“Not only did the global recession fail to make OTC [over-the-counter] sales decline, it also created new opportunities for consumer healthcare with value-for-money products, economy packs, and single-dose SKUs in demand.”
That's one of the insights reported by Nicholas Hall, chairman and CEO, Nicholas Hall & Co., in the Expresspharmaonline.com article, “Companies are broad-basing their product mix in favor of OTCs.” Other interesting points he makes include the following:
• According to DB6 2010, global OTC sales were up 4.6% in 2009. A 10.7% upturn in India “made it one of the fastest-growing countries in terms of OTCs.”
• “In China, the enabling regulatory changes made in the last four-five years has helped the OTC industry to flourish.”
• Eye-care company Bausch & Lomb is a non-medical firm “showing some interest in OTC products.”
• Reverse switches, where regulators have reversed Rx to OTC switches, are done not just for patient safety, but also because product can be reverse-manufactured into illegal drugs.
• Nonsedating antihistamines represent a major OTC sector showing strong growth. “And the newest area internationally is in the area of lifestyle products, which could be slimming product.'
• “Almost all categories seem to be on an upswing…the OTC momentum has picked up in the last two years and we are seeing more companies setting up separate OTC divisions and also considering many mature brands for Rx to OTC shift strategies.”
• Point-of-care “is a major step towards pharmacies becoming a one-stop shop for healthcare solutions.”
In the future, Hall believes “the high end of the pharma industry is going to be dominated by biomedicines and personalized medicines. At the other end, you have the mature Rx brands where the pharma companies are realizing that there's no point going to doctors because they can only write a generic prescription, so if you want to influence consumption, you have to go [to] the pharmacist/chemist.”
In “The Inevitable Major Growth of Dual Regulatory Status” on www.rxtootcswitch.com predicts the following: “Switch predicts that Dual Regulatory Status will become the typical strategy of the future for a vast number of current and future Rx pharmaceutical products in the U.S. Moreover, this effort will have substantial spill-over effect on non-U.S. markets due to the need to amortize the extra costs to achieve dual status.”
Read more about OTC switches.
--Jim Butschli, Editor
