In this Issue

Cough-cold rewind: 20 years of growth
This year, ECRM celebrates 20 years of successfully pairing buyers and sellers across the consumer packaged goods industry. As part of that celebration, and in correlation to the ECRM Cough-Cold, Analgesics and Allergy event, DSN editors thought it’d be a good idea to look back through the last 20 years of the cough-cold business at retail.
Total Store Expo 2.0

Asthma solutions in demand

The one-time $100 million asthma-relief brand Primatene may make a comeback to the marketplace after a more than two-year hiatus. Primatene Mist had been withdrawn from the market in December 2011 when the agency removed all inhalers containing chlorofluorocarbons from the market.
Low-calorie, waters keep fizzy segment afloat

Despite declining sales, three category trends — sparkling water, natural sodas and low-calorie sodas — are keeping some fizz in carbonated soft drinks. Mintel’s research shows that American consumption of carbonated soft drinks fell to the lowest level since 1996; increased prices kept the category level.
Collaborative sourcing: Leveraging massive generic discounts

Recent strategic business initiatives are granting wholesalers more generic drug purchasing power than ever before.

Over the last few years, some major deals in the world of drug wholesaling have taken shape. While the business arrangements among the three top wholesalers differ slightly in terms of ownership, benefits and risks, one thing is for certain: all of the agreements will translate into growth opportunities for the companies involved and will help them improve their generic drug sourcing practices.
Study: Beauty brands turn to YouTube

YouTube is transforming the beauty space. Incorporating YouTube into Web and commerce initiatives and leveraging YouTube’s independent beauty personalities can unlock significant opportunities for brands, especially niche players, according to recent research by Pixability.
Pharma slow to engage social media

To put it in Facebook terms, the pharmaceutical industry by and large has yet to friend American consumers.

A new report from the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics concludes that fewer than half of the top 50 global pharmaceutical manufacturers “have some level of healthcare social media engagement.” This, despite the fact that “increasingly, patients are turning to social media as an essential forum for obtaining and sharing information related to their health,” noted Murray Aitken, the institute’s executive director.
Q&A: Taking the pulse with Mitch Rothschild of Vitals

Selecting a doctor can be a frustrating process filled with too many unknowns, especially in today’s evolving landscape. Looking to help patients take the guesswork out of finding the ideal doctor, Vitals has developed online tools at Vitals.com to give patients visibility into quality, cost and availability.
Q&A: Genetic profiling with Dr. Anita Goel of Nanobiosym

A new and possibly transformative technology for rapidly diagnosing and evaluating patients based on their specific genetic profile may soon begin appearing at retail pharmacies and clinics, giving pharmacists and clinicians another tool for advancing patient health outcomes and their own practice capabilities.

Dr. Anita Goel, M.D., Ph.D.
Mixing it up: ‘Mixologiste’ to be stand-out trend

Expect 2014 to be an interesting year for beauty as the category continues to see increased innovation, blurring of the lines and cross-pollination.

(For the full category review, including sales data, click here.)

What does that mean? Perhaps research firm Mintel summed it up best by coining it a year of the “mixologiste.”