In this Issue

By now, the retail pharmacy industry knows that its place within the American healthcare landscape is changing. PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Health Research Institute has dubbed it the New Health Economy, and in May the firm highlighted the factors that are playing a key role in pharmacy’s transformation.

Health care, said Katya Hancock, “is very different than other industries.” Given the fragmented, piecemeal way the health system has evolved and the urgent challenges posed by skyrocketing costs, inconsistent care standards and wide gaps in the gathering and sharing of vital patient data, it’s no wonder that the health industry is ripe for innovation and new solutions, she told participants at the Retail Health Summit.

Hallmark is bringing music from some of the most popular country artists into the greeting card aisle with CMA Sounds Cards, thanks to Hallmark’s new licensing partnership with the Country Music Association. The new collection includes 12 song cards, each featuring a sound clip from CMA artists, including Carrie Underwood, Brad Paisley, Miranda Lambert and Luke Bryan. Priced at $4.99, each card features a 15-second sound clip from some of the artists’ top songs, including No.

VoicePort arrived in Boston for the National Association of Chain Drug Stores’ Total Store Expo this year with a new name for its suite of pharmacy technology offerings. The company rebranded its PharmaPhonetics property as CLARO Pharmacy Solutions — a name change aimed at highlighting the growth the company’s offerings have seen since starting out in 2003, according to VoicePort VP North American business development Alphonse J. Sasso.

According to Medline chief marketing officer Stu Schneider, it’s time for retailers and consumer health companies to start looking at the current diabetes care market like an iceberg. With more than 37% of Americans diagnosed as prediabetic, the current market for diabetes management and monitoring is really just the tip of the iceberg.

Ateb’s recent announcement that more than a million patients were enrolled and having their medications actively managed via its Time My Meds medication synchronization platform is big news, but the company isn’t about to rest on its laurels. Rather, Ateb is looking to use what it has learned from these patients to help pharmacies improve both their business and their patients’ outcomes.

In the retail and CPG industry, few terms get thrown around quite as much as “omnichannel.” But regardless of how it is defined, the in-store experience is still a major part of the customer engagement equation.

The allergy space will continue to heat up significantly in 2017 as marketers pollinate the airwaves with advertisements promoting their latest brand introductions. GSK Consumer Healthcare will have its hands full defending the Flonase franchise, now the No. 1 allergy remedy on the market. Not only is there another nasal corticosteroid on the market — McNeil Consumer’s Rhinocort launched earlier this year — but Flonase faces increasing private-label and brand competition.