GMDC and J&J showcase diabetes opportunity in latest infocast

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - GMDC on Thursday hosted Sally Manoufar, senior manager Health & Wellness at Johnson & Johnson, and Sara Bender, senior channel marketing manager at Johnson & Johnson, to learn about Johnson & Johnson's diabetes front-end solution as part of the group's lunchtime Infocast Event.

Diabetes as an epidemic in North America can, and is, providing opportunities for retailers to become a centralized health and wellness destination for consumers, GMDC noted. And technology is paving the way for consumers to manage their diabetes at home through a surge of innovation and inventive products that appeal to those shoppers who “self-care."

First, the opportunity surrounding patients with diabetes is significant. Diabetes patients are spending between $1,000 and $2,500 each year on diabetes supplies alone, Manoufar noted. "If you go beyond that, on average [patients with diabetes] have 2.6 additional illnesses on top of their diabetes," she said. "That could be another $1,000 to $3,000 per year in annual prescription costs." According to J&J research, the front-end basket of a diabetes patient is five times larger than that of a patient who doesn't have diabetes.

J&J's OneTouch team has recently invested in a solution called KnowMyCoPay, which empowers diabetes patients and their pharmaicsts with a tool to help them best manage their diabetes spend.

Another helpful disease management tool is the OneTouch app. "We really believe this is the future of diabetes management," Bender shared. "It's not just managing the number through a meter but managing the data through digitally-based technologies."