Homeopathy

Some people swear by it. Others doubt it. What’s undeniable, however, is that homeopathic medicine sales were up 15.7% in 2011 to $173 million in natural supermarkets (excluding Whole Foods) and food, drug and mass (excluding Walmart), according to SPINSscan Natural. And with media reports of recalls, dangerous and lethal side effects, counterfeiting and contamination, the homeopathic school of medicine founded by Samuel Hahnemann in 1800 is making a comeback.


ATLANTA — Historical Remedies, based in St. Paul, Minn., last week launched a line of six homeopathic "stress reduction" lozenges for introduction into the food, drug and mass channel at the ECRM Vitamin, Diet & Sports Nutrition EPPS in Atlanta.

Identifying a potential checkstand opportunity, the company has merchandised the lozenges as part of a shelf-ready, point-of-purchase pop-up display.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Heel last week launched Adrisin, a homeopathic medicine for the temporary relief of allergy symptoms, including runny nose, watery eyes, sneezing and skin irritations. Adrisin is packaged as a 15-count individually wrapped tablets.

SILVER SPRING, Md. — The Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday issued seven warning letters to companies marketing over-the counter human chorionic gonadotropin products that are labeled as "homeopathic" for weight loss. The letters warn the companies that they are violating federal law by selling drugs that have not been approved and by making unsupported claims for the substances. There are no FDA-approved HCG drug products for weight loss.

One of the factors behind the success of homeopathy in mass retail is social media, both by way of Facebook and mommy bloggers.


“We’ve always relied on word-of-mouth,” noted Alissa Gould, Boiron public relations manager. The average Oscillococcinum user told nine friends. “Now social media exponentially increases that word of mouth,” Gould said. Boiron recently has launched Facebook pages across its brand portfolio.


Safe and effective. Those are the selling points that homeopathy has been emphasizing with mass consumers, and it’s working. Sales of homeopathic products as measured by SPINSscan across food, drug and mass (excluding Walmart) were up 16%, reaching a sales base of $126.1 million. That’s 2.5 times larger than the natural channel, where consumers actually place the fact that a medicine is homeopathic higher up on their 
decision matrix.


NEWTON SQUARE, Pa. — Boiron is making headway introducing a whole new natural external pain reliever into the mass outlet, having earlier this year won distribution through Walgreens and Duane Reade of its arnica gel Arnicare. And Arnicare already is the natural channel’s fastest-growing homeopathic topical pain relief brand, experiencing growth of 67.5% against sales of $5.9 million for the 52 weeks ended April 17, according to Nielsen. 


Drug Store News talked to Laurie Demeritt and Alissa Gould about Boiron’s homeopathy use survey. 


Drug Store News: What are the growth opportunities?


Laurie Demeritt: Right now we see [an] upward of 44% of mainstream consumers have to go outside of the places they normally shop to find more natural OTC products like homeopathics. Among our survey respondents, almost half — 46% — have used natural OTC products, and another 37% haven’t used them, but they’re interested in trying.