Content about Michael Johnsen

Last week, I wrote about medication therapy management and a new bill in the House of Representatives to expand the pool of patients who qualify for MTM programs through Medicare. This week, I’m writing about — wait for it — medication therapy management.



Target and CVS are some of the first retailers to group adult multivitamins and supplements available in gummy format into one 4-ft. set. The idea is to make shopping vitamins and supplements easier. For the 12 weeks ended Sept. 9, SymphonyIRI Group tabulated $202 million in sales of multivitamins, up slightly by 0.8%, across food, drug and mass (excluding Walmart).

Fresh is driving new trips to drug stores — there is no denying. But, in general, drug stores have been good at creating more reasons to shop their stores. DSN identified a few hot consumables and GM products that are likely to help grow impulse purchases.



It may be more than just coincidence that Walgreens has decided to really blow the doors off of retail pharmacy in the same city that screams horsepower every year over Memorial Day weekend. Because even as those Indy 500 drivers are chugging their milk at the Brickyard, Walgreens’ pharmacists will be celebrating a victory of their own as they and their customers help redefine what “drug store” means in shopper parlance.

“Just 1-in-4 consumers expect their financial position to improve in the coming year.” That’s the way SymphonyIRI Group saw it in its recently released report “The Downturn Shopper: Buckled in for a wild and crazy ride.” Among the highlights — or lowlights — of how consumers are responding to the pressure:


• 49% visit the hair salon/spa less often;


• 40% are trying fewer new products;


All the hype around H1N1 
that was so prevalent in 2009 is gone, leaving only the tough comparisons a year later. That makes the first half of the 
2010-2011 cough-cold season an H1N1 hangover with overall sales of $4.6 billion, representing a slight decline of 1.8%, for the 52 weeks ended Dec. 26, 2010, according to SymphonyIRI Group. What was missing in 2010 was the 2009 summer of sickness that reached a crescendo in September.



Americans are hard-pressed these days to call in sick, especially for something as innocuous as a cold or even the flu. A recent CareerBuilder survey found that nearly 72% of workers typically go to work when they are sick. Workplace pressures and “presenteeism” may be causing workers to go in under the weather, as more than half (55%) of workers said they feel guilty if they call in sick.


The CareerBuilder survey was conducted nationwide from Nov. 15 to Dec. 2, 2010, among more than 3,700 workers.


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.

CHICAGO — The real question behind the introductions of a store-brand beer from both Walgreens and Supervalu is whether or not the new brews will be hits by year’s end. In other words, can Big Flats 1901 and Buck Range Light be to beer what Trader Joe’s Two-Buck-Chuck was to wine?


LAS VEGAS — While Apple’s iPad and the long line of next-generation electronic tablets hitting the market this year may have been the “sexy” items at last month’s Consumer Electronics Show, it was the unprecedented number of healthcare-related consumer electronics that better served as a harbinger of what’s to come.



Sales of diet-aid and weight-loss solutions for the past year have been relatively flat, but a confluence of factors — childhood obesity approaching “epidemic” status combined with the real need to reduce escalating healthcare costs connected to obesity — could become a real driver behind weight-loss products in the coming year.