Content about Common cold

NEW YORK — The second half of the 2010-2011 cough-cold-flu season actually may realize greater sales of symptom relievers than last year, judging from the four weeks ended Dec. 26. According to Matrixx president and CEO Bill Hemelt, sales of remedies were on the rise in those four weeks. Hemelt noted that the total cough-cold category was 5% higher than the same period last year and growing. 


A recent Prestige Brands survey linked certain professions to a propensity for sore throats. The careers most commonly associated with sore-throat pain were singers (53%) and auctioneers (40%). Healthcare workers (47%) and teachers (37%) also were perceived to be at risk due to their potential exposure to airborne illnesses. Almost 3-out-of-4 of those sore-throat sufferers also were under the weather from a cold or flu.

WASHINGTON — As many as 71% of cough-cold sufferers in search of decongestant relief oppose a prescription requirement for pseudoephedrine, according to a survey commissioned by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America released Monday.

NEW YORK — Puffs, a Procter & Gamble brand, recently brought spokeswoman Tanya Remer Altmann to share tips with mommy bloggers and their children on healthy winter habits.

Altmann, a UCLA-trained pediatrician, visited New York City indoor child play space Apple Seeds to give out samples of Puffs tissues and to educate children on good hand-washing habits, best tissues to use for those with sore and chapped noses and ways to avoid coughs, colds and flu during the winter.

PARSIPPANY, N.J. — Americans won’t take off work for something as innocuous as a cold, a new survey released Wednesday found, a fact that underscores the need for ready access to over-the-counter cough-cold medicines and better hand-washing/sanitizing practices in the workplace.

The survey, sponsored by Cadbury Adams’ Halls cough drop brand, found that 44% of Americans would consider going to work with a fever, and 32% said they would show up to work no matter how sick they get this season.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT — No matter how you slice it, the flexible spending account changes that are part of the overall Affordable Care Act aren’t doing a whole lot by way of saving healthcare dollars, at least not for patients. Indeed, about the only benefactors are those folks who have to make dollars and cents out of what might become the first casualty of the Obamacare healthcare package — those who have to explain how the administration plans to pay for this package, you know, by not raising taxes.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. Matrixx Initiatives on Monday reported a decline of 17% in net sales to $21.3 million for the company’s second quarter ended Sept. 30. The decline, Matrixx president and CEO Bill Hemelt explained to analysts Tuesday morning, represented a course correction of sorts. The sales decline was “due to lower upfront buys by retailers,” Hemelt said. Last year, all of the hype around H1N1 drove retailers to heavily stock in cough-and-cold supplies.

LONDON and BOSTON A study sponsored by Kaz, the manufacturer of Vicks humidifiers, found that such devices as humidifiers may play a role in reducing airborne flu viruses in the home.

WESTLAKE, Ohio Joining parents this fall in the fight against kids’ cough-cold and allergy symptoms are two new products from homeopathic-medicine provider Hyland’s: Nighttime Cold ’n Cough 4 Kids and Complete Allergy 4 Kids.

WESTLAKE, Ohio Joining parents this fall in the fight against kids’ cough-cold and allergy symptoms are two new products from homeopathic-medicine provider Hyland’s: Nighttime Cold ’n Cough 4 Kids and Complete Allergy 4 Kids.

Drug Store News' 2010 edition of ECRM Health Care details the successes and challenges of eight healthcare product categories that influence the retail drug store and supermarket industries: digestives, allergy/cough-cold, internal analgesics, external analgesics, eye care, ear care, first aid and foot care. Also included is a bonus peek into the most recent edition of The Mack Elevation Forum and its discussion of SKU rationalization. Click below to download the free PDF of ECRM Health Care 2010.