The Consumer Health industry faces a very different set of issues from the prescription-bound pharmaceutical market. Growth in the OTC market is historically low, and has been for a number of years. Margins are low compared to the prescription-bound market, and regulatory pressures, de-listing and de-reimbursement are making life tough in a number of countries.
Nevertheless, there are ‘pockets of excitement’ within the industry. The 10 new EU accession countries added $1.9bn to the total Europe OTC market – but these countries are growing at a significantly faster rate than their Western European counterparts. Latin America, China and South East Asia are also out-growing the world market and forecast by IMS to continue this trend in the years to 2008. We have invested heavily in our consulting and data audit capabilities in China and can offer unrivalled understanding of the Chinese OTC environment and urban consumer.
In the more established OTC markets, Rx to OTC switching could give consumers access to a whole range of medicines for chronic conditions previously restricted to prescription-only status. The launch of Prilosec (Procter & Gamble, omeprazole 20mg) in the US, Zocor Heart-Pro (McNeil Consumer, simvastatin 10mg) in the UK, and Xenical (Roche, orlistat 120mg) in Australia are all examples of recent switches that move forward the switch agenda in their respective countries.
Building a compelling case for Switch, and demonstrating the value to all stakeholders, is vital for switching to succeed. At IMS we can use our evidence-based approach to examine critical success factors and help you apply these learnings to future launches and switch applications.
In an industry that typically spends 25% of revenues on Advertising & Promotion, we also help our clients to understand the impact of their promotional spend, whether it be on advertising or sales force implementation, and to maximise the effectiveness of this A&P spend.
