National digestive brands see mixed sales results

The upper gastrointestinal proton pump inhibitors segment saw a 9% decrease — national brands only — in sales in multi-outlets for the latest 12 months compared with the previous year, with losses primarily driven down by large decreases at Procter & Gamble’s Prilosec OTC (-13%) and for GSK Consumer Heathcare’s Prevacid (-15%). Among the H2 segment — which was up 2% versus the previous year, national brands only — McNeil’s Pepcid brand showed strong growth versus the prior year with a 6% increase, while Chattem’s Zantac decreased 1% (Figure 1).



For leading manufacturers in the PPI segment, Pfizer’s Nexium 24HR saw the highest percentage of sales on promotion at 40%. Bayer’s Zegerid saw the lowest percentage of sales on promotion at just 13%. In the H2 segment, both Chattem and McNeil saw similar per-

centages of sales on promotion at 20% and 21% respectively (Figure 2).



Average PPI retailer margins were consistently the highest in the mass, food and drug channels for Bayer, while GSK Consumer Healthcare saw the lowest average margins. In the H2 segment, McNeil saw the highest margins across all channels while Chattem saw the lowest (Figure 3).



For upper GI PPI segment, P&G saw the largest amount of ad support across all three channels. For the H2 segment, Chattem saw the largest number of print circular ads for both food and drug channels, while mass focused primarily on price only (Figure 4).



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