Homeopathy stocks kids’ cough-cold

The kids’ cough-cold space has become a significant category for homeopathic manufacturers. With the safety and efficacy of cough-cold medicines called into question several years ago, the category now is stocked with homeopathic remedies and reformulated/repackaged allopathic medicines.


“Since that shakeup of [about] five years ago ... those products have either gone away or reformulated,” noted Dale Nepsa, Hyland’s president. That situation gave many homeopathic manufacturers an entrée into the kids cough-cold sets, he added. And the section has been doing well; at one major retailer, Hyland’s has been seeing turns of between seven and eight pieces per store, per week, versus an average two turns per store, per week.


In January, Hyland’s fortified its presence within the children’s cough-cold set with the launch of Hyland’s Baby cough syrup.


Zarbee’s also has been expanding its pediatric natural cough-cold line featuring buckwheat honey with the launch of Zarbee’s Nighttime cough and sleep drink. “In this product, we’ve taken the dark honeys, but we’ve put it in a granulated form so that it can be mixed in hot water,” noted Zak Zarbock, the pediatrician who created the product. In the first two months on shelf, Zarbee’s Nighttime moved more than 180,000 units across one national pharmacy retailer.