New leaders emerge

Consolidation across the OTC industry created new leaders in the OTC category in 2015, noted Robert Sanders, EVP healthcare practice leader at IRI. With the incorporation of Merck’s OTC business into Bayer, the company perhaps best known for Bayer Aspirin and One A Day multivitamins became the top player, followed by Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer Consumer.

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GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis also finalized their joint OTC venture in spring 2015, creating another OTC force that’s greater than its parts.



That vendor consolidation may mean there are brand divestitures on the horizon in 2016, Sanders said. Immediately after a merger, there are synergies realized through the elimination of duplicative infrastructure, Sanders noted, so those merged portfolios have a little time before individual product lines need to meet internal sales hurdles. “Look for more of that kind of [divestiture] activity toward the end of 2016 once all the transition has happened. There’s less disruption and these companies can sort out which brands are strategic,” he said.