New Products

BALTIMORE — Vizuri Consumer Healthcare on Tuesday launched PainBloc24, a 24-hour over-the-counter topical pain reliever for arthritis joint pain. PainBloc24 has been clinically shown to help relieve pain with as little as one application per day, the company stated.

One of the biggest trends in food and beverage in the past several years has been in better-for-you offerings — something that’s expected to continue to influence new products as consumers remain focused on what’s in their favorite snacks and beverages. When IRI published its 2017 New Product Pacesetters report in early April, the firm noted that one of the drivers of category growth has been healthier innovation. Of IRI’s 100 New Product Pacesetters in the food and beverage category, 47 of them featured healthier-for-you-attributes.

CHICAGO — Phusion Projects’ Four Loko brand, fresh off the release of its latest ready-to-drink line, Four Loko Bartender Series, is looking to move beyond the flavored malt beverage category with its new launch. Four Loko Shots are the brands first foray into spirits, and the company expects them to provide a baseline for sustained growth.

NEW YORK — Bristol-Myers Squibb and Nordic Bioscience on Monday announced a collaboration agreement to develop biomarker technology to potentially aid in the diagnosis and monitoring of fibrotic diseases including non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). A biomarker is a molecule that may be used to diagnose a disease, or predict disease progression and indicate response to therapy.

Editor’s Note: The Drug Store News Industry Issues Summit gathered a record crowd in December at the New York Athletic Club in Manhattan to discuss the most important issues facing the industry today. Three roundtable discussions took place at the event, one regarding chronic care (which appeared in the February issue of DSN), the front-end panel (which appeared in the March issue of DSN), and this health, wellness and technology panel.

There is no question that one of the top nonprescription categories contributing to both sales and foot traffic right now is allergy. According to IRI data, sales of nasal sprays — the category that captures all of the latest nasal corticosteroid Rx-to-OTC switches, such as Flonase and Nasacort — are up 10.2% to $1.2 billion across total U.S. multi-outlets for the 52 weeks ended Feb. 19.

EDMOND, Wash. — Clarisonic is expanding its product line with its latest launch. The company has introduced its Sonic Foundation Brush, marking the first micro-blending makeup brush from Clarisonic that turns every Clarisonic device into a makeup applicator.

How to engage patients waiting to be seen by a doctor at a doctor’s office or hospital has been an age-old problem. Ez WaitingRoom provides a clear-cut answer. DSN spoke with CEO Ed Young about his vision to forever change this experience, and how drug store retailers fit into the equation.

DSN: Please describe ez WaitingRoom — what is it and how does it work?