Content about Insights and Perspectives

NEW YORK The Rite Aid weight-loss program is probably one of the better examples of how to tie in just about every component of a modern-day drug store — pharmacy, front-end (in this case, over the counter) and in-store clinics — with the extensive health knowledge of both the pharmacist behind the bench and the practitioner at the clinic.

NEW YORK What do diabetes supplies for retail pharmacy Medicare patients, the Pittsburgh Steelers' chance of defending their Super Bowl title and Old Father Time 2009 all have in common? They all could be no more not too long after Dick Clark counts down to the New Year for the 38th time.

And of those three, losing diabetes supplies for retail pharmacy Medicare patients will certainly be the most devastating. (Unless you live in Steel Town. And you don’t have diabetes.)

NEW YORK This is further substantiation that the business of over-the-counter medicines, particularly those sold in the U.S. market, is a key growth driver for pharma companies. If you weren’t convinced when Pfizer re-entered the OTC market with its acquisition of Wyeth, then you certainly should be convinced now.

NEW YORK Consumers can be expected to self-identify a cough, and even locate a cough remedy in the nonprescription aisles. But consumers cannot be expected to distinguish between dextromethorphan and guaifenesin necessarily. Both are indicated for cough relief, but work in entirely different ways. For that you need a readily accessible healthcare professional, such as the pharmacist or nurse practitioner.

NEW YORK Rumors that Ukrop’s was on the sales block seems to finally have come to fruition. And with Ahold being the acquisition partner, this may mark a resurgence of Ukrop’s, known for its close community ties, in its core Virginia markets.

NEW YORK If there’s a huckster swindling supplements as the latest cure-all, turns out it’s not a supplement they’re swindling after all. If not an illicit pharmaceutical outright, it’s at the very least a mismarketed snake oil, and this band of supplement associations is helping to stamp those hucksters out.

NEW YORK To paraphrase a quote often attributed — but probably incorrectly — to 19th century German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, if you like either laws or sausages, it’s best not to watch them being made.

That maxim could certainly apply to the seemingly endless bickering over the details of the health-reform debate in Congress. But in an era of constant Internet news feeds, blogging and instantaneous, on-the-spot reporting and analysis, it’s virtually impossible to avoid the spectacle.

NEW YORK Convenience and value. That’s what community pharmacy and their retail clinic partners deliver to their patients. And that’s what the Department of Defense is counting on in covering immunizations at local pharmacies and identifying convenient care clinics as network providers — two separate pieces of news issued within the past month that really underscore the importance of pharmacies and retail clinics in the delivery of health care today.

NEW YORK Ignorance is not always bliss. For as much such associations as the Natural Products Association and the Council for Responsible Nutrition assert that the dietary supplement business is in fact regulated, there still are a host of organizations that ought to know better, suggesting it isn’t.

If “Supplement Safety Now” is successful, it stands to increase the cost of doing business for retailers and supplement suppliers without making one dent into the illicit business of steroids.

NEW YORK The expansion of MinuteClinic's partnership with Humana not only further illustrates the important role that retail-based clinics play in the U.S. healthcare system and the model's growing acceptance among third-party payers, but it also underscores the significance of worksite clinics.

NEW YORK The fact that Roche has enhanced its capabilities across its iPhone app platform really only means one thing: Roche has dialed into a new way to reach its users, and it’s a way that is very rapidly growing in market share.

And what should be really telling about all of this iPhone action — it’s all opt-in, meaning consumers are actively interested in engaging with the manufacturers of their healthcare products in an effort to better manage their health.