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HAMBURG, Germany — Skin care brand Beiersdorf announced on Thursday that it has “continued last year’s positive trend in the first quarter of 2013.”

Organic group sales rose by 5.4%, and nominal sales increased by 2.9%, from €1,533 million to €1,577 million. The key driver for this positive performance was the double-digit sales growth recorded in emerging markets, the company stated. Consolidated profit after tax rose to €155 million.
 

GOODLETTSVILLE, Tenn. — Dollar General will benefit a nonprofit outreach program focused on blood clots, the discount store chain said.

Dollar General announced it would match the $2,000 donation that NASCAR Nationwide Series driver Brian Vickers made to Clot Connect. Vickers was diagnosed in early 2010 with blood clots that forced him to miss the remainder of the season and worked with University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill physicians and Clot Connect to make informed decisions on his healthcare.

The health and pharmacy marketplace is undergoing rapid and fundamental transformation. To navigate profitably in tomorrow’s complex and shifting healthcare system, the pharmacy benefit management industry — along with the pharmacies and health plan payers allied with PBMs — are going to have to change and adapt as well.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Novo Nordisk has launched a diabetes awareness sweepstakes in which the winners get a free trip to the 2013 IndyCar finale, the Danish drug maker said Friday.

The company announced that it had hired IZOD IndyCar Series Charlie Kimball as spokesman for its Race with Insulin contest. Kimball, the first licensed driver with diabetes to race at the highest level of the series, was diagnosed with the disease during a routine doctor visit in 2007 while racing in Europe and is a user of Novo Nordisk's NovoLog (insulin aspart [rDNA origin]).

BETHLEHEM, Pa. — The landmark launch of Orasure Technologies' OraQuick In-Home HIV test last year was a key driver behind the 5.4% growth in the home-test kit category for the 12 weeks ended Dec. 30 across U.S. multi-outlets, according to SymphonyIRI Group data. The HIV test contributed $1 million in purely incremental sales to the total $15.5 million in category sales.

WAUKESHA, Wis. — Over-the-counter products across the front-end are becoming a more and more important profit driver for independent pharmacy operators, Hamacher Resource Group and the Healthcare Distribution Management Association revealed Wednesday as part of new research titled "Independent Pharmacy Shoppers: Who, What, and Why?" The report places a spotlight on the independent pharmacy front-end customer and helps identify shopper behaviors, purchase preferences and potential barriers that stand in the way of further engagement with independents.

Rite Aid last week posted a third quarter profit of $61.9 million, marking the first time Rite Aid has been back in the quarterly black since June 2007. The quarterly report beat analyst expectations as the generic wave and retention of Express Scripts customers helped drive better-than-expected adjusted EBIDTA.

The lower cost of OTCs was cited as the primary reason consumers have increased and plan to increase their OTC usage, according to an online survey of more than 900 AccentHealth viewers conducted in September.

"Year over year, viewers appear to be getting more cost-conscious," said Natalie Hill, AccentHealth VP market research, noting that 39% of viewers suggested that lower costs associated with OTC medicines would drive increased usage in the coming year, as compared with 29% who cited cost as the main driver behind increased OTC use in the past year.

Walmart’s pharmacy footprint is poised for its most meaningful expansion in decades, thanks to shifting capital expenditure priorities that have begun to favor more aggressive expansion of smaller stores.


VICTORIA, Australia — Sales of Swisse Ultivite multivitamins in the Australian and Asian markets have been a big driver behind overall sales, according to a Nielsen report cited by the company. 

Across both Australia and Asia, VMS sales were up 16% to $197 million for the year ended June 2012. Leading the charge was Suisse Ultivite, which grew by more than 40% "thanks to a high ad spend and launches that boost the profile of the whole range,” Nielsen said. 

ROCKVILLE, Md. — According to "Nutritional Supplements in the U.S.," a report released earlier this week from Packaged Facts, supplement sales rose 7% to $11.5 billion in 2012, and are forecasted to reach $15.5 billion by 2017.

The report cited a number of factors, including a recovering economy that should have more consumers picking up on supplementing again, the aging baby boomer and a growing Hispanic population that is heavily indexed as supplement users.