HEALTH | COUGH-COLD AND FLU
Cough-Cold Category Recuperates After pantry loading and a soft flu season last year, manufacturers say consumers will soon return to the aisles By Nora Caley
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s people go back to work, school and socializing, they might find themselves facing the once common but not terrifying threat: the bug going around. For most, it won’t be the coronavirus that caused the global COVID-19 pandemic, but a minor malady. As masks come off and social distancing becomes less stringent, people are becoming reacquainted with the germs they managed to avoid over the last year and a half. So just like in pre-pandemic times, consumers are again thinking about how to prevent or treat routine colds, flus and other respiratory ailments. Last year, sales of cough and cold remedies decreased dramatically when people
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stayed home, many with their stash of OTC medicines purchased during the initial pantry-loading phase of the pandemic. Now routine respiratory ailments are making a comeback, as consumers are becoming less strict with their own protocols. That is driving an uptick in illnesses, and boosting sales in the cough-cold category. “What’s happening is people are being more relaxed with their behaviors,” said MaryEllen Tefft, vice president of sales for food, drug and mass at Newtown Square, Pa.-based Boiron USA. “What we’re seeing, anecdotally, is there are a lot of common colds going around. People have gotten themselves tested, but they are finding it’s not COVID but other viruses circulating out of the winter season.”
Tefft noted that there has also been an increase in flu-like illness, referencing the CDC’s Influenza Surveillance Reports. As a result, sales of Boiron’s homeopathic coughcold and flu remedies have increased by nearly 50% in recent weeks, compared with 2020. That includes the brand’s flagship product, the homeopathic multisymptom flu medicine Oscillococcinum, as well as ColdCalm, ThroatCalm and SinusCalm symptom relief products. “Natural and complementary medicines are really now the focus for the consumer,” Tefft said. “Consumers want to be more proactive in their self-care journey.” Retailers can benefit by communicating with and educating shoppers. That includes installing shelf strips that show information
October 2021 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM
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