Content about Insights and Perspectives

NEW YORK Here’s the diabetic rub — there is no more efficient way to reach the growing multitudes of diabetics around improving disease-state management and testing/pharmaceutical compliance than through the one touch point with which they interact most often — that being the neighborhood pharmacist.

NEW YORK Want to reach and effectively communicate with today’s diabetics? Then communicate with them through the news medium they turn to in favor of the nightly evening news, or even the morning paper that their grandparents turned to for information — the Internet.

NEW YORK There’s a reason there is such a great emphasis on school-aged children with the pending “return” (it in fact never left) of the H1N1 influenza pandemic. That’s because kids are more likely to get sick from colds and flu — according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, children come down with a cold and/or flu between five and six times per year.

NEW YORK Target is looking to its pharmacy business to drive customer traffic and average transaction size, areas where Target has struggled this year as the weak economy prompted customers to shop elsewhere.

The aggressive in-store communication effort is part of a larger marketing initiative the company announced at the end of its second quarter.

NEW YORK One of the more significant points of differentiation between specialty channels that sell supplements and mass retailers sporting supplements is education — those specialty channels oftentimes have a dedicated, educated sales force interacting with customers around what to buy and why to buy.

This kind of program levels that playing field a little bit.

NEW YORK Images of “Sesame Street’s” Count tabulating H1N1 flu cases aside, this really emphasizes how serious the government is in attempting to mitigate the spread of H1N1 through more traditional mediums, such as people’s laptops and their television sets.

First, kids spread colds and flu. With the rhinovirus (common cold), school children typically get between five to six colds each year; their parents two to three. So it makes sense to target and educate children and their parents around sound prevention techniques.

NEW YORK Findings from market research firm The NPD Group that U.S. prestige beauty sales took a beating during the first half of 2009 may not be the most upbeat news, but it does make you wonder where those dollars are instead being spent. Well, a separate NPD report suggested that drug and mass might be the answer.

As the article stated, U.S. prestige beauty sales dropped 7% during the first half of the year, and June marked the 11th consecutive month of negative prestige beauty performance. Even prestige skin care suffered a loss, with sales dropping 6%.

NEW YORK Over-the-counter medicines save healthcare dollars. It’s certainly a value that consumers are taking advantage of in light of the current recession. According to this report, as well as others — i.e., the Kaiser Family Foundation polls — Americans are cost shifting from more expensive and more time-consuming (having to take time off of work to see a doctor) prescription therapies to OTC medicines.

When it comes to nonadherence of prescription medications, it is often senior citizens who are the subject of the discussion, but the findings of the recent CVS Caremark study point to those under the age of 45. The findings are not only alarming but also important as they further demonstrate the need for healthcare reform and for retail pharmacy to rise to the challenge and be part of the solution.

The news that Walgreens has reached an agreement with Caterpillar to help the company curb healthcare costs for its 70,000 employees, retirees and eligible dependents is one more indicator that the private sector cannot wait for healthcare reform and that pharmacy retailers are taking a greater role on the front lines of health care.

As explained in the article, Walgreens, through its Pharmacy Management Excellence program, will make transparent the prescription drug-pricing model, in turn, eliminating unnecessary and hidden costs for Caterpillar.

NEW YORK This agency pulls no punches. The merest blip of a post-marketing serious adverse event report, and the agency is acting sooner than later. Because when you get right down to it, out of all the prescriptions for Xenical (approved for sale April 1999), out of all the people who have tried Alli when the ingredient orlistat was switched over the counter (in February 2007), there have been as many adverse events reported in the United States around orlistat and liver injury as there have been Boston Red Sox championships in the past 70 years: two.

NEW YORK It seems as though each week more evidence surfaces suggesting that retail-based clinics will be a solution to the country’s healthcare crisis, regardless of which direction reform takes. This week was no exception.