communications. Univision Communications Inc., in partnership with Nielsen, in October took a deep dive into how Hispanics buy and shop the self-care aisles.
Savings from generics hit all-time high

Generic medications saved the U.S. healthcare system more money in 2015 than ever before, according to the eighth-annual “2016 Generic Drug Savings & Access in the United States Report,” compiled by Quintiles IMS Institute on behalf of the Generic Pharmaceutical Association.

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