In this Issue

Drug overdoses have become the leading cause of accidental death in the United States, with 47,055 people dying in 2014 as a result of lethal drug overdoses — 18,893 of which were related to prescription pain relievers. The epidemic has drawn the attention of everyone from President Barack Obama to local first responders, all of whom have pointed to the drug naloxone as one of the critical first lines of defense in saving the lives of thousands from accidental overdose. Naloxone can reverse the effects of an overdose, but until recently it could only be accessed by prescription.

COLD SPRING HARBOR, N.Y. — Cirrus Healthcare will be launching the clinically designed earplugs MigraineX, along with an app that tracks shifts in barometric pressure, a known trigger of migraines. “Weather causes migraines,” noted Lanny Lewis, SVP business development at Cirrus Healthcare, and not a lot of people know that. Cirrus is looking to change that, Lewis said.

The shave category is trying to get its groove back. With the exception of razors, where sales are up a healthy 10.6% for the 52-week period ended Sept. 4, 2016, as tracked by IRI across multi-outlets, all of the other categories in shave are down.

(To view the full Shave Report, click here.)

About 20 years ago, I took a job as senior editor for Drug Store News. My first beat assignment was the OTC business and about a dozen retail companies, including CVS Pharmacy. Back then, CVS had just won the right to buy Revco, and it was making regular headlines in Drug Store News-FIRST — the weekly news-fax (remember those?) edition of DSN that would later become our daily e-newsletter DSN A.M. — as it completed the biggest integration of stores and systems in the history of the retail pharmacy business.

The drug channel has seen the all-natural and organic beauty categories grow aggressively in recent years. The roster of brands offering natural and organic skin and hair care products has expanded, and consumers have more knowledge and choices when it comes to natural beauty than ever before.

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

Two years ago, CVS Pharmacy made the bold decision to walk away from tobacco. It was the right move for a lot of reasons, but the fact remained: There was a $2 billion sales hole that needed to be plugged.

(To download Special Report: Double Down on Health, click here.)

A lot of brands, both indie and mainstream, are rethinking their strategies when it comes to beauty products aimed at multicultural consumers.

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

In the slightly less than one year since CVS Health acquired all of Target’s 1,669 pharmacies and 79 retail clinics, the company has completed the process of turning them into CVS Pharmacy and MinuteClinic locations, converting as many as 150 stores per week at the peak of the integration process.

(To download Special Report: Double Down on Health, click here.)