Jeff Needham receives CHPA’s Ivan D. Combe Lifetime Achievement Award

The Consumer Healthcare Products Association awarded its Ivan D. Combe Lifetime Achievement Award to longtime industry leader Jeff Needham at the opening session of its annual Self-Care Leadership Summit today in Florida. The Combe Award is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. consumer healthcare industry, which recognizes the outstanding work and contributions of individuals whose lifetime of achievements have created a lasting impact on the industry, their community, and have directly improved self-care for consumers.

CHPA’s Combe Award is named in honor of Ivan D. Combe, an industry pioneer and visionary who served on CHPA’s board of directors from 1958 until 2000. It is presented annually to one deserving individual who, through a lifetime commitment to advancing consumer health care, has exhibited three core attributes: (1) business excellence and a passion for improving the lives of healthcare consumers; (2) leadership and involvement in industry activities; and (3) a commitment to giving back to the community. 

This year’s recipient, Jeff Needham, is an industry leader with a long and accomplished career spanning nearly four decades in consumer healthcare sales and executive management at The Perrigo Company, retiring in 2020 as president of Consumer Healthcare for the Americas. Through a series of strategic mergers and acquisitions, Needham helped grow Perrigo’s revenues from $93 million in 1984 to more than $5 billion during his tenure at the company. Key transactions under Needham’s leadership included the sale of Perrigo’s “Equate” brand to Walmart, now a $1.5 billion store brand, and an exclusive partnership with Amazon to launch “basic care,” marking Amazon’s introduction into the OTC store brand market.

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"It’s such an honor to recognize a leader like Jeff, whose work and contributions have undoubtedly advanced our entire industry,” said CHPA president and CEO Scott Melville. “Throughout Jeff’s tenure, store brand OTC sales grew from 5% percent to more than 30% of the retail market. During this same time, he oversaw the launch of more than 145 FDA-approved ANDAs – the equivalent of 75% of all switches. Upon retirement in 2020, Jeff was inducted into the Private Label Manufacturers Hall of Fame, a well-deserved acknowledgment for a remarkable career of impactful industry contributions."

“Jeff also worked on behalf of the broader consumer healthcare industry through his active involvement with CHPA,” continued Melville. “He was first elected to CHPA’s board of directors in 2009 as vice chair, serving on numerous committees and task groups before capping off his industry service as the association’s chairman from 2016 to 2018. In that role, Jeff was instrumental in spearheading the congressional passage of the OTC Monograph Reform Act, which rewarded brand investments in innovation that will greatly benefit consumers and the industry alike.”   

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Following his retirement from Perrigo, Needham has continued contributing to the consumer healthcare space as chairman of the board of Futura Medical, a British healthcare company, and as a board member of McKee Foods, the makers of Little Debbie brands. He remains a mentor and leader throughout the communities he loves, guided by his core personal values of “family, friends, and faith.”

Needham previously served on the board of “The Right Place,” a West-Michigan economic development non-profit organization, and chaired the St. Thomas pastoral council in Grand Rapids, Mich. He is currently active as a volunteer to the Jandernoa Entrepreneurial Mentoring Organization and as a mentor to the Water Mission Organization in Charleston, South Carolina.

Needham received the Combe award during CHPA’s SLS, which was attended by his wife Erin, his two sons Ben and Sam, his daughter-in-law Ginny, his peers, and more than 300 leadership executives from the consumer healthcare industry. 

View a list of past Ivan D. Combe Lifetime Achievement Award winners here.