New Products

Probiotics are one of the better-selling categories within the VMS space, as evidenced by the number of growing probiotic brands on the top 10 mineral supplement brand chart, which is where IRI captures many of the probiotic SKUs. While market-leading mineral supplement brands Nature Made and Nature’s Bounty certainly include probiotics, i-Health’s Culturelle brand is the best-selling pure-play probiotic brand with $123.1 million in sales on 8.9% growth across total U.S. multi-outlets, according to IRI.

LAS VEGAS — ECRM recently announced the winners and runners-up of the Drug Store News/ECRM Buyers Choice Awards from ECRM’s Hair Care and Multicultural EPPS and the Skin, Bath, Cosmetics and Fragrance EPPS, both of which took place between June 4 and June 8 at the Red Rock Casino, Resort and Spa here.

IRVINE, Calif. — Cloud-based pharmacy services company PrescribeWellness has shared new data showing that its PharmacyGrowth solution has helped community pharmacies increase their script volume, improve patient adherence and deliver on customer satisfaction. PharmacyGrowth is the latest addition to the company’s suite of engagement tools, and was developed to help community pharmacies offer more personalized service to their patients.

CHATSWORTH, Calif. — Natrol on Monday introduced a new supplement for brain health, Natrol Cognium. Backed by nine human clinical studies, the active ingredient in Natrol Cognium has shown statistically significant improvements in memory and cognition in as little as four weeks, Natrol reported.

For decades, chain and independent retail pharmacy has been defined by its unyielding pursuit of professional recognition, fair reimbursement and full status as a member of the healthcare provider team. The industry has made huge strides toward that goal, thanks to massive investments in pharmacy technology and automation, which have enabled a shift in workflow, giving pharmacists the data and decision-making tools to support patient interventions and connect more seamlessly with the broader health network.

From large-scale, high-volume processors linked with data management software and video-enabled prescription verification systems to “cobots’’ that require a minimal amount of countertop space, a new generation of dispensing tools is allowing pharmacies to shift more of the workload to technicians and central-fill sites so pharmacists can focus on patient interventions and clinical services.

Protein bars have been flying off the shelves in mass outlets lately. Sales of nutritional bars were up 3.4% to $2.4 billion for the 52 weeks ended April 16, according to IRI across total U.S. multi-outlets.