I was curious how OTC sales have been doing in the past few years.
OTC Sales by Category -- 2007-2010
| OTC Category |
2007
(in millions) |
2008
(in millions) |
2009
(in millions) |
2010
(in millions) |
| Acne Remedies |
$332 |
$338 |
$339 |
$350 |
| Analgesics, External |
$315 |
$318 |
$305 |
$313 |
| Analgesics, Internal (includes other pain products) |
$2,424 |
$2,451 |
$2,492 |
$2,341 |
| Antidiarrheals |
$176 |
$169 |
$166 |
$163 |
| Anti-Smoking Products |
$507 |
$493 |
$494 |
$485 |
| Cough/Cold and Related |
$3,662 |
$4,083 |
$4,207 |
$4,054 |
| Eye Care |
$441 |
$459 |
$472 |
$500 |
| First Aid |
$624 |
$645 |
$650 |
$675 |
| Foot Care |
$357 |
$349 |
$336 |
$336 |
| Heartburn (includes anti-gas) |
$1,268 |
$1,242 |
$1,270 |
$1,386 |
| Laxatives |
$758 |
$807 |
$822 |
$832 |
| Lip Remedies |
$403 |
$417 |
$407 |
$419 |
| Oral Antiseptics and Rinses |
$728 |
$744 |
$731 |
$722 |
| Sunscreens and Blocks |
$414 |
$477 |
$499 |
$550 |
| Toothpaste |
$1,246 |
$1,251 |
$1,268 |
$1,288 |
| All Others |
$2,394 |
$2,515 |
$2,525 |
$2,557 |
Source: The Nielsen Company (total U.S. - food, drug, and mass, excluding Wal-Mart)
Sales figures are approximate for 52 weeks ending the Saturday prior to January 1 of a given year.
Sales are in millions of U.S. dollars. A few categories include a combination of OTC medicines as well as health-related products which are not classified as medicines by the Food and Drug Administration
Or, for those of you who prefer visual data:
So basically OTC saies have been relatively flat. And with so many blockbuster drugs either off or about to lose their patents -- including Seroquel, manufactured by AstraZeneca, lost its marketing exclusivity on March 26; Forest Laboratories' Lexapro, which had a patent that expired on March 14, 2012; Plavix, discovered by French pharmaceutical Sanofi-Aventis and was co-developed with Bristol-Myers Squibb, whose patent expires May 17; Merck's Singular, which is set to expire in August; and Actos, from Japan's Takeda. It's patent expired in January 2011 but the generic version will only hit shelves this August -- you can see who phama companies would like more drugs to move to the front of store shelves.
The insurance ramifications of changing drugs to OTC status are huge in two distinct areas:
First, depending on one's prescription drug plan and co-pay, it can be a LOT cheaper to buy a drug via prescription than over the counter. I find the idea of consulting with a pharmacist over a doctor to be pretty silly, but I would find having to PAY EXTRA for that "privilege" to be patently absurd.
Second, I recently read that many lawsuits are being thrown out for people who had medical problems that can be traced to having taken generic medications. Suits that would have been allowed for the original name-brand drugs are thrown out of court on a technicality relating to generic drugs--the generics are required to use the same labels as the name-brand meds, but the makers of the generics aren't deemed responsible for the content of those labels so they have no legal liability for things that go wrong.
That's a mighty nice loophole for the makers of generic meds, but I think it would disappear of those meds were sold OTC. Seems like OTC meds would have more labeling requirements and more liability for their Big Pharma manufacturers.
Second, I recently read that many lawsuits are being thrown out for people who had medical problems that can be traced to having taken generic medications. Suits that would have been allowed for the original name-brand drugs are thrown out of court on a technicality relating to generic drugs--the generics are required to use the same labels as the name-brand meds, but the makers of the generics aren't deemed responsible for the content of those labels so they have no legal liability for things that go wrong.
That's absolutely amazing, @Street Smart. What a nice deal for the generic manufacturers. I don't mind buying generic products, but I like to be selective. I may buy Kirkland brand tissue but not Stop & Shop for instance. Well, you don't get that luxury with prescription generics-- you get whatever the pharmacy has behind the counter. What's worse, the color of the same medication can vary from maker to maker, making it confusing for patients who take multiple medications (especially older folks).
Re: Insurance Ramifications
Dex
4/3/2012 11:14:45 AM
I understand prescription plans make behind the counter drugs less expensive in many cases. But keep in mind an important fact: not everyone has prescription coverage. And competition gradually forces down OTC prices.
Re: Insurance Ramifications
cat tail
4/3/2012 11:25:39 AM
If we're going to have to consult with pharmacists, they better start hiring some -- at least at the chain stores -- who 1) are relatively pleasant; 2) speak clear enough to be understood; 3) don't act annoyed when you ask a question.
Re: Insurance Ramifications
Drivewaygirl
4/3/2012 11:30:16 AM
And privacy. At the CVS I go to, they state the name of the drug you are picking up so loudly that it is downright embrassing. How are they planning to offer this counseling discretely?
Pharmacists know best
Tenacious
4/3/2012 11:53:40 AM
But in many respects it makes sense. Your pharmacist often has a better handle on drugs and their use than your doctor. So if you can find a good pharmacist, this could be a reasonable plan that could save consumers the trip to the physician and boost profits for phama companies,
Re: Pharmacists know best
tokyogai
4/3/2012 2:21:09 PM
They have systems like this in other countries- called Pharmacist prescriptions. It seems to work well. I think we should give it a try.
I have a wonderful independent pharmacist who could ask to perform abdominal surgery on me and I'd let him. Another pharmacist at a second independent drug store I went to recently caught a mistake that my son's doctor had made on prescribing an antibiotic and made three phone calls to fix the problem, after which I paid $1.47 for the prescription.
On the other hand, I tagged along recently when my other son refilled a prescription at a large chain store, and just about everything went wrong with that transaction--on a REFILL. If that pharmacist had recommended a SUNSCREEN, I would have run in the other direction.
I really agree with @cat tail and @drivewaygirl that pharmacies are all over the map with the advice and personnel that they provide.
You are so right @Street Smart. I recently heard yet another CVS story that made me cringe. A woman I know is receiving chemotherapy. She had to pick something up at CVS post treatment and take it ASAP. It was not there--although an eye ointment for her sister-in-law was.
The store gave the cancer drug to the sister-in-law.
Now human error happens. However, the two woman do not have similar first names. And this is the worst part. Do you know what the pharmacy tech did when the woman pointed out the error? Apologize? Express remorse? Nope.
"She laughed," the woman with cancer told me. "She said 'Oh isn't this funny!'"
Well, no. It isn't.
Re: Pharmacists know best
cat tail
4/4/2012 11:04:50 AM
No, it isn't funny. It is beyond belief that a professional behind a pharmacy counter would find such a mistake funny. What if one woman had not even shared her condition with the other? What about the violation of her privacy?
Yikes! Your CVS story sends shivers down my spine, @Noreen. However, the pharmacist my son and I dealt with didn't know enough English to have found the name mix-up funny...
Re: Pharmacists know best
driven
4/5/2012 12:29:57 PM
The Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA), represents U.S. manufacturers and distributors of over-the-counter medicines and dietary supplements and obviously has a point of view on this issue. But here are some of the stats it presented to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) at the agency's recent public hearing.
- When frequent heartburn medicines were made available without a prescription, consumers saved an average of $174 per year in avoided prescription costs and office visits. This additional access also drove a $750 million savings to the healthcare system. (Nielsen 2009)
- When nicotine replacement therapies used to quit smoking went OTC, there was a 150 percent to 200 percent increase in their use in the first year after the switch. (Shiffman 1997; Keeler 2002)
- Doctor visits for the common cold fell by more than 100,000 a year from 1976 to 1989 following the late-1970s and early-1980s switches of a number of decongestants and antihistamines (Temin 1992)
- When vaginal yeast treatments were made available without a prescription, studies found that women were as accurate as their doctors in recognizing the recurrence of vaginal yeast infection. (Lipsky 2000)
Does this shape your thoughts on the issue at all? Or do you think it's too one-sided?
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