Drug Store News - October 2018 by ensembleiq

OCTOBER 2018

Hy-Vee CEO Randy Edeker (left) is at the forefront of the chainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s evolving strategy.

Among Peppermint Oils – IBgard® Stands Alone

SupplemenT

see related editorial on page x

American college of gastroenterology monograph on management anagement of Irritable Bowel syndrome Alexander C. Ford,, MB ChB, MD, FRCP1, Paul Moayyedi, BSc, MB ChB, PhD, MPH, FACG, FRCP, FRCPC, AGAF2, William D. Chey, MD, FACG, AGAF, FACP3, Lucinda A. Harris, MD, FACG4, Brian E. Lacy, MD, PhD, FACG5, Yuri A. Saito, MD, MPH, FACG6 and Eamonn M. M. Quigley, MD, MACG, FRCP, FACP, FRCPI7 for the ACG Task Force on Management of Irritable Bowel Syndrome Am J Gastroenterol https://doi.org/10.1038/s41395-018-0084-x

IntroductIon Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is the most prevalent of the func functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs). Current estimates are that IBS affects up to 10–12% of adults in North America [[1, 2]. Although it can affect all individuals regardless of age, creed, or comgender, IBS is more common among women and is most com monly diagnosed in younger individuals ((<age 50) [2, 3]. IBS is characterized by recurrent abdominal pain and altered bowel habits; bloating and distention frequently coexist. The diagnosis of IBS is made by taking a careful history, eliciting key symptoms, as well as performing a physical examination and limited diagnostic testing [4–6]. IBS is categorized into four main subtypes based on the predominant bowel habit: IBS with constipation (IBC-C); IBS with diarrhea (IBS-D); IBS with mixed symptomology (IBSM); and unclassified IBS [5]. IBS imposes a significant burden to the health care system and to individuals. Direct medical costs attributed to IBS in the US, excluding prescription and over-the-counter medicines, were estimated at $1.5–$10 billion per year in 2005 [7]. Patients with IBS enrolled in a large Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) had significantly more outpatient visits and incurred nearly 50% more in total costs than individuals without IBS [8]. A retrospective case-control study from another large HMO reported that patients with IBS had significantly more diagnostic tests, imaging, and surgery compared with patients without a diagnosis of IBS [9]. Significant variations in care across the United States related to the diagnosis and treatment of IBS also play a role in excessive health care costs [10]. The burden of IBS on individuals can be measured in a number of ways. Studies have demonstrated consistently that IBS impairs work-related activities (e.g., lost work time, reduced productivity while at work) and also reduces quality of life [11, 12]. The development of effective and efficient treatment strategies for

IBS assumes considerable importance, therefore, not just for the individual sufferer, but for society at large. Given the clinical heterogeneity that is a hallmark of the disorder and the absence of a single effective therapy for all sufferers, available therapies tend to focus on predominant symptomatology at presentation (i.e., altered bowel habits, abdominal pain, or bloating) [4–6]. Based on their purported mode of action, many pharmacological therapies for IBS developed in recent decades have been directed towards those with a particular bowel habit, whether diarrhea or constipation. However, treating IBS patients can be difficult as no validated treatment algorithm exists, not all patients respond to treatment, and patients with similar symptoms frequently respond to the same treatment differently. Fortunately, a variety of novel therapeutic strategies are being explored and new compounds have appeared since the last iteration of the ACG monograph on IBS [4]. The goal of this document, therefore, is to provide an updated, evidence-based document on the therapy of this common and, at times, debilitating disorder.

An overvIew of methodology for systemAtIc revIews of IBs therApy Prior to the last evidence-based systematic review on the management of irritable bowel syndrome commissioned and published by the ACG in 2014 [4], and the work that underpinned this, there had been several systematic reviews of available therapies for IBS [13–22]. We have previously shown that these had either not synthesized the data correctly, or contained inaccuracies in applying eligibility criteria and data extraction [23]. We have, therefore, updated all the rigorously performed meta-analyses [24–27], which informed the ACG position statement in 2014, according to the following protocol:

In the ACG (American College of Gastroenterology) IBS 2018 Monograph, heartburn was recognized as an issue with older, “burst” technology.1 ACG recommended enteric-coated peppermint oil that provides more distal delivery.1

1 Leeds Institute of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, University of Leeds and Leeds Gastroenterology Institute, Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust, Leeds, UK. 2 Division of Gastroenterology, Farncombe Family Digestive Health Research Institute, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada. 3Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, Michigan Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA. 4Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, AZ, USA. 5Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, USA. 6Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA. 7Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Houston Methodist Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical College, Houston, TX, USA. Correspondence: E.M.M.Q. (email: equigley@houstonmethodist.org)

The American Journal of

GastroenteroloGy

Unlike older, “burst release” peppermint oil capsules, IBgard®, with its solid-state, triple-coated, sustained-release microspheres, is designed to provide more distal delivery by moving rapidly through the stomach (i.e. avoiding heartburn), and then releasing over 3 to 4 hours in the entire small intestine.1- 3

More Distal Delivery

IBgard...Stands Alone. Ford AC, Moayyedi P, Chey WD, et al. American College of Gastroenterology Monograph on the Management of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Am J Gastroenterol. 2018 June 27.doi: 10.1038/s41395-018-0084-x. 2 Cash BD, Epstein MS, Syed MS. A novel delivery system of peppermint oil is an effective therapy for irritable bowel syndrome symptoms. Dig Dis Sci. 2016; 61:560-571 doi:10.1007/s10620-015-3858-7. 1

Cash BD, Epstein MS, Shar SM. Peppermint oil with site specific targeting is an effective therapy for irritable bowel syndrome with mixed bowel habits. Internal Medicine Review. 2017; doi:10.18103/imr.v3i9.565. ‡ Among gastroenterologists who recommended peppermint oil for IBS. Alpha ImpactRx ProVoice survey (September 2017). 3

Individual results may vary. Medical foods do not require prior approval by the FDA but must comply with regulations. The company will strive to keep information current and consistent but may not be able to do so at any specific time. Generally, the most current information can be found on IBgard.com.

Vol. 40 No. 10 DrugStoreNews.com

FEATURES

HEALTH

22 Emerson Group Industry Day

54 Diagnostics

The annual event brought industry, political insight to Philly

Though still strong in diabetes, the category expands its reach

58 News

30 Retailer of the Year: Hy-Vee How the Iowa chain stays ahead of the changing retail curve

INSIDE BEAUTY 62 Deodorants

COLUMNS

Manufacturers look to natural, innovative delivery to pass the sniff test

6 Editor’s Note 8 Industry News

66 News

16 Counter Talk with the APhA’s Michael Hogue

CONSUMABLES

18 Counter Talk

70 Tobacco

with AmerisourceBergen’s Tania Attanasio

The category’s e-cig wing grows amid a tough regulatory landscape

20 One-On-One with Avadim’s Ralph Lombardo

28 Products to Watch HRG highlights up-and-comers

74 Last Word

with David Orgel Consulting’s David Orgel

PHARMACY 46 Generics Roundtable Executives discuss the changing generics landscape

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October 2018 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM

Cover photo by Erika Fontana

52 News

EDITOR’S NOTE

Top of the Class Hy-Vee’s ability to adapt earns it DSN honor By Seth Mendelson

re the top executives at Hy-Vee on to something? Long viewed as one of the more progressive grocery chains in the country, Hy-Vee officials, in exclusive interviews with Drug Store News that appear in this issue, make it clear that they are reinventing their business to accommodate a changing consumer base. Those changes include a new store format that emphasizes beauty, wellness and a broad fresh section, as well as a move into the restaurant business and its fast-growing convenience store operation. Seth Mendelson Editor in Chief/ Why? Because the days of traditional grocery merchanAssociate Brand dising are long over. Consumers today are demanding a lot Director more from their favorite retail stores in terms of pricing, selection and, most importantly, convenience and quality. Hy-Vee is all in on these strategies. The chain’s new HealthMarket store is a great example of trying to think outside the box. The 18,000-sq.-ft. store is designed not only for consumers on the go, but for those shoppers looking for a little extra from the shopping experience. Its beauty section is a great example of this, featuring a wide array of products across a variety of price points and designed to make every shopper feel at home while walking the section’s aisles. Not by mistake, the section easily could be mistaken for a beauty section at a leading department store chain.

Hy-Vee’s new HealthMarket is a great example of trying to think outside the box. The 18,000-sq.-ft. store is designed not only for consumers on the go, but for those shoppers looking for a little extra from the shopping experience. Wellness and the pharmacy also play prominent roles in the new format as an aging and more concerned consumer base looks to retailers and pharmacists to help with healthcare concerns. Hy-Vee officials realize that they are locked in a vicious battle with other retailers — both traditional and digital — for the hearts and minds of an increasingly fickle and demanding consumer base. They understand that shoppers have many more choices these days, and getting them to come into their stores is a lot more difficult now than it was even just five or 10 years ago. Hy-Vee was selected as the Drug Store News 2018 Retailer of the Year. The chain was not selected just for all the good things it has done over its nearly 90-year history, but also for the simple fact that its top executives realize that the retail world is quickly evolving, and they are willing to stay ahead of the curve. Standing pat does not work anymore. dsn

An EnsembleIQ Publication 8550 W. Bryn Mawr Ave, Suite 200, Chicago, IL 60631 Vice President, Brand Director Eric Savitch (856) 489-3336, esavitch@ensembleiq.com Editor in Chief /Associate Brand Director Seth Mendelson (212) 756-5160, smendelson@ensembleiq.com EDITORIAL Associate Managing Editor David Salazar (212) 756-5114, dsalazar@ensembleiq.com Senior Editor Sandra Levy (845) 893-9573, slevy@ensembleiq.com Desk Editor Maria Manliclic (212) 756-5093, mmanliclic@ensembleiq.com Online Editor Gisselle Gaitan (212) 756-5138, ggaitan@ensembleiq.com SALES & BUSINESS Beauty Director Catherine Stephany (312) 440-0516, cstephan@ensembleiq.com Northeast Manager Alex Tomas (212) 756-5155, atomas@ensembleiq.com Regional Manager Steven Werner (312) 961-7162 swerner@ensembleiq.com Director of Media Operations Teresa Dombach (212) 756-5015, tdombach@ensembleiq.com Media Production Assistant Betty Dong (212) 756-5134, bdong@ensembleiq.com Director of Audience Development Linda Moi lmoi@ensembleiq.com Circulation List Manager Nancy Speilmann Statlistics (203) 456-3338 DESIGN Art Director Amy Kelkenberg SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT (HBSDealer, Drug Store News, Chain Store Age) John Kenlon (212) 756-5238, jkenlon@ensembleiq.com CUSTOMER SERVICE Having a problem with your subscription? Send us full details with the mailing label of the last copy you received, along with your telephone number. Write to: Circulation Fulfillment Director, Drug Store News, P.O. Box 3200 Northbrook, IL 60065-3200; email drugstorenews@omeda.com; or call (847) 564-1468 REPRINTS PARS International, LF-Reprints@parsintl.com, (212) 221-9595 x435, tinyurl.com/LF-reprints. Single copy price is $15 for a regular issue and $100 for a statistical issue. PERMISSIONS For permission to reuse material from Drug Store News/DSN (ISSN 0191-7587) please access www.copyright.com or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 646-2600, (855) 239-3415. CCC is a not-for-profit organization that provides licenses and registration for a variety of uses.

CORPORATE OFFICERS Executive Chairman Alan Glass Chief Executive Officer David Shanker Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer Richard Rivera Chief Brand Officer Korry Stagnito President, Enterprise Solutions Terese Herbig Chief Digital Officer Joel Hughes Chief Human Resources Officer Jennifer Turner Senior Vice President, Innovation Tanner Van Dusen

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2018 Drug Store News Retailer of the Year A well-deserved congratulations to our outstanding partner.

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INDUSTRY NEWS

Fontem’s myblu Gets ‘Intense’ Fontem Ventures’ blu announced the national retail expansion of its myblu Intense Nicotine Salt Liquidpods.

Vitafive, Harmony Hemp Are the Buyers’ Choice Vitamin and supplement gummies from vitafive won the Drug Store News/ECRM Buyers’ Choice award during ECRM’s Vitamin, Weight Management and Sports Nutrition EPPS in Phoenix in early October. Harmony Hemp was a finalist with its line of family friendly non-CBD hemp-based supplements. The two companies were selected from dozens of entries in the award program, samples of which were displayed during an “Innovation Hour” opening reception. Officials at vitafive said their goal is to provide vitamins and supplements that help enhance the five food groups, with products developed to be as delicious as they are healthy for consumers. The gummies, which address such health needs such as immunity, cognitive function, beauty, healthy bones and restorative sleep, are gluten-free, allergen-free and vegan. The packaging is designed to be informative, exciting and eco-friendly, focusing on the product’s key features, the company said. By using pouches over bottles, the company said it uses 80% less plastic. Harmony Hemp founder Courtney Roundy began learning about CBD from a good friend whose son was experiencing positive results treating schizophrenia with CBD. Having known his friend’s son prior to diagnosis, seeing the results firsthand was the catalyst for further research and the development of Harmony Hemp. The company has since developed several condition-specific formulations enhanced by CBD as a result of the evidential findings of this remarkable plant. The company’s Neurocomfort Hemp Oil is actually a non-CBD extension of Harmony Hemp’s condition-specific, hemp supplements. “By creating a family friendly, non-CBD line in addition to the CBD line, Harmony Hemp will bridge the gap national retailers have regarding CBD,” Roundy said. “By having a staged product launch from non-CBD to CBD products, we enable retailers to be first to market and have their stores become a destination, which will inevitably grow the basket.”

October 2018 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM

Available in five flavors and two nicotine strengths, the product features Pyrisalt, a proprietary nicotine salt formulation that company officials said delivers a smooth but intense experience for adult smokers. “Blu started nearly 10 years ago with the mission to exceeding the needs of adult smokers,” said Wayne Jones, senior vice president of sales at Fontem US. “We’re extremely confident the myblu device and myblu Intenseliquid range takes blu another step forward on delivering for adult smokers. ” Allan Swystun, trade activation manager at the company said, “the myblu liq-

uidpod packs will have a suggested retail price of $9.99 — each pack including two liquidpods. We are also running a national introductory offer for qualifying retailers. Consumers can get a myblu Starter Kit for $1 with the purchase of any myblu Intense liquidpod pack — a savings of $18.99.” Swystun said the company pans to offer awareness, promotion and smoker education to drive sales.

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INDUSTRY NEWS

GSK Consumer Healthcare Unveils Theraflu PowerPods Looking to make cold and flu symptom relief from a known name more convenient, GSK Consumer Healthcare has introduced Theraflu PowerPods Severe Cold. Available in both daytime and nighttime varieties, PowerPods can be used with single-serve coffee machines to brew a cup of Theraflu. “Our goal with the launch of PowerPods is to expand cold and flu remedies beyond the medicine cabinet and into the center of everyday wellness — the kitchen,” said Latisha Tillie, senior brand manager at Theraflu. Alongside the launch, GSK Consumer Healthcare declared the first week of October the first week of cold and flu season. The company said it compared historical incident data from the Centers

Naterra International Focuses on Consumer Connection Officials at Naterra International want to connect with consumers. That is why the Coppell, Texasbased company is focused on making sure that its Tree Hut specialty bath line stands out on the shelf. According to Ron Isam, Naterra’s president, the 16-year-old Tree Hut line features more than 100 SKUs across the scrub, body wash, body butter and body lotion segments. It is now expanding into the skin care and hair care categories. “We infuse all of our products with certified-organic shea, and that helps create a better moisturizing process,”

Isam said. “We pride ourselves on being customercentric, and that means engaging with the consumer before and after the sale. We want a long-term relationship with the shopper, and we want them to know how seriously we take our products and how we create them. These are great items that will win over the consumers after the first time she tries them.” Naterra is will add three lines to the Tree Hut label later this year: Bohemian Escape, Sunkissed Sands and Pacific Sunrise. Each line will include

a hydro-light gel, shea sugar scrub, foaming body wash and bubble bath.

for Disease Control and Prevention,

Sickweather social sentiment regarding illness symptoms and U.S. sales of Theraflu products to note that this week is when the incidence of influenza-like illness is set to start to increase for the season. The company created the Cold & Fly Tracker in partnership with the Weather Channel to help consumers keep track of flu activity. Theraflu PowerPods are available online and at major retailers nationwide, the company said.

October 2018 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM

CVS Health-Aetna Merger Gets Conditional DOJ Approval CVS Health has been given the Department of Justice’s approval for its proposed acqui-

sition of health insurer Aetna — with one condition. The DOJ’s clearance came with the requirement that Aetna divest its standalone Medicare Part D prescription drug plans — a move that already has been announced, with WellCare Health Plans set to take over the plans, which have roughly 2.2 million members. Under the agreement with WellCare, Aetna will administrate and retain financial results from the plans through 2019. “DOJ clearance is an important step toward bringing together the strengths and capabilities of our two companies to improve the consumer healthcare experience,” said CVS Health president and CEO Larry Merlo. “We are pleased to have reached an agreement with the DOJ that maintains the strategic benefits and value-creation potential of our combination with Aetna. We are now working to complete the remaining state reviews.” CVS Health said that several state regulatory approvals already have been granted, and that the acquisition is now on track to close in the early part of the fourth quarter of 2018. Once the merger is complete, Aetna will operate as a stand-alone business within CVS Health’s enterprise, led by current members of its management team.

INDUSTRY NEWS

Upcoming Snickers Launch Swaps Crunchy for Creamy Fans of Snickers are in for a real treat. Starting in 2019, lovers of everything sweet will be able to get their hands on the latest innovation from the brand, which replaces its classic crunch with something much smoother. The new Creamy Snickers will feature everything the brand has become synonymous for — caramel and a milk chocolate covering — alongside the addition of several kinds of nut butters. The Hackettstown, N.J.-based brand, which is part of Mars Wrigley Confectionery’s portfolio, will be introducing consumers to three new products — almond butter, peanut butter and maple almond butter Creamy Snickers. “For nearly a century, fans have made the classic Snickers bar an icon with its satisfying layers of nougat, caramel and signature peanut crunch,” Josh Olken, brand director at Snickers, said. “We listened to our consumers’ desires for new tastes like almond butter and paired it with an innovation on texture. With Creamy Snickers bars, our fans can discover new tastes, and can now get Snickers satisfaction in both crunchy and smooth. Creamy Snickers will hit local food, mass, convenience and drug stores in January 2019, and will come in single, share and stand-up pouch sizes. Further information on the new launches can be found on the brand’s website and social media accounts.

Muuna’s Cottage Cheese Joins Growing Pumpkin Flavor Trend Fall means only one thing these days — everything is pumpkin flavored. Muuna, a brand that said it is focused on changing the way consumers think about cottage cheese, is embracing the season by unveiling its new pumpkin and spice-flavored product. Containing a blend of real pumpkin puree and pumpkin spice seasoning, the product channels the flavors of a pumpkin cheesecake, the company said. “There is a large demand for pumpkin spice product, and we are thrilled to debut a Pumpkin & Spice first in the cottage cheese category,” Gerard Meyer, CEO of Muuna said.

October 2018 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM

Each pack of Muuna’s pumpkin and spice cottage cheese contains 8 g of sugar, 17 g of protein, probiotics and potassium, according to Muuna. The product is currently hitting select retailers throughout the nation.

Harpoon Brewery, Dunkin’ Craft Coffee-Beer Hybrid Dunkin’ and Harpoon Brewery are joining forces to launch a product that’s all about

fall. The Boston-based companies unveiled the Harpoon Dunkin’ Coffee Porter, which combines the taste of Dunkin’s espresso blend coffee with craft beer. “Our brands have such passionate, loyal fans, who start their busy day with a cup of Dunkin’ coffee and end it by enjoying one of Harpoon’s famous craft beers,” said Tony Weisman, chief marketing officer at Dunkin’ U.S. “We’re thrilled to now finally

bring the two together, partnering with one of the most respected craft breweries in the country to offer coffee lovers and beer enthusiasts alike a classic new taste to celebrate the season.” The 6% ABV Harpoon Dunkin’ Coffee Porter, will be available this fall in 12-oz. bottles at retail. “Dunkin’ has been there for us since the early days when getting the brewery up and running required a lot of beer, and even more coffee,” Dan Kenary, CEO and co-founder of Harpoon Brewery, said. “We couldn’t think of a better way to pay tribute to the company that’s helped fuel our success than to create something special for our fans by combining the taste of their favorite morning brew with one of ours.”

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INDUSTRY NEWS

Cape Cod Unveils Pink Himalayan Salt, Red Wine Vinegar Chips Cape Cod’s got a new flavor of chips that will only

be hitting store shelves for a limited time. The Hyannis, Mass.-based company will donate 5% of the proceeds from the newly unveiled Pink Himalayan Salt and Red Wine Vinegar potato chips to the Susan F. Smith Center for Women’s Cancers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in New England.

“We are proud to stay true to our New England roots and support a local and revolutionary institution like Dana-Farber Cancer Institute,” Aaron Torchio, director of marketing at Cape Cod, said. “Pink Himalayan Salt and Red Wine Vinegar not only tastes good but allows our consumers to do good by simply enjoying a deliciously unique potato chip.” Featuring a tangy and savory taste, the chips are cooked in kettles to obtain the crunch and golden hue Cape Cod is known for, the company said. Cape Cod’s Pink Himalayan Salt and Red Wine Vinegar potato chips retail for $3.79, and can be found on the company’s website and on the shelves of such retailers as Publix, Harris Teeter, Walmart, Stop & Shop, Shaw’s, Hannaford and Market Basket.

Taco Bell Brings the Heat to Stores

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October 2018 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM

After introducing some of its wellknown sauce packets in tortilla-chip form, Taco Bell has unveiled its latest product to hit retail shelves. The Irvine, Calif.-based company’s Diablo tortilla chips feature the flavors of its Diablo sauce packets, which contain a kick of hot peppers and lime. To separate the new snack offering from those already found on the chip shelves, Taco Bell’s tortilla chips are colored black with natural vegetable juice, and also are vegan, kosher and gluten-free. “Our iconic sauce packets were our original inspiration for how to give fans a new way to access a taste of Taco Bell at retail,” said Marisa Thalberg, Taco Bell’s chief global brand officer. “The new Diablo tortilla chips build from that inspiration, letting us serve up our hottest chip

yet that’s completely unique to Taco Bell, from its dark and smoky packaging with saucy wisdoms, to the flavor of the chip itself.” The limited-edition Diablo tortilla chips will be sold in 3.5-oz. bags throughout the month of October at 7-Eleven before expanding to additional grocery and convenience stores in November.

You ain't seen nothin'yet!

More exhibitors. More categories. More products. It’s hard to believe but PLMA’s 2018 Private Label Trade Show will be bigger and better than ever. Why? Because store brands are setting records for consumer popularity and sales. Whether it’s bricks-and-mortar or online, big chains or small specialty retailers, store brands are the way to go. Food, snacks, beverages, health and beauty, household and GM. Plus, the show has added kitchenware and housewares, self-care wellness and now private label wine. As the man says “You ain’t seen nothin yet!”

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COUNTER TALK

Pharmacists’ Work and Well-being APhA looks to alleviate increasing pressures of the profession By Michael Hogue

W Michael Hogue, presidentelect, the American Pharmacists Association, speaker of the APhA House of Delegates

hen my wife and I graduated from pharmacy school and were licensed in 1996, we entered into practice full of hopes and dreams of a bright future. We were eager to put to use those advanced patient care skills our alma mater had well prepared us to use. And put them to use we did. Following residency, we moved to Alabama to become partners in an independent pharmacy practice, where we were the first pharmacists in the state to begin immunizing our patients. We started a diabetes self-management service and collaborated on drug therapy management with one of our local physicians. We were professionally engaged and actively involved, and both of us were relatively satisfied that we were using the skills we were trained to use, though we still had the challenges of compensation for our services. However, I’m hearing reports from recent graduates that paint a different postgraduation experience picture we had in 1996. What I’m hearing from these recent graduates, as well as from seasoned pharmacists, is: • Public and private payers are looking to pay the lowest price for prescription drugs; • The community pharmacy business model no longer supports sufficient staffing, leaving little time for patient care, and in some cases jeopardizing patient safety; • Pharmacists, now largely employed by a corporate entity rather than through private practice, feel they have little control over their practice environment and professional judgement; • The number of pharmacists in many markets is leading to fear among some of losing their jobs or experiencing lower wages if they do not meet productivity metrics as more technical tasks are delegated to technicians; • Full-time employment is sometimes hard to come by as a pharmacist; and • Young pharmacists have tremendous personal debt from college.

October 2018 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM

Frankly, it seems many folks want to stick their head in the sand about these current realities. To do so is a failure to the profession. Hear me clearly: I’m extremely hopeful about the future of pharmacy and have some ideas of how we will get there, but first we have to help lift up our colleagues and move through a difficult period. The American Pharmacists Association is the leading advocate for the profession of pharmacy. Nearly every pharmacist in America has been a member of APhA at some point, either as a student or as a pharmacist. As the current speaker of APhA’s House of Delegates and president-elect of the organization, it is important to me that pharmacists and student pharmacists know that APhA is committed to addressing these practice challenges. The nearly 400-member APhA House of Delegates in March 2018 adopted a policy on the pharmacist workplace environment and patient safety. The policies serve not only as guiding statements and principles for the profession, but are frequently referenced when key policy and legal decisions are at play. In addition to this policy, the APhA board of trustees has incorporated pharmacist well-being initiatives as core to our strategic plan. Among other efforts, we are building tangible resources to assist individual pharmacists with practice challenges, professional satisfaction, recognition and personal well-being. Additionally, APhA is working with other professional organizations and employers to seek legislative changes at the state and national levels that will result in recognition of pharmacists as providers of care. Coupled with changes that remove unnecessary barriers to the use of technologies and technicians, this will lead to new opportunities for the patient care we are capable of providing, allowing the business model to shift. There is a hopeful, brighter future ahead — if we fight for it. Let’s join together and ensure that patients continue to have access to the outstanding patient care of pharmacists. dsn

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COUNTER TALK

Supporting Diabetic Patients Holistically Upcoming National Diabetes Awareness Month can help promote vital role pharmacies play By Tania Attanasio

he approach of National Diabetes Awareness Month in November offers a timely opportunity for pharmacists and their staff to review the important role they play in supporting the more than 30 million people who are managing this chronic condition and to create loyalty. I’ve identified three things that pharmacies, particularly those co-located with grocery or club stores, can do to support patients as they manage their diabetes.

Tania Attanasio, marketer, AmerisourceBergen

Nutrition Services

Nutrition is incredibly important in a person’s overall health, and eating well and consuming the right foods are essential to patients looking to manage their diabetes. Pharmacists are a natural resource for patients looking to access information and counseling around healthy eating habits. Often, patients express frustration with their dietary restrictions and boredom caused by eating repetitive-tasting meals. Pharmacists can be helpful through these challenging times by providing patients with such resources as a diabetes-friendly shopping list featuring new and diet-appropriate products, or a fact sheet on the benefits of foods that can help regulate their blood sugar levels. A focus on nutrition services is particularly strategic for pharmacies located in grocery and club stores because of their proximity to relevant departments or products. Pharmacists in these retail settings can walk patients through the aisles and help them pick out the right products to manage their blood glucose levels. These tactics can be executed throughout the year, but increasing and promoting these efforts in November will help catch a customer’s attention and drive customers to the pharmacy to learn more.

Wearables

Exercise is equally important for diabetic patients. Pharmacists can encourage individuals with diabetes to take control of their health through fitness trackers, which monitor health progress. In fact, over the last four years, the use of health

October 2018 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM

wearables has nearly quadrupled, from 9% in 2014 to 33% in 2018. Through our research, we’ve found that family and friends are incredibly influential in supporting lifestyle changes. This insight is noteworthy as one of the most significant benefits of wearables is the gamification of exercise goals, which is complemented through friendly challenges with other diabetics, co-workers, friends or family. Pharmacists can promote wearables as a tool to ensure patients are mindful of their goals, while having built in a support system through positive reinforcement. Pharmacies in stores where wearables are stocked in another department should consider using signage or establishing a temporary point-of-purchase display during key promotional months when health trackers may be of the greatest interest — e.g., November for National Diabetes Awareness Month or February for American Heart Month.

Social Media

Finally, while wearables can serve as an instant mechanism to track health goals, social media often is the perfect complement. Platforms like Facebook and Twitter provide pharmacists with instant access to their patients. Grocery or club store pharmacists can use social media in November to drive awareness of pertinent information, including FAQs/medication information, healthy recipes, appointment scheduling, etc. By developing a strong online presence on social media, pharmacists can stay top-of-mind in and outside of the store, reinforcing their value with the patients they serve. Whichever approach is appropriate for you, retailers with in-store pharmacies should realize they have a tremendous asset — a true, integrated healthcare destination right in the middle of their store. By providing all of the connective tissue a patient, particularly with a chronic condition, needs to be successful, pharmacies are creating the stickiness that will ensure patients continue to look to them for their healthcare needs. dsn

ONE-ON-ONE

Innovating to Succeed Avadim looks to meet gaps in consumer health needs

alph Lombardo, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Avadim Health, said retailers need to closely examine where new technologies can help them become more efficient merchants. Lombardo sat down and discussed the state of the industry with Drug Store News. Drug Store News: What is the state of sales in the mass retail industry? Ralph Lombardo: From our perspective, there has not been a better time to launch new technologies in chain drug and mass retail outlets. Retailers are tired of redundancy and are carving out opportunities for innovation. Having five brands with the same active ingredient leads to shared revenue, and reduces the opportunity for accretive or incremental facings. We believe this is a great time to differentiate and bring retail partners the opportunity to appeal to a broader patient base through targeted and unique therapeutic options. DSN: What is driving the market right now in terms of trends? RL: We are in a consumer-driven healthcare environment. The majority of Americans self-treat before seeking medical attention. Access to information and data is more readily available now than at any other time in our nation’s history, and this has led to a more educated consumer which seeks to make informed decisions when self-medicating. Retailers and brands have

Having five brands with the same active ingredient leads to shared revenue, and reduces the opportunity for accretive or incremental facings. 20

October 2018 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM

to appeal and communicate to the educated consumer. As primary care shifts toward retail, we have to consider the role of the retail pharmacist and health care providers in retail clinics as pivotal to the consumer’s buying decision. DSN: How does your company fit in? RL: Avadim Health brings an evidence-based approach to the market place. Our product development strategy is to employ our proprietary process to identify and research gaps in this consumer-driven healthcare market place, develop targeted treatments and build a high-quality clinical compendium through research. Our academic university partnerships yield high-quality evidence, and our goal is to bring clinically proven solutions for patients who otherwise would have no or limited options. We have a strong pipeline of innovations that will prove to be accretive to their respective categories. We launched the first topical clinically proven muscle relaxant, Theraworx Relief, in July 2017, and it is now the fastest-growing brand in external pain. On the horizon, we will be launching a solution for post-menopausal urinary tract infections — our nation’s most common infection — a diabetic neuropathy solution, and are on target for launching the first dual-modality innovation for patients with osteoarthritis in April 2019. Our No. 1 priority is to fill gaps in care and prove to be an incremental partner with our retailers. DSN: What do retailers need to do to most benefit from these trends? RL: To optimize shelf, retailers should take a 401(k) portfolio-style approach to their category — what is the return on every inch captured by the brand holding on to that precious real estate? Retailers should also consider what manufacturer investments are being made to increase the value of

that real estate to make it as profitable in the portfolio as possible. What is the ROI per inch of shelf space? DSN: What does the future hold for Avadim and the marketplace? RL: We see a bright future. Avadim exhaustively researches therapeutic interventional gaps in the marketplace, formulates solutions for those gaps, and conducts high-quality evidence-based studies to demonstrate needed efficacy to fill those gaps. We believe this is a winning approach. We are only interested in bringing accretive value to our stakeholders, and our goal is to work tirelessly to be the best retail partner the industry has. If it’s an Avadim brand, the retailer will know it’s accretive, it’s proven, it works and it will be supported on shelf.” dsn Ralph Lombardo, senior vice president of sales and marketing, Avadim Health

RUG

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Avadim Health, Inc.

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EMERSON GROUP’S ANNUAL RETAIL INDUSTRY DAY

Former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster

Fast Action, Empowered Leaders Win battles in War, Business BY MARK HAMSTRA

cting quickly and decisively often yields advantages in battle, as long as communication is clear and the team has been well trained — lessons that also can be applied in the business world, according to former U.S. National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, who spoke at the recent Emerson Group Industry Day conference in Philadelphia. The retired U.S. Army general recounted his experiences at the Battle of 73 Easting in 1991 in Iraq, where as a young captain he

October 2018 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM

led a decisive, lopsided tank battle against Iraqi forces. McMaster’s nine-tank unit destroyed 50 Iraqi tanks, 25 armored personnel carriers and 40 trucks, and suffered no casualties. “I was always a proponent of acting quickly,” McMaster said. “It forces the enemy to react.” Through the history of combat, he said, leaders who were hesitant were usually the ones who lost. He detailed several effective executions in battle that can be applied in the business world: • Leaders need to have clear vision of the situation, and need to “be there” with their teams in terms of understanding the reality they face; • Every member of the team must actively develop opportunities that the whole team can then execute; • The team needs to be trained to operate under uncertainty, and with concurrent activity; • Develop a proficiency in fundamental tasks so they can be executed routinely, even under stressful conditions; • Know your competitive advantages and maximize them. “If in a business, you have an advantage, make sure you are deploying that advantage,” McMaster said; • Don’t panic. There will be setbacks in war and in business. “Stay calm and work through the difficulties,” he said; • Foster shared understanding of the information flow. Welltrained troops communicate horizontally between each other rather than up the leadership chain. Poorly trained troops constantly tend to be asking for direction from commanders and waiting for the boss to direct the action. • Devolve responsibility downward and encourage initiative. McMaster said he continued the assault in the 1991 Battle of 73 Easting even though that was not part of the original plan because he recognized the opportunity at hand. “If we had just followed the plan, I think it would have been a much different outcome in the battle,” he said. In the battlefield, decisions have to be made by junior leaders, because tight central control of operations is neither possible nor desirable. These junior leaders must be well trained to do the right thing, and then trusted to act independently; and • Once you gain an advantage, consolidate your gains and follow through so you maintain the initiative and the advantage. In a question and answer session, McMaster said his experience both in the military and as a history teacher prepared him well for politics. “The military gives you a broader experience than you might think,” he said, citing his experience building multidisciplinary teams, for example. In his work at the Pentagon, McMaster said he focused on the mission and the people that worked for him, seeking to foster an environment where people felt empowered to make decisions. As the National Security Advisor to President Donald Trump, McMaster said he advocated much of the foreign-policy direction of the administration, such as taking a stronger position against North Korea and China. He believes many of the alliances the United States has with other countries are “stronger than ever.” dsn

EMERSON GROUP’S ANNUAL RETAIL INDUSTRY DAY

Stephanie Leffler of OneSpace

Optimize E-commerce Product Listings

rands should be seeking to optimize their product listings online both in terms of visual representation and verbiage to maximize e-commerce sales, said Stephanie Leffler, CEO of OneSpace, a virtual workforce platform, at the recent Emerson Group Industry Day in Philadelphia. Health and beauty care product suppliers might not realize how much of their sales are currently impacted by online search, she said, citing the rapid growth of click-and-collect and grocery delivery services that might appear to suppliers as being brick-and-mortar retail sales. “How your product looks on the digital shelf — you may not understand what a massive impact that is having on your sales already,” Leffler said. Data from terms used to search for products can be a valuable tool, she said, citing searches for face cleansers as an example. While most products in the space call themselves “face cleansers,” consumers actually are searching using the term “face wash.” “Stop thinking about what’s on your packaging. That is not your e-commerce title,” Leffler said. “Your e-commerce title needs to be what people search. “Little things can make millions of dollars of difference in e-commerce sales if you do it right and take data into consideration.” She said that most people also do not typically enter a brand name when they search for health and beauty products online. Instead,

they more are likely to search for the conditions they are seeking to treat or the attributes of the products or their ingredients. “When you are thinking about what product to do next, don’t do a survey or a focus group,” Leffler said. “Just look at search data — it’s all sitting right here in the numbers.” The words used in product descriptions also is important as more and more consumers use voice-based ordering technology, she said. In product descriptions, it’s important to restate a product’s name in the first couple of bullet points, for example, so that the technology repeats the name back to the consumer and reinforces which product the consumer is asking about. Leffler cited Breathe Right nasal strips as one product that optimizes its product descriptions for voice-based search. Breathe Right also takes the right approach with its visual representation of the product, she said, noting that it uses the images in the photo carousel to convey the product’s features and attributes. Almost all — 96% of consumers — click all the way through a product image carousel when searching for products, Leffler said, noting that they are an important aspect of selling online. “Do you really want to use that carousel to show all the different panels of your box? I don’t think so,” she said. “This is a really simple thing you can think about developing for your products, and it makes a huge difference.” dsn —Mark Hamstra

DRUGSTORENEWS.COM October 2018

EMERSON GROUP’S ANNUAL RETAIL INDUSTRY DAY

Molly Fletcher

Scott Stratten of UnMarketing

Sports Lessons for the Business World

Brand-Building Starts on the Front Lines

igh-level athletes and coaches offer lessons for the business world, said Molly Fletcher, who runs one of the top sports agencies in the country, during a presentation at the recent Emerson Group Industry Day conference. In order to remain competitive, these high-performing individuals in the sports world have to focus on continuing improvement because of the intensity of the competition in the industry. “They wake up and get a little bit better every day because they have to,” she said. Fletcher listed several characteristics exhibited by elite athletes and coaches that business leaders can emulate, which she described as belief, discovery, clarity, discipline and execution. As an example of belief, she cited former Atlanta Braves pitcher John Smoltz’s transition from starter to closer — a move he made at the request of the Braves for the benefit of the team. Fletcher helped convince him to make the transition, she said. He went on to lead Major League Baseball with 55 saves in his first season in the new position in the rotation. “It was his ability to lean into change,” Fletcher said. “It starts with leaning into our ability to evolve.” In terms of discovery, she cited professional basketball superstar Kevin Durant, who hired someone to analyze his shortcomings on some key metrics so that he could work to improve, over and above the coaching he received from his team. “You need to have the courage to discover your gaps,” Fletcher said. “Making sure we discover our gaps allows us to serve our people even better.” Discipline is another key attribute that elite athletes and coaches possess, Fletcher said. The best athletes and coaches don’t let failures affect them negatively, she said. “Don’t let failure define you. Let it develop you,” she said. dsn —Mark Hamstra

October 2018 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM

onsumers form an impression of brands quickly in today’s environment of instant communication via social media, said Scott Stratten of UnMarketing in a presentation at the recent Emerson Group Industry Day conference. As a result, companies are increasingly vulnerable to negative consumer reviews online, which makes frontline employees — including last-mile partners — a critical component of brand building. “Any part of the chain is part of your brand,” Stratten said. Empowering frontline employees to take action to keep customers happy is one way to build and enhance a brand’s image. “Great service is disarming, because we no longer expect it,” he said. While few companies can be as empowering as Ritz-Carlton, which allows frontline employees to spend up to $2,000 to do whatever it takes to make customers happy, brands still can take steps to make it easier for their workers to provide better service. “Everybody is the brand, and in product companies, this is exponentially more important to reinforce,” he said. “Every phone call, every email, every tweet, every store interaction or activation — these are brand pivot points.”

Embracing Millennials

Although baby boomers and Gen Xers tend to look down on millennials, Stratten suggested that companies need to embrace these workers. “If you are a millennial, your entire life has been based on disruption, and that should be an asset to a company,” he said. The ability of younger workers to navigate disruption, combined with their digital dexterity, make them ideal partners for older workers who have industry experience, he said. “The combination of that automatic ability to disrupt and what older people have, which is wisdom — if you combine those with dual respect, then we are unstoppable,” Stratten said. dsn —Mark Hamstra

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EMERSON GROUP’S ANNUAL RETAIL INDUSTRY DAY

Brian Owens of Kantar Consulting

Consumer Trends Reshape the Retail Landscape

he consumer and retail environments are changing rapidly, and CPG brands need to evolve their strategies in order to stay relevant. That was the message Brian Owens, vice president of retail insights at Kantar Consulting, brought to his presentation at the recent Emerson Group Industry Day conference, held in Philadelphia in late September. Among the key consumer trends to consider is the growing divide between low-income and high-income consumers, he said. “We also have to understand that the big middle class is shrinking,” Owens said. “It’s about high income and low income, and there are different needs for each.” That trend will impact CPG companies, Owens said, because

October 2018 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM

there are fewer opportunities for “one-size-fits-all” products, and more opportunities for items that appeal to either end of the income spectrums. The trend also is evident among retailers, as demonstrated by the growth of such discount formats as Aldi and Dollar General. At the same time that retail formats appealing to low-income consumers are growing, so is spending on more high-end products. People are willing to spend money to indulge, said Owens, who noted that the No. 1 reason people trade up to higher-end CPG products is indulgence, cited by 73% of shoppers in a recent survey. Another key consumer trend to be aware of is the shift toward spending on services, with healthcare services leading the way, Owens said. Additionally, Owens noted that Health care represents 27% of the amount households spend on services, followed by financial services and food services at 9% each. “These are all things that people need to outsource,” he said. “They need help.” Shoppers ultimately are looking for stress-free shopping experiences, Owens said. That impacts how retailers and CPG companies should be approaching their omnichannel strategies. “We all should be stress-free brands, at the end of the day,” he said. “There’s value in that. It’s important for us to understand how our brand fits into that stress, and how it unlocks it and alleviates it.” Another important consumer trend to consider is the fact that many millennials are waiting until they are older to have children. This means that often young mothers have advanced further in their careers and have more money to spend, and, at the same time, are looking for convenient shopping solutions. “That is a cohort that we all need to really consider differently — that 40-plus mom,” Owens said. In addition, retailers and brands need to consider the upcoming “centennial” generation, which Owens described as those between ages 0 and 19 years old. Like the millennials before them, this group will be evaluating products based on their purpose. “They’re looking for the value you’re providing them, and we have to understand how they define that,” Owens said. Retailers and CPG brands also need to understand the health-and-wellness journey of the consumer, Owens said. People are transitioning “from sick care to self-care,” he said, which has ramifications for the products they are selecting as they focus on prevention and overall wellness. Retailers and CPG brands need to be increasingly familiar with such emerging digital technologies as voice-based ordering and auto replenishment, Owens said, noting that by 2025, 30% of CPG purchases will be through auto replenishment. As a result, those products that are auto replenished will no longer be a part of consumers’ basket consideration, and it will be difficult to get those shoppers to replace those items with different offerings. “If you’re not influencing them when they want to be influenced in an e-commerce environment, which is increasingly is digital, the cost of getting them back is going to be too high,” Owens said. dsn —Mark Hamstra

EMERSON GROUP’S ANNUAL RETAIL INDUSTRY DAY

Sam Gagliardi of IRI

“They give Amazon $11.9 billion dollars for the privilege of shopping on their website,” said Gagliardi, referring to total Amazon makes from the $119 annual membership fee for Amazon Prime. Amazon captures more than 50% of 25-to-44-year-old shoppers, he said, noting that these shoppers represent high lifetime value because of their relatively young age. In addition, Amazon’s strong position in media — Prime members can access the company’s vast library of movies and TV shows — will help the company continue to drive traffic.

Reasons for Optimism

Companies Re-orient Around E-commerce

etailers and CPG brands need to rethink many of the strategies they have traditionally employed to drive sales and adapt them for the fast-growing world of e-commerce, said Sam Gagliardi, senior vice president of e-commerce at IRI, in a presentation at the Emerson Group Industry Day conference in Philadelphia in late September. “More than half of the entire industry growth is now coming from the online space,” he said. “Brands have to rearrange and reposition themselves to be able to win this brand new field.” Although only 10% of CPG sales are e-commerce driven, 56% of the sales growth is coming from e-commerce, he said, and about 49% of that growth is coming from Amazon — or a total of more than 25% of all CPG sales growth. Amazon has succeeded by focusing on “three very simple rules,” Gagliardi said: putting the customer first, investing in new opportunities and being patient. Walmart recently has been stepping up its e-commerce investments to better compete with Amazon, but Amazon has a tremendous first-mover advantage, Gagliardi said. Amazon also is well positioned for the future, with 100 million Amazon Prime customers who skew young and are comfortable shopping online.

Despite the outlook for significant ongoing CPG sales growth at Amazon, Gagliardi cited several reasons for optimism among traditional food and drug retailers. First, Amazon still only captures about 3% of total retail sales, and 90% of sales still are taking place in the brick-and-mortar retail environment. Also, he pointed out that while Amazon is capturing 49% of e-commerce growth, 51% of the growth is being attributed to other online players. “The reason that is happening is that the e-commerce environment is becoming increasingly fractured,” he said, noting that the click-and-collect model is becoming a much more important element of e-commerce growth. By 2022, click-and-collect will account for 42% of e-commerce sales, he said. “That will open up e-commerce to competitors for other types of products that are usually too heavy, or too low cost to ship,” Gagliardi said, citing such items as soda and bottled water. He said retailers can evaluate the value of their e-commerce sales using what he described as the e-commerce algorithm, which can be calculated as revenue equals the product of traffic multiplied by conversion rate, times basket value. One metric where traditional retailers outperform Amazon is on basket size, Gagliardi said. “This is where the click-and-collect model is panning out,” he said. “Amazon is a spearfishing shopping trip. The Amazon Prime shopper pays for the luxury to be able to shop on Amazon, buy one thing and then walk off.” The click-and-collect model, by contrast, is more about building out a bigger basket, which can help drive market share.

Sales and Marketing Alignment

The growing importance of e-commerce in the sale of CPG products also requires much more alignment between sales and marketing within product companies, Gagliardi said. CPG manufacturers have historically pushed large volumes of product into retail warehouses on the promise of huge marketing campaigns, leaving retailers to accept much of the risk if a product did not perform as expected. Thanks to Amazon, that’s no longer the business model in e-commerce. “Now what happens is that the marketing teams have to go out and create the awareness,” he said. “You make sure folks are able to find you and that you’re able to build ratings and reviews.” dsn —Mark Hamstra

DRUGSTORENEWS.COM October 2018

PRODUCTS TO WATCH

Up-and-Comers HRG identifies five hot September launches

amacher Resource Group’s new product team reviewed 162 products in September, running the gamut from OTC and wellness to beauty. Roughly 26% of the products (42) were OTC, 31% were wellness products and 69 of them — 43% — were beauty products. HRG has highlighted five products for retailers to keep their eyes on.

ThermaCare Ultra Pain Relieving Cream

October 2018 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM

Pfizer Consumer Healthcare’s analgesic brand ThermaCare is moving into a new method of delivery. Previously only available in pain relief patches, the brand’s first cream includes four ingredients meant to relieve arthritis and joint pain, as well as back and body aches, sprains, strains and sore muscles.

Zim’s Max-Freeze Pro Formula Cooling Gel

With its Pro Formula launch, Kobayashi Consumer Products’ Zim’s Max-Freeze has increased the amount of menthol in its product. In fact, the new formula contains more menthol than any of its competitors, according to HRG, which also noted that in consumer research, users preferred the product over a comparable brand.

Eucerin Roughness Relief Lotion

Known for its products that address various skin needs, Beiersdorf’s Eucerin brand has introduced the Roughness Relief Lotion, which is formulated specifically to address keratosis pilaris — a condition that causes bumps on the skin. The product is formulated with urea to exfoliate and improve bumpy skin, and is fragrance- and dye-free.

Neutrogena Hydro Boost Body Gel Cream

Lubricity Dry Mouth Oral Spray

The Johnson & Johnson skin care product expands the Hydro Boost line beyond its typical offerings for facial care and into body care. The Neutrogena gel cream product contains hyaluronic acid to bring moisture to dry skin. Lubricity Dry Mouth Oral Spray, from You First Services, is using skin care staple hyaluronic acid in a different way. The alcohol- and sugar-free product uses hyaluronic acid as its main ingredient, rather than the typical use of xylitol, making it the first over-the-counter dry mouth formula to do so. The ingredient is indicated as a longer-lasting dry mouth solution than xylitol, HRG said. dsn

Ahead of the Curve

Hy-Vee’s ability to adapt makes it DSN’s 2018 Retailer of the Year

BY SETH MENDELSON • PHOTOGRAPHY BY ERIKA FONTANA

hen the going gets tough, the tough get going. That could be a mantra for Hy-Vee, the 246-store supermarket chain that appears to be pulling out all the stops as it seeks to be more in touch with consumer needs in these turbulent times for mass retailers. The West Des Moines, Iowa-based chain, which operates in eight upper Midwest states, is implementing a broad range of changes, including new store formats and an emphasis on specific categories, to entice more consumers to shop at its stores. That includes the first standalone version of the Hy-Vee HealthMarket near corporate headquarters that emphasizes beauty, wellness and produce, and is strategically attached to an Orangetheory Fitness center.

October 2018 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM

Hy-Vee chairman, president and CEO Randy Edeker with the staff of the recently opened Hy-Vee HealthMarket store

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DSN’S 2018 RETAILER OF THE YEAR: HY-VEE

Hy-Vee Balances Traditional Marketing, New Channels

For these reasons, and much more, Drug Store News has named Hy-Vee, along with its more than 80,000 employees, as our 2018 Retailer of the Year. The award is as much for what Hy-Vee has done over the past 88 years — during which the chain has emerged as a major player in the Midwest — as it is for its future outlook and the steps executives are taking to stay ahead of the curve. “The last year and a half have been the toughest retail environment in a long time,” said Randy Edeker, chairman, CEO and president of the company. “I am sure Amazon is a small part of that, but it’s just the diversity of retail today. You can buy the products we sell everywhere from lumberyards to convenience stores. It’s just the nature of the business.” Yet Hy-Vee officials have no intention of standing around and letting competition eat the chain up. As Edeker said, the industry is going through a “transformational time” that has created a bit of uncertainty as far as where the customer is going for their grocery needs. “From a financial standpoint, growth has come a little harder than it has in the past, and we have had to work a little harder,” he said. “There are a lot of new, smaller fresh formats that have hit our marketplace. These formats are becoming more popular, and it has caused us to follow our customers in new directions.” Enter the Hy-Vee HealthMarket, or at least what Edeker said is the first iteration of the freestanding format that he hopes will play a big role in the Hy-Vee evolution from a traditional grocery chain to one that offers its customers a broad array of popular products in extremely convenient settings. The first store, an 18,000-sq.-ft. unit, offers the feel of a combination grocery store/drug store. The pharmacy and OTC section, placed in the rear of the store, is balanced by a large beauty-focused department, featuring a broad array of products across many price points, and a large fresh/produce section that allows for a quick grocery shopping experience.

October 2018 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM

In the eight-state region where West Des Moines, Iowa-based Hy-Vee operates its network of 246 supermarkets, reaching customers requires a multifaceted marketing approach. For many of these Midwestern consumers, weekly newspaper inserts still are the primary drivers of their grocery purchasing behavior. “Many of our loyal, longtime customers still do one big grocery shop for the week, typically right before the weekend,” said Donna Tweeten, executive vice president and chief marketing officer/chief customer officer at Hy-Vee. These shoppers tend to be very price-sensitive, and they know how much their typical grocery items cost. At the same time, younger millennial shoppers are forcing Hy-Vee to look at new ways of communicating its marketing messages, including digital and social media, outdoor advertising, and enhancing the overall in-store experience, Tweeten said. These younger shoppers tend not to be as price-aware about traditional grocery items, but they do care about the prices of the things they buy frequently, such as snack bars or almond milk, as well as beauty care items. “You have an entire generation that doesn’t watch traditional TV at all, and doesn’t look at the newspaper,” she said. “They don’t read ads, they don’t read inserts — they don’t shop that way at all.” Marketing has become a balancing act between seeking to engage consumers through social media, while continuing to use traditional TV and newspaper ads to reach older consumers. “We still need to be on TV and in the newspaper, but it is imperative these days to have an increasing presence on digital and social media, and out of home,” said Tweeten, who added that the company has “been doing some interesting things with outdoor” advertising. In addition, much of the marketing effort has shifted to the inside of the store, where Hy-Vee seeks to create a sense of theater with such departments as beauty care. The company’s partnership with bath and body brand Basin, for example, has created a bright and colorful gateway for to the store-within-a-store beauty care department. The key is providing sensory stimulation and an entertaining environment, Tweeten said. “I think that in our business, you need to give people reasons to come into your store other than just shopping for groceries,” she said. “In order to win out over your competitor, you can’t just be a better grocer — you need to be a better retail theater expert.” —Mark Hamstra

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DSN RETAILER OF THE YEAR and honored to be your Retail and Pharmacy partner.

DSN’S 2018 RETAILER OF THE YEAR: HY-VEE

“The Hy-Vee HealthMarket is a great example of what we are trying to become,” Edeker said. “I believe it is what the drug store of the future is going to look like. I think you’ll see that [Hy-Vee will] evolve and change even more as we open more of these types of stores. “When we build another one — we have two on the budget for next year — we will build those much differently than we built our first one. We will expand perishables a little more. The places that are working really well are our take-home meals. We have meals by disease state — diabetic meals, heart-healthy meals and

so forth, natural and organic — in the HealthMarket that have really worked.” He also said, “I don’t think we would get rid of anything. I think we would expand it — we would add more perishables to it. It’s an 18,000-sq.-ft. building now, and I could see future stores being as large as 25,000 sq. ft.” Yet that is not the only direction in which the company is moving. In September, Hy-Vee opened its second and third Wahlburgers restaurant franchise locations, one near the company’s corporate headquarters and another in Olathe, Kan. The first Wahlburgers restaurant owned by Hy-Vee opened at Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., in May. Hy-Vee plans to open 23 more of the popular restaurant over the next several years. “Getting into the restaurant business is part of us evolving,” Edeker said. “The Wahlburgers restaurants are just one aspect of our food service business. Food service in our stores remain a core focus for us — Hy-Vee Market Grille and Hy-Vee Market Grille Express restaurants have been a key area for our company, and our Asian foods — our Nori Sushi and Hibachi Grill — have also done very well.” “Wahlburgers has really been an extension of that. What you will see us do in our Des Moines market, in our full-service Hy-Vee Market Grille restaurants — of which there are six here in town — we will brand those as ‘Hy-Vee Market Grille Proudly Serving Wahlburgers,’ and we will take select Wahlburgers menu items into our restaurants and sell them that way.” Convenience stores also are a focus for the company. Right now, Hy-Vee operates about 150 c-stores, and Edeker predicted that number would increase even more over the next five years. Edeker

Hy-Vee Expands Clinic Offerings, Mobile Tours Hy-Vee is expanding the health clinic operations in its stores, both in terms of the size of the clinics and the number of clinics it offers. “It’s been a good model for us, and it’s growing,” said Aaron Wiese, vice president of HealthMarkets and health and wellness strategy at Hy-Vee. The company currently hosts 70 such clinics in its stores — all operated by local healthcare providers — and its goal is to have 100 by the middle of 2019, Wiese said. The company is incorporating clinics into most of its new stores, and carving out space in older stores for clinics as they are remodeled. Hy-Vee also takes its clinics on the road. Since launching its Hy-Vee Healthy You Mobile program in 2013, the company has converted nine Winnebago RVs into mobile clinics,

October 2018 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM

each with two exam rooms offering biometric screenings, flu vaccinations, nutritional information, cooking demonstrations, food samplings and other services. The mobile units, staffed with Hy-Vee dietitians and pharmacists, travel to health fairs, festivals, school events and other community gatherings. “It’s a diagnostic mobile clinic on wheels,” Wiese said. “It’s been a great asset for us.” This year, Hy-Vee focused on bringing the Hy-Vee Healthy You Mobile clinics to more underserved areas, and tying them back to the stores thematically. In February, for example, the Hy-Vee Healthy You Mobile clinics conducted a heart health tour throughout the retailer’s eight-state region, offering free biometric screenings to consumers who might not otherwise have had access to such services.

The mobile clinics distributed samples of heart healthy products and coupons to use in-store, where it featured displays of related products. “Our CPG partners helped fund the screenings, enabling our customers to get a free screening and improve their awareness of heart health and heart healthy foods,” Wiese said. Hy-Vee also did a similar tour focused on men’s health in June and a diabetes-themed tour is scheduled for November. In total, Hy-Vee is doubling the number of events and screenings this year via its Hy-Vee Healthy You Mobiles, compared with a year ago. “We operate in some very rural markets, and in a lot of our markets, Hy-Vee is one of the only places where people are going to find these services,” Wiese said. —Mark Hamstra

DSN’S 2018 RETAILER OF THE YEAR: HY-VEE

Hy-Vee Eyes Personalization as Next Pharmacy Frontier

also noted that the c-store product assortment could soon offer a larger assortment of fresh products. “I think some of the changes you will see in the convenience store side of the business is how we approach fresh food in those stores,” he said. “I think the convenience store is evolving, just as the drug store is evolving. We see more of a 6,500-sq.-ft. format coming, with a lot of take-home meals and fresh-prepared produce. A customer can come in and take home a good-quality meal from a convenience store. It’s not just about snacks. It’s evolving, and people are sourcing meals from a lot of different places today.” As for the Hy-Vee supermarket chain, Edeker predicted even more growth for the company over the next five years, with a big focus on the affluent yet extremely competitive Minneapolis/ St. Paul, Minn., area. Hy-Vee entered the region three years ago, and already operates nine stores in the area. The newest store opened in Robbinsdale, Minn., in mid-September, and four more stores are slated to open in the area over the next year. In existing stores, the company is placing a much larger emphasis on its fresh departments and its cosmetics and overall beauty sections — areas in which consumers demand specific products and assortments. “If you look at current lifestyles, and look at the statistics, they show that the consumer wants more choices in the cosmetics and beauty areas,” he said. “Especially the younger consumers, and they are driving real growth in this category.” The center store will still remain a priority, though Hy-Vee executives said they want to take specific steps to maximize sales from the department. “One of the things we are focused on in this next year is how do you create ‘islands of interest’ in the center of the store — things that differentiate us from the competition,” Edeker said. “Center store is still hugely important, and still really crucial to our success. So, we are looking at how to create interest in the center store, whether that might be going a little bit more

October 2018 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM

Hy-Vee’s pharmacists work hand-in-hand with its in-store registered dietitians to provide health and nutrition counseling for patients, said Kristin Williams, senior vice president and chief health officer at Hy-Vee, who has oversees the company’s health-and-wellness components and pharmacy operations. “If someone is newly diagnosed, we might be one of the first people to see them after they come from their provider’s office,” she said. “We can schedule a consultation with the dietitian, and their offices are right next to the pharmacy in that shared space. They are a cohesive team.” If Hy-Vee has its way, the individualized service that the company is known for in its pharmacies will become even more personalized before too long. Hy-Vee is looking closely at opportunities to be on the cutting edge of pharmacogenomics, the emerging area of treatment in which medications are tailored to individual genetic makeup. “We are excited about all possible future endeavors that deal with personalized medicine,” Williams said. In the meantime, Hy-Vee is dealing with many of the same challenges facing the overall drug store industry. Communicating the value of pharmacy remains one of the biggest pharmacy-related issues, Williams said. All casts in the supply chain, from health plans, pharmacy benefit managers, distributors, manufacturers and pharmacies, collectively work to provide services that enhance patients’ lives through treatment, mitigation or prevention, she said. Numerous state and national pharmacy associations are helping to communicate the role pharmacists play in promoting health and wellness, and reducing medical costs. One mutual goal is to have pharmacists recognized as providers, Williams said. Hy-Vee is active in state and national pharmacy legislative and regulatory arenas. It has elevated its regulatory and legislative activity since the company’s chairman, CEO and president Randy Edeker joined the NACDS executive committee and was the organization’s past chairman. Hy-Vee seeks to have its pharmacists practice “at the top of their license,” Williams said. Hy-Vee offers point-of-care testing in select Nebraska locations, where pharmacists are able to diagnose patients presenting with the flu or strep throat and dispense medications on-site. “We have expanded our vaccination portfolios and utilize our mobile health units to expand worksite wellness.” Williams, who began working at Hy-Vee at age 14, worked her way up as a pharmacist. She held several pharmacy management roles before she moved into her current position about three years ago. Along the way, she oversaw the opening of the company’s central prescription filling center, which reallocates Hy-Vee pharmacists’ time so they can provide enhanced care to patients. —Mark Hamstra

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DSN’S 2018 RETAILER OF THE YEAR: HY-VEE ‘boutique’ in some areas like candy and elsewhere or expanding areas like pet, and adding new categories in general merchandise.” In the end, Edeker is confident that a combination of great strategies, an agile corporate environment and great people will keep Hy-Vee headed in the right direction for the long term. “I am very confident in the future of the company,” he said. “I think we have a really good strategy, and we have a team that’s all in on this strategy. I think the things we do that make us strong are really how we support the community. We are really the best corporate citizen in any community where we operate, not just in our big cities, but in all of our smaller towns. We are who people come to when they need help solving a problem. If we continue with that philosophy, continue giving back, we will always be relevant.” So what is the key to staying successful? “I think those stores that are going away have lost relevance,” he said. “It is about our people, and it is about our relationship with our customers, and I think we have done a good job of maintaining that, even as things have changed. Things have changed before — different retailers have come and gone, and we just have to stay focused on how to refresh and follow our customers’ lifestyles.” “That’s a common thing that really started with our second CEO Ron Pearson; he always talked about how if we focus on customers’ lifestyles, we’ll always be in a position to take care of them. We’ll be able to give the customers what they want, not what we want to give them. It’s crucial.” dsn

Hy-Vee Structures In-Store Nutrition Tours Around Disease States Hy-Vee, which has been a pioneer in the use of in-store dietitians in supermarkets, recently began rolling out a new dietitian-led store tour program. The effort is focusing on three disease states in particular — diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol. “We decided that we want to make a difference in these three disease states,” said Aaron Wiese, vice president of Hy-Vee’s HealthMarkets and health and wellness strategy. “The reality is, that’s where most of the cost of health care comes from, so we look at what can we do with food to help our customers manage and prevent those diseases.” Hy-Vee is offering one store tour per week in each participating store for each of the disease states, for a total of three tours per week in each store. Dietitians lead interested customers on a predesigned tour in which they are shown how to select products that can help with their specific condition. The company conducted an extensive marketing campaign to launch the program,

October 2018 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM

including email messaging, social media, pointof-sale materials, in-store announcements and a direct mail campaign to people in Hy-Vee’s trade areas. In addition, awareness of the store tours has spread through word-of-mouth and through the dietitians’ own long-standing relationships with the customers in the communities they serve. Wiese said the expanded tours have been a success have attracted new customers. “Consistently, we are seeing more and more customers taking us up on this offer,” Wiese said. “It’s a free chance to walk a grocery store with a registered dietitian and have your questions answered.” Consumers often struggle putting the dietary advice of their doctors into practice, he said, and in-store dietitians can help them form a bridge between a physician’s recommendation to eat less sugar, for example, and the actual selection of products in the store. In addition, shoppers often are the caregivers for others in their households who have disease states and

might not have been present for the patient’s conversation with the doctor. “Sometimes it’s important to get that basic education about how to read a product label,” Wiese said about the guidance the tours offer. “Sometimes it is showing them where that product is or where to shop in the store.” Hy-Vee has long offered diabetes prevention programs in its stores, and even has certified diabetes educators in several of its metro markets, but the new program represents an expansion of the offering. “This is an area where we will continue to innovate and bring more value to our customers through our dietitians,” Wiese said. “The reality that people are starting to understand is that food has a marked impact on overall health. What you put into your body makes a world of difference with regard to how you feel.” The company currently employs 165 dietitians across its 246-store network, with some dietitians covering multiple stores. —Mark Hamstra

DSN’S 2018 RETAILER OF THE YEAR: HY-VEE

Hy-Vee Melds Health, Beauty, Nutrition in New Store First stand-alone Hy-Vee HealthMarket provides a wellness lifestyle destination BY MARK HAMSTRA

he fact that Hy-Vee uses the terms “customer” and “patient” interchangeably says it all. It underscores how food and health go hand in hand throughout the food retailer’s operations, marketing and merchandising. Perhaps nowhere is that more evident than in the company’s new Hy-Vee HealthMarket, a drug store of the future that also serves as a health-focused community grocery store and incorporates an on-site fitness studio. The 18,000-sq.-ft. store — including the 2,800-sq.-ft. Orangetheory Fitness center — based at the company’s headquarters in West Des Moines, Iowa, reflects the ongoing evolution of Hy-Vee as an integral part of the communities it serves.

October 2018 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM

Hy-Vee describes HealthMarket as a “lifestyle” store — a destination built around wall-to-wall health-and-wellness offerings.

New Initiatives

Hy-Vee’s HealthMarket store features several new merchandising initiatives in the pharmacy/healthcare area, including Hy-Vee’s first hearing clinic and its first test of an expanded vitamin and sports nutrition section. The store also contains a diagnostic health clinic — one of roughly 70 that Hy-Vee currently has in its stores — located adjacent to the pharmacy and staffed by clinical nurses, who can perform a range of tests and screenings and offer such services as vaccinations.

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DSN’S 2018 RETAILER OF THE YEAR: HY-VEE

Both the hearing clinic, which offers free diagnostic testing, and the expanded departments are being considered for expansion into traditional Hy-Vee supermarkets. For Hy-Vee, the standalone HealthMarket store — which there are currently 179 of the store-within-a-store HealthMarket departments across the company’s traditional supermarket base — reflects the cutting edge of its health-and-wellness merchandising strategy. “You will see a lot of things as we expand the HealthMarket store concept mirrored in our HealthMarket departments in the store, as well,” said Aaron Wiese, vice president of HealthMarkets and health and wellness strategy at Hy-Vee. “We are excited about the breadth of product in the HealthMarket store,” he said, noting that it has become a destination for consumers seeking to live a healthy lifestyle. “With the increased square footage, we are able to bring a lot more variety. There’s so much innovation and excitement right now in this area in terms of product development. We’re curating and developing the merchandising plan around new categories and emerging pieces.” Located in a moderately upscale area that includes a mix of residential and office buildings, the HealthMarket draws a mix of shoppers throughout the day, store director Matt Pertzborn said on a recent store tour with Drug Store News. The store attracts shoppers seeking refreshments after a workout at Orangetheory

October 2018 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM

Fitness; local residents conducting grocery, health care and beauty care shopping; and office workers picking up items to bring home at the end of the day, he said. The freestanding HealthMarket design provides the opportunity for Orangetheory Fitness customers to come into the store after a workout. The fitness center, which can be accessed directly through the store, is located near the HealthMarket’s expanded VMS area and across from a beverage bar offering cold-brewed coffee on tap, flavored waters and several varieties of kombucha, all available by the glass or to take home in growlers. “We are excited to look at how we can expand our partnership with Orangetheory Fitness and reach more customers, while we help them meet their overall health-and-wellness goals,” Wiese said. To that end, the HealthMarket in-store dietitian works directly with the customers of Orangetheory Fitness to help them with any dietary concerns they may have. “It’s an added benefit for the customers who are working out there,” Wiese said.

Holistic View of Wellness

Partnering with Orangetheory Fitness reflects the company’s approach to health and wellness, Wiese said. “We’ve always done food really well, in terms of looking out for

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DSN’S 2018 RETAILER OF THE YEAR: HY-VEE The ready-made meals, prepared at local full-sized Hy-Vee supermarkets and delivered to the HealthMarket daily, include another first for the chain — meals that are specifically developed to meet the needs of customers with dietary restrictions, including offerings that are diabetic-friendly and heart healthy. The meals have been a tremendous success, Wiese said. The prepared meals section had to be restocked several times on the store’s first day of operation, he said, and customers have been requesting even more varieties in the assortment, including meals that are designed for those on vegan or paleo diets. Many of the products and concepts the company has tested at the freestanding HealthMarket are being considered for expansion at the company’s traditional supermarket locations, such as the expanded kombucha bar. “That has been a surprise hit for us in that store,” said Wiese, who noted that several traditional Hy-Vee locations currently feature kombucha on a single tap. “There are all kinds of exciting things we are looking at expanding based on this initial run here in West Des Moines.”

Blending in Beauty

the health and wellness of the customer, but it’s really about balance,” he said. “You can’t out-exercise a bad diet, and you can’t just eat your way to health. “So, for us the integration of our HealthMarket food offerings, our dietitians in the stores, our pharmacies, our clinics and partnering with a brand like Orangetheory Fitness — it is about giving our customers a convenient offering,” Wiese said. “You have a captive audience who cares about their health.” The grocery department also ties into the overall theme of wellness in the store, with a large selection of natural, organic and better-for-you options. While the store carries a limited range of conventional grocery offerings, and lacks such service departments as a bakery and deli, the emphasis definitely is on the healthier and better-for-you products. Bulk foods are featured prominently and are located near the Orangetheory Fitness studio. Nearly every endcap in the grocery area features displays of healthy items, organic options and similar fare, and products throughout the store are called out with signage labeled “Dietitian’s Choice.” In the produce area, for example, a “Dietitian’s Choice” sign suggested pairing an apple with Justin’s Nut Butter “for a post-workout snack.” Along one wall of the store is a row of refrigerated reach-in cases, featuring heat-and-eat meals, as well as some Hy-Vee Mealtime meal kits that require some at-home preparation and are ready in about 30 minutes.

October 2018 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM

The store’s focus on wellness comes alongside a strong emphasis on beauty. Hy-Vee’s partnership with the Basin brand of bath and body care products is literally front and center in the HealthMarket, greeting customers at the main entrance with its signature colorful glass tube of bubbles. “I think it all goes hand in hand,” Pertzborn said. “When you feel good about yourself, you are more likely to do things that are healthy for your body, and when you eat healthy, you feel good about yourself.” The large beauty department at the HealthMarket store is comparable in size and assortment to the expanded beauty departments found at Hy-Vee’s newest large-format supermarkets. All nine of the company’s stores in the Minneapolis market — an area where Hy-Vee has been growing rapidly in recent years — include the expanded beauty assortment. In addition to the large, brightly lit displays of Basin’s assortment of natural and organic soaps, bath bombs and other items, the beauty section also includes dedicated shelving for national-brand cosmetics, a professional hair care section and high-end fragrances. The section also offers a blend of both high-end and everyday beauty offerings, and includes service counters and dedicated employees with beauty care expertise. Hy-Vee strives to have its employees interact with customers throughout the store as much as possible, including in the beauty department, Pertzborn said. The company is planning to open two more HealthMarket locations in 2019, one in the Kansas City, Kan., area, and another in the Madison, Wis., market. Both will be about 5,000 sq. ft. larger than the original freestanding HealthMarket in West Des Moines, said Randy Edeker, chairman, CEO and president of Hy-Vee, and will incorporate more grocery offerings. “We started out with a small size, but we believe we could easily evolve this into a 20,000- to 25,000-sq.-ft. store,” he said. “We could eventually have 50 of these in the right markets.” dsn

PHARMACY | GENERICS ROUNDTABLE

Up ANDA Way Generics execs size up the challenges ahead By Sandra Levy

Andy Boyer

John Dillaway

Jennifer Colvin

Armando Kellum

Executive vice president of commercial operations â&#x20AC;&#x201C; generics, Amneal

Executive vice president, Ascend Labs

Vice president of marketing, corporate communications and commercial analytics, Upsher-Smith

Vice president of sales and marketing, Alembic Pharmaceuticals

s with the rest of the pharmacy business, the generics category has been changing â&#x20AC;&#x201D; particularly as the Food and Drug Administration pursues its plan to speed up the approval process to drive competition. As a result, generics makers are having to adapt to a new marketplace alongside their efforts to deliver on patient needs and developing products that will have an impact. Drug Store News assembled a virtual roundtable of executives from generics companies to discuss the state of the industry and the challenges ahead, and how their companies plan to tackle them.

Drug Store News: Can you outline the challenges that generic companies are currently facing? Andy Boyer: Among the challenges is significant price erosion, leading to

October 2018 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM

discontinuation of inline products and reduction in pipeline development of traditional products that may have had value in the past. Also, reduced commercialization of product approvals that were anticipated to be of value when development began in prior years, and the unpredictability of NPL approvals.

John Dillaway: There are many challenges that generic manufacturers face in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s market. In no particular order, these include: the increasing costs and availability of Key Starting Materials used to produce APIs, the overall availability of API, and the resulting increase of costs in finished goods. Additional challenges include the high level of competition prevalent on each molecule, resulting in very low margins, an increasing regulatory environment, and an increasing number of social initiatives that are looking to all pharma companies to

fund. These include returns programs, opioid programs and others.

Jennifer Colvin: Generic companies are facing challenging market conditions and an increase in competition. In 2017, the Food and Drug Administration approved a record number of abbreviated new drug applications. While this is positive news in terms of overall activity, it also means that the U.S. market is growing even more competitive, with continued downward pressure on pricing, though we are starting to see some signs of price stabilization. As a result of this pricing pressure, some generics may not be able to stay on the market.

Armando Kellum: There are many challenges, including maintaining the highquality standards mandated by Food and Drug Administration and other regulatory agencies, a very competitive environment and a shrinking base of customers.

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PHARMACY | GENERICS ROUNDTABLE DSN: As the market becomes more complex, how can generic companies adapt and change in order to survive? Kellum: As the market becomes more complex and fluid, it is very important to keep the basics of the business in mind, with a focus on the ultimate customer, the patient. This means ensuring that quality of product is always most important, constantly working to insure a strong supply chain and service level to wholesalers, pharmacies and, ultimately, patients who depend on the product. This may be “back to the basics,” but we believe generic companies that lose sight of these very basic tenets of the business will not do well in the long run.

Boyer: Companies can adapt, in part, by continuing to invest in higher-barrier R&D projects that reduce the cost of health care and still allow a generic company to make a fair margin and generate cash flow to continue to invest in R&D. They also can pursue the right size of manufacturing capacity to market needs where there is still product value. Additionally, they can discontinue products that drain quality, regulatory, manufacturing and commercial resources that no longer have profitability.

Dillaway: Companies will need to become stronger in producing products that are less likely to have so many competitors. Just as hospitals and medicine are becoming more specialized in urban areas, where one hospital will specialize in cardiac treatments and another orthopedic care, generic companies may need to do the same by specializing in different therapeutic categories. The investment costs to develop and produce the same items being developed and produced by a dozen other companies will not be cost effective longer term.

Colvin: In order to thrive in today’s market, generic companies need to find ways to continuously adapt to an evolving competitive and regulatory environment. One way is to develop and commercialize generic drugs faster and at a lower cost. At the same time, it also is critically important that we consistently deliver high-quality pharmaceutical products that meet patients’ needs.

October 2018 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM

In addition to focusing on these important priorities, we remain committed to supporting programs and initiatives that help add value and create a sense of community between our company, pharmacies and the people who rely on our therapies. UpsherSmith has a long history of working with independent and community pharmacists, and is proud to sponsor awards annually recognizing leaders in the field.

Colvin: There are a number of factors that we take into account, such as the overall competitive landscape; return on investment; is there a clear pathway to establish bioequivalence; the complexity of manufacturing required; availability of API; and access to the reference listed drug.

Kellum: This really depends on the techni-

DSN: How do you analyze the level of risk in developing generics? Boyer: Every company must evaluate based

cal nature of the product and any legal and/ or regulatory hurdles that may exist. There is not a simple answer, but the risk may lie in any of these categories when reviewing a product launch.

upon capabilities. Most important are legal, regulatory and operational risks followed by anticipated commercial market at the time of launch.

DSN: What are the opportunities and roadblocks for the generics industry? Colvin: Because of increasing competition

Dillaway: Many factors come into play, including the scientific expertise of a company, the potential for failure versus the cost to move ahead, and the complexity of the molecule, which may dictate the volume of competitors.

and downward pressure on pricing, some manufacturers have begun to reduce production capacity, remove products from the market, and close plants. This leaves other players better positioned within the industry. The FDA has committed to reducing the time it takes for a new generic drug to gain

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PHARMACY | GENERICS ROUNDTABLE approval. Companies with a high number of expected ANDAs will benefit from this new opportunity to get generics to market more quickly. The spirit at the FDA to approve more complex generics also is improving. Finally, in the current administration’s “Blueprint to Lower Drug Prices and Reduce Out-of-Pocket Costs” that was released in May, patients, generic companies and PBMs with transparent models that provide rebates and negotiated discounts back to plan sponsors stand to benefit, while branded/ specialty pharma companies and traditional PBMs will be impacted negatively.

Boyer: Uncertainty is our biggest challenge. FDA, government regulations and marketplace dynamics are forcing companies to reevaluate risk tolerance and make very different decisions than we have in the past. Net impact will not be known for several years, but we are likely to see more product approvals, but less product launches.

Dillaway: With many companies exiting older molecules due to high competition and low prices, these molecules may be opportunities for other companies, while the consolidation that has occurred in the wholesale and retail markets threaten to be potential roadblocks as so much market share is consolidated into very few customers.

Kellum: With an aging population, there will continue to be a greater need for lower-cost alternatives for patients, which represents an opportunity for generic companies. The increasing size of some customer-buying groups can present a challenge for any single manufacturer to supply consistently.

DSN: Are biosimilars the way forward? Kellum: Biosimilars should be hugely important and beneficial to patients. The market still is in its early stages. For Alembic, biosimilars are not our current focus, and we believe there will be strong demand for traditional medications, as well, which serve a very important role for health care in the United States.

Boyer: The biosimilars market is going to be a market that’s going to open up, but it

October 2018 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM

will take some time. It needs to be attached to a generics business because it’s going to be competitive. Product selection will be important, while leveraging sales, marketing and R&D capabilities.

Colvin: Biosimilars clearly have the potential to offer safe and effective treatment at a lower cost than a reference biologic. But despite great anticipation, biosimilars have seen relatively slow growth in the U.S. market. As of July 2018, 12 biosimilars have been approved by the FDA, yet only four have entered the market.

Dillaway: Maybe, but it may be too soon to say. Very few of these have come to market, and the regulatory environment is still developing, and the financial resources needed to enter is very high.

DSN: What does the future hold, in terms of product launches and other factors? Dillaway: In the near term, things should remain fairly status quo; companies already have made investments in pipelines of products that most likely will launch. At the end of the day however, all of these generic companies need to be profitable like any other business in order to continue as a going concern. The way companies respond

to and change with the increasing complexity of the business will dictate their survival.

Colvin: Succeeding in the U.S. environment will require Upsher-Smith to diversify its product portfolio, and to launch even more products at a faster pace. For this reason, we continue to invest in our portfolio and plan to launch a number of products in 2018, and even more in 2019. We are committed to significantly increasing our pipeline of products to include new dosage forms, as well as more traditional and specialty products. Today, we are pleased to have a development portfolio with more products than ever before, and a pipeline that includes a diversity of dosage forms.

Boyer: As noted above, there will be challenges to overcome due to more competitor approvals and pricing dynamics.

Kellum: Product launches will continue to be a focus for generic companies including ourselves. One big question that many people are asking is “How will the marketplace evolve? Will there be more of a direct-to-consumer model that disrupts the current business model?” This will be interesting as we move forward in the future. dsn

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PHARMACY | NEWS

Alembic Gets FDA Nod for Generic Pristiq Alembic Pharmaceuticals has received the Food and Drug Administration’s blessing for desvenlafaxine extended-release tablets in a 25-mg dosage strength.

The product, which is the generic of Wyeth Pharma’s Pristiq extended-release tablets 25 mg, is indicated for the treatment of major depressive disorder, or MDD. Desvenlafaxine extended-release tablets had a market value of approximately $13.3 million for the 12 months ended December 2017, according to IQVIA.

Health Mart Launches National ‘Power Your Partnerships’ Series Health Mart is offering independent

pharmacies some practical advice for creating and maintaining prescriber relationships through its sixth annual Town Hall and continuing education series, titled Power Your Partnerships.

The pharmacist-led series will share with pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and pharmacy owners the tools to develop patient and prescriber relationships that strengthen their pharmacy’s impact. Health Mart will host more than 80 events across the country through early 2019. The Power Your Partnerships event features one of 19 successful Health Mart owners leading an interactive CE session, outlining collaboration benefits and discussing the influence independent pharmacies can have on prescriber performance measures. Pharmacist facilitators will share ideas for developing a clear communication strategy, including how to access prescribers, how to determine their needs and anticipate questions. Attendees will receive a 30-day action plan with next steps and resources to successfully create and maintain prescriber relationships that drive results in their pharmacy,

October 2018 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM

Health Mart said. “For independent pharmacists looking to grow their business, the Power Your Partnerships event provides key knowledge and resources to hit the ground running with prescriber partnerships. As the shift to true performance-based reimbursement accelerates, more patients are in these advanced payment programs,” John Gregg, COO at Thrive Pharmacy Solutions and Power Your Partnerships instructor, said. opportunity for independent pharmacists.” Heather Ferrarese, Bartle’s Pharmacy owner, class facilitator and 2018 McKesson Pharmacy of the Year winner, said. “Town Hall meetings are a great way to network with your peers to help find solutions to problems and stay current with the latest trends.”

Teva’s Ajovy for Migraine Gets FDA Green Light Teva Pharmaceutical Industries has received clearance from the Food and Drug Administration for Ajovy, (fremanezumab-vfrm) injection for the

preventive treatment of migraine in adults. “Migraine is a disabling neurological disease that affects more than 36 million people in the United States,” said Stephen Silberstein, Jefferson Headache Center director at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and lead investigator of Phase III clinical trial program for Ajovy. “About 40% of people living with migraine may be appropriate candidates for preventive treatment, yet the majority of them are untreated. I am pleased to have another treatment option that may allow my patients to experience fewer monthly migraine days.” Ajovy is a humanized monoclonal antibody that Teva said works by binding to calcitonin gene-related peptide, or CGRP, ligand and blocks it from binding to the receptor. It’s the first and only anti-CGRP treatment for migraine prevention with quarterly 675-mg, and monthly 225-mg dosing options, according to the company. “Today’s approval is an important step forward for Teva and the migraine community,” added Brendan O’Grady, who is Teva’s executive vice president and head of North America commercial. “Our entire organization is proud to bring this new biologic product forward at a responsible price, and we are eager to work with insurers to encourage coverage that provides full access and availability in this much-needed category.”

HEALTH | DIAGNOSTICS

Testing the Waters Diagnostics can help consumers gain control of their health, and help retailers boost traffic By Nora Caley

onvenience is still king — even when it comes to diagnostics. Consumers now want to be able to take diagnostic tests at home or at their local pharmacy, and they want to interpret the results without having to make an appointment at their physician’s office. Innovation has made it easier than ever to test blood glucose, blood pressure, ovulation, hearing loss and other health metrics. Recent innovations also offer retailers the opportunity to play a larger role in helping consumers improve and maintain their health. Diabetes care is the prime example of consumers being able to take their own tests, as blood glucose monitoring has long been possible at home. “Certainly, self-care is emerging as a trend, and for people with diabetes that’s always been there,” said Robert Schumm, head of region Americas at the global company Ascensia Diabetes Care. “You need to be managing your condition on a day-today basis, so blood glucose monitoring is ahead of that curve because there is an urgent need to have tools to be able to manage your health.” Switzerland-based Ascensia, which has U.S. operations in Parsippany, N.J., earlier this year launched the latest version of its Contour Diabetes app. The app uses algorithms to analyze blood glucose results received from the Contour Next One meter, and delivers personalized feedback to patients. The meter and app can alert the user of suboptimal trends in bloodsugar levels, so the person can take action. “Our product is designed to give patients

October 2018 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM

the information they need, the motivation and the behavioral skills required to manage their diabetes effectively,” Schumm said. “These are things we can provide with the app.” Pharmacy retailers are playing a key role by integrating their apps with the Contour app. Doing so helps start a dialog with consumers to remind them to get medications and supplies, and help them better manage their diabetes. That gives consumers more ways to engage with pharmacists and others in-store. In the future, Schumm said, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things will contribute to more innovation and more feedback related to diagnostics and improved behaviors. “We are able to fine tune the way you provide that feedback,” Schumm said. “I think that the result will be a more personal type of feedback and more effective behavioral changes, and eventually being able to have better glycemic control.” That has implications for other health categories, too. “The more data you have, the better feedback loop you have, the more able you are to get better results for patients,” he said. “You’ll see in the future more combination of different features being able to support lifestyle changes, medication management and more.” Others agree that diabetesrelated product innovation is one of the drivers of growth in the diagnostics space. “The state of the category is one of rapid innovation designed to empower people with diabetes to manage their condition better than ever before,” said Rick Doubleday, chief commercial officer at San

Diego-based Dexcom, which makes continuous glucose monitoring, or CGM, systems. “All of this new technology is delivering improved outcomes and quality of life.” Insurance coverage also has helped spur growth. “Medicare coverage, in particular, has given much-needed access to the category,” Doubleday said. “We have also seen an increase in demand for our Dexcom G6 from both new customers and those who have trusted our products for years.” The Dexcom G6 is a continuous glucose monitoring system that gives users real-time glucose readings on their smart device.

Reaching Baby Boomers

Though offering solutions to patients with diabetes remains a cornerstone of diagnostics offerings, other areas are seeing growth. In particular, the aging population is driving demand for other diagnostics — especially

HEALTH | DIAGNOSTICS hearing, which offers a big opportunity for suppliers. “Baby boomers spend the most on self-care and health care,” said John Luna, CEO of San Leandro, Calif.based iHEAR Medical, which makes the iHEARtest. “They are active, they are fairly young, they like to do things themselves, and they are not averse to new technology.” The company said the iHEARtest is an FDA-cleared home hearing screener that helps the user profile their hearing ability. The consumer plugs the USB into a personal computer and listens through the calibrated headphones to come up with a hearing number based on the World Health Organization’s grades of hearing impairment. There are five tests per kit, so one person can take five tests over time or five people in the household can take a test. “They can at least get the screening in the privacy of their own home and move to the next steps, which can be going to the specialist, or it can be over-the-counter,” Luna said. The company also offers the TReO, a hearing amplifier for OTC sales. Both products launched this summer. Retailers can merchandise the iHEARtest and the TReO amplifier adjacent to batteries for hearing aids, other ear products such as ear wax cleaners or diabetes-related items, Luna said. According to the American

October 2018 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM

Diabetes Association, hearing loss is twice as common in people with diabetes than people who do not have diabetes. “The future of the category is growing overall, and this is all consumer-driven,” Luna said. “I think more and more pharmacies and drug stores are seeing how this can build their business.”

fit into their lives, so we would expect the connectivity trend in the ovulation category to continue,” Clancy said. “As women continue to plan their pregnancies carefully and have babies later in life, when they are naturally less fertile, they will look to tools like Clearblue Connected Ovulation Test System to help them conceive.”

Ovulation Test and an App

Diagnostics In Store

Younger consumers also are seeking at-home tests. Another consumer-driven segment is the ovulation test category. Last year, Procter & Gamble launched the Clearblue Connected Ovulation Test System, which pairs the accuracy of the Clearblue Ovulation Test with the convenience of an app. With the new product, digital results automatically sync to the user’s smartphone via Bluetooth technology, and the user can set personalized reminders of when to test. The new test answers certain consumer demands. For example, women want to have all their fertility information with them at all times of the day on their phone, said Fiona Clancy, Clearblue scientific and medical affairs director. “Clearblue now offers tests that measure two hormones to provide twice the number of days to try and conceive, as well as connected technology that transfers the fertility information to an app on the woman’s smartphone,” Clancy said, noting that it allows easy sharing with a partner or healthcare professional. Clancy said the at-home ovulation test category has grown over the past four years despite a declining birth rate in the United States. More innovation in the category is likely. “Women want more information about their fertility and want it to

Though convenience and the ability to take tests at home are big draws for consumers, there also is a market for in-store self-service diagnostics. Chicago-based higi provides self-screening stations that measure blood pressure, pulse, weight and other metrics at grocery, drug and club stores. They also allow for easy sharing of health data. “We think the retail location is the perfect location, where consumers can be reached,” said higi CEO Jeff Bennett. “You can engage them and drive actions. One drug store chain partnered with higi for a smoking cessation program. Consumers checked their blood pressure and were informed about how smoking affects their blood pressure. At the end of the program, store revenue in nicotine replacement products and other smoking cessation items was three times what it had been previously. “It got people into a cessation program and made them stickier customers,” Bennett said. He also said that retailers are well suited to provide these programs. “The leaders are innovating and building chronic condition programs,” Bennett said. “They will make the retail pharmacy more than a place where you get flu shots or medication therapy management.” dsn

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HEALTH | NEWS

Garden of Life, Alicia Silverstone Launch mykind Organics Herbals Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.-based Garden of Life partnered with actress, best-selling author and health advocate Alicia Silverstone to co-create a line of herbal supplements that are Certified USDA Organic, Non-GMO Project Verified, and gluten-free and vegan. Mykind Organics Herbals,

supplements created without harsh toxic pesticides, herbicides or fungicides, use an extraction method that ensures desired potency in each formula. The mykind Organics Herbals line features 16 supplements in tablets, powders, sprays, liquids and gummies. The suite of products includes: Turmeric Pain Relief; Maximum Strength Turmeric Joints and Mobility; two-month and four-month supply of Extra Strength Turmeric Inflammatory Response; Fermented Organic Turmeric Boost Inflammatory Response; Turmeric Inflammatory Response Gummy; Golden Milk Powder Recovery & Nourishment; Adrenal Daily Balance; Ashwagandha Stress & Mood; Elderberry Immune Syrup; and Elderberry Immune Gummyk, among others.

Deloitte: Wearables Drive Consumer Health Engagement The number of U.S. consumers tracking their health data with wearables has more than doubled since 2013, and they also are becoming more engaged in their own health care through use of technology and data sharing solutions, according to new research from the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions.

The Deloitte 2018 Survey of U.S. Health Care Consumers surveyed 4,530 U.S. adults and found that roughly one-third of consumers said they are interested in using digital tools, apps and at-home diagnostic tests for identifying symptoms and for health coaching.

Stork Ib2C Survey Finds Need for Fertility Alternatives A survey conducted last year by the Stork Ib2C uncovered some misconceptions about conception. The Stork is an OTC conception device from Rinovum Women’s Health.

Women surveyed said they were interested in natural ways to improve fertility, including tracking their ovulation with either an app or test kit (62%), making changes to their diet and exercise (60%), and taking vitamins (40%). The Stork is a low-cost option that involves no shots, scans or prescriptions, the company said. The device, which provides users a way to keep a higher sperm score concentration at the cervix than

October 2018 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM

natural intercourse through cervical cap insemination, is approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Women and couples are seeking simple, affordable solutions when having difficulty conceiving, according to Stephen Bollinger, CEO of Rinovum, who noted that consumers are taking a proactive role in reproductive health.“The rising costs of health care and lifestyle trends of couples today are contributors to the growing category,” he said. “Couples seek out diagnostic and treatment options that they can use in the privacy of their home, and at a fraction of the cost compared to clinical procedures that many simply cannot afford.”

About half, 51% of respondents, were comfortable using an at-home test to diagnose infections before seeing a doctor. More than 35% of respondents said they are interested in using a virtual assistant to identify symptoms and direct them to a caregiver. A similar amount (31%) are interested in connecting with a live health coach that offers 24/7 text messaging for nutrition, exercise, sleep and stress management. The study also found that 60% of consumers said they are willing to share personal health data from devices with their doctor to improve their health. Of those who used wearables in the past year, 73% said they used them consistently, which the report noted runs counter to past studies that showed that fitness devices had a high rate of abandonment.

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GETTING COZY WITH DEODORANTS Can retailers manage the expanding category? Deodorants P. 62 News P. 66

DRUGSTORENEWS.COM October 2018

DEODORANT

Smells Like Success Ingredients, innovation and sustainability are top-of-mind for deodorant shoppers By Sandra Levy

etting consumers to buy deodorant solely on claims about wetness protection and odor control is, well, the pits. The deodorant category has not been spared from the trend that has roiled other segments, namely consumers gravitating toward products that contain natural and organic ingredients, as well as a variety of scents that are naturally sourced and considered therapeutic. If that’s not enough, many consumers also are insisting that manufacturers take steps to protect the environment with environmentally friendly packaging. Companies looking to tap into this market — which market research firm IRI said totaled $3 billion for the year ended Aug. 12 —are focusing their efforts on addressing consumer desires around ingredients, scents and delivery methods, as well as an environmental focus.

What’s Inside?

One company taking a lead in the natural arena with its line of deodorants is Austin, Texas-based Lafe’s Natural BodyCare. CEO Lafe Larson said that of particular consumer focus are ingredients, with shoppers growing increasingly wary of such category mainstays as propylene glycol, aluminum zirconium and aluminum chlorohydrate, as well as baking soda. According to Emily O’Neill, marketing manager at Amityville, N.Y.-based Sundial Brands’ Nubian Heritage brand, this ingredients focus is fueling shoppers’ quest for more natural alternatives. “Consumers are trying to avoid certain chemicals and ingredients. Everyone is taking a closer look at all of the products they use every day,” she said. “Given that there are a lot of health concerns surrounding breast cancer in woman and the chemicals in cosmetics, a lot of people are discovering

October 2018 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM

natural deodorants that use natural ingredients to fight bacteria as opposed to stopping the body from sweating.” Michael Cammarata, co-founder and CEO of Portland, Ore.-based Schmidt’s, said the natural products are especially important to younger consumers. “Natural deodorants are becoming mainstream for the first time, and the trend is definitely led by millennials and Gen Z entering the market. They are focusing on ingredients, transparency and vegan and cruelty-free products,” he said. Kennebunk, Maine-based Tom’s of Maine also is seeing the natural trend in deodorants gain momentum with customers. “We’re seeing an ever-increasing desire for more transparency in all of personal care, particularly in deodorants,” Tom’s of Maine associate marketing director Matt Smith said. Manufacturers also are offering scents that are naturally derived and free of chemicals. Many also boast that they are vegan and cruelty-free, meaning they are not tested on animals.

Passing the Sniff Test

For many manufacturers, ingredients and the scent that deodorants offer go hand in hand. Lafe’s Soothe lavender-scented deodorant, for example, uses certifiedorganic lavender essential oils. The company’s Bliss, a rose-scented deodorant, is derived from a rose flower oil. Similarly, Marin County, Calif.-based EO Products’ Everyone Natural Deodorant, available in a 4-oz. spray bottle in Tea Tree + Lavender and Lemon + Lavender scents, is focused on ingredients. “Each deodorant is formulated with water, alcohol, 100% pure essential oils and ethanol, derived from sugar cane to naturally fight against odor-causing bacteria,” said Susan GriffinBlack, co-founder and CEO of EO Products.

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DEODORANT Lafe’s and Eo Products’ focus on the ingredients that give its products scent are just two examples of the efforts that manufacturers are undertaking to ensure their products deliver on how consumers want to smell — with a diminished focus on masculine versus feminine scents. This past summer, Schmidt’s unveiled a new scent called Wave. According to Cammarata, Schmidt’s consumers are taking a unisex approach to the company’s scents. “Males and females are using our rose vanilla, bergamot lime and charcoal magnesium. We’ don’t see a barrier. The scents have become unisex,” Cammarata said. French Transit also is seeing males and females embracing the same deodorant products. The company’s chamomile and green tea, and unscented deodorants are examples, according to Catie Wiggy, director of product innovation at the Louisville, Colo.-based company. Wiggy said the company in 2019 will introduce two genderneutral fragrances, a fresh mint scent and a mountain fresh scent. Manufacturers also are reporting an increase in men using scented-deodorant sprays. Noting that Lafe’s deodorant sticks still drive the category, Larsen said Lafe’s water-based pump sprays are becoming popular among men who are feeling more comfortable spraying products on their body. “Over the last decade, men have been taught it’s okay to go to the spa and take care of their skin. We’re seeing more demand for sprays,” he said.

October 2018 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM

Deodorant Delivery

How deodorant is delivered is just one of the ways manufacturers are looking to deliver on consumer demand. As it happens, consumers are no longer loyal to one product they use for all occasions. “People are playing around with different types of antiperspirants and deodorants, and they’re using different products depending on what they’re doing that day, or what type of mood they are in,” said Dawn Hedgepeth, general manager and vice president of Unilever deodorants, men’s grooming and hand and body lotion. “Almost half of consumers are applying deodorant multiple times a day. We are seeing changes in consumer occasions and habits influencing product choices.” Last year, in its aerosol antiperspirant dry spray format, Hedgepeth said Unilever introduced a new platform that ensures no white marks or yellow stains. “We’ve seen a lot of traction with consumers responding well to products that provide better delivery and no white marks or stains on their clothing,” she said. Deodorant wipes and creams are two additional deodorant formulations that are finding their way onto retailer’s shelves. EO Products has introduced Certified Organic Deodorant Wipes Tea Tree and Lavender, and EO Deodorant Creams, which control odor with plant-based ingredients. The cream deodorant is available in

lavender, citrus sage and geranium scents. Crystal deodorants have been available for several decades, but as consumers embrace natural products, they are becoming more popular, and the actual crystal rock, which is made from potassium alum, is being used in more formulations. This year, French Transit unveiled Invisible Solid Mineral deodorant in a clear-stick format. The deodorant contains natural botanicals and provides crystal protection. French Transit’s ammonium alum, a large round stone that is sold in a bag, comes with a dish to place the rock on. Lafe has been offering crystals for 20 years, and Larsen said, “We’ve taken the natural-occurring mineral salts that are so effective in crystal and using it in our roll-ons and spray as a primary antibacterial agent. It washes off when you take a shower so it’s not absorbed in your body.”

Environmentally Friendly

As they consider the impact of their personal care products on their bodies, consumers also are asking the companies they buy from to focus on the impact of their products on the environment, looking closely at a deodorant’s brand’s stance when it comes to sustainability. Unilever recently unveiled Love Beauty and Planet, a line of deodorant sticks made of plant-based deodorizers that are designed to offer 24-hour odor protection. “Each scent is infused with an ethically sourced oil or extract,” Hedgepeth said. “Our deodorant canisters are made from 43% recycled plastic, and the packaging is recyclable” Tom’s of Maine officials said that it has adopted a stewardship model for natural, sustainable and responsible ingredients used in its deodorants that includes never using petroleum-derived, artificial fragrances or preservatives, parabens and silicones. “We reformulated from lichen to hops in our deodorants when we learned lichen was not being harvested in a sustainable way and was putting these organisms at risk,” Tom’s of Maine’s Smith said. We are constantly challenging ourselves to improve the sustainability of what’s inside our products for the good of our customers and our planet.” dsn

NEWS

No7 Unveils Targeted Skin Care Solutions Line No7 has debuted the first products in its No7 Laboratories line

of targeted skin care solutions. The new No7 Laboratories Line Correcting Booster Serum

looks to reduce the appearance of wrinkles by up to five years in as little as 12 weeks, according to a clinical study the company conducted on 31 women. “No7 Laboratories Line Correcting Booster Serum is the first innovation launched under the No7 Laboratories brand, a new type of skin care, benefiting from No7 deep expertise, that pushes the boundaries of efficacy to deliver results that rival professional grade treatments,” Hilary Hutcheson, U.S. senior marketing director at No7, said. “We’re thrilled to introduce this

ground-breaking innovation in the U.S. This new serum generated a 17,000-person wait list when it launched in the U.K., and we anticipate similar excitement here in the United States.” Containing the brand’s most concentrated age-defying solution, the product also features No7’s anti-wrinkle peptide technology and higher concentrations of matrixyl 3000 plus, which helps skin recover such components as elastic fibrillin, the company said. The serum retails for $41.99 and will be available exclusively on Walgreens’ website in October before hitting the retailer’s shelves on Nov. 4. In addition, the serum will hit Target and Ulta Beauty in 2019.

Aquis Debuts New Hair Care System Aquis is diving into another

sector of the hair care category. The San Francisco-based company, known for its fast-drying hair towels, is venturing into the clean hair care system by introducing the new Aquis Prime. The collection looks to support the natural integrity and health of hair, and help prevent hygral fatigue, which is the damage that occurs after tresses get wet and lose strength, the company said. By using its proprietary Aquitex technology, the collection looks to minimize this phenomenon by drying hair 50% faster than natural towels, without damaging friction or excessive heat. Aquis’ Prime system contains: Water Defense Pre-Wash, a pH balancerestoring spray formulated with coconut oil and an amino acid complex; Rebalancing Hair Wash, which cleanses hair without irritating the scalp or weakening tresses further.; the Aquis hair turban, which speed dries hair from wet to damp; Restorative Leave-In Mist that can be applied to partially dried hair before styling; and Restorative Leave-In Conditiomer, which locks in moisture and restores hair to natural pH balance. Aquis Prime retails for $26 to $49, on the Aquis and Sephora websites.

October 2018 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM

Art of Sport Caters to Athletes’ Skin Care Needs Art of Sport is launching with some major star power. The brand, which founder Matthias Metternich said is meant to meet athletes’ skin care needs, features Kobe Bryant as a founding partner, and was

developed with input from other athletes In addition to Bryant, Art of Sport also partnered with 2016 World Series champion Javier Báez, professional surfer Sage Erickson, NBA MVP James Harden, champion motocross and supercross racer Ken Roczen, X-Games gold medalist Ryan Sheckler, and NFL wide receiver Juju Smith-Schuster.

The brand’s complete lineup, which is made without aluminum, parabens, PABA, alcohol, talc, petrolatum or oil, includes a deodorant made with matcha and arrowroot that goes on clear and contains motion-activated odor-blocking technology; an antiperspirant designed not to stain; a 2-in-1 hair and body wash, which contains aloe vera, tea tree oil and roseroot; a body bar containing activated charcoal, shea butter and tea tree oil; and Skin Armor SPF 50 sunscreen lotion that is water-resistant and reef-friendly. All of Art of Sport’s products come in three scents — Compete, Rise and Challenge. Products range from $8.95 to $13.95 and can be found on the company’s website, as well as Amazon.

NEWS

YouCam Makeup, Punky Colour Launch AR-Powered Hair Tutorials For those looking to try out some hairstyles before taking the plunge can do so with the help of the latest collaboration between YouCam Makeup and Punky Colour.

The companies have launched a virtual hair color try-on tool to help shoppers test various semipermanent at-home colors using a smartphone or other devices. “We are excited to integrate the bright range of Punky Colours into the YouCam Makeup app for users to discover, play and shop for at-home hair color in a completely new way,” Perfect CEO Alice Chang said. “This exciting partnership changes the way beauty consumers shop for hair color, and creates a unique and exciting new way for hair color brands like Punky Colours to connect with their target audience and introduce experiential shopping at your fingertips.” Shoppers can test a range of 25 Punky Colour pigments through YouCam’s augmented reality and artificial intelligence technologies. Various SKU’s of Punky Colour’s semipermanent and 3-in-1 Color Depositing shampoo collections in such shades as vibrant turquoise and deep plum are available to try on and purchase online from such retailers as Ulta Beauty and Target.

Old Spice Places Spotlight on Beards with New Collection Procter & Gamble brand Old Spice is

growing its men’s grooming product selection. The brand recently unveiled its Beard Care Collection, its first-ever venture into the space. The product line includes such items as beard oil, balm, conditioner and wash. To help spread the word of its new product line, Old Spice partnered with the NFL’s Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs, who also

E.l.f. Partners with Influencers on Modern Metals Collection E.l.f. is launching a new collection

that was curated with the help of five micro influencers at its Beautyscape event.

After hosting 20 up-and-coming social media influencers in New Orleans, the brand hosted a competition that saw four groups compile presentations to a panel of industry leaders. The winning proposal led to the creation of the Modern Metals line from Leslie Alvarado, Yuri Antillon, Kathy Celeste, Irash Javed and Mia Randria. “Inspired by the metal textures and edgy street styles of New Orleans, the Modern Metals collection brings to life the winning team’s take on the Big Easy,” Tarang Amin, chairman and CEO of e.l.f. Beauty, said. Containing an eyeshadow palette,

October 2018 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM

blush and highlighter palette, liquid matte lipstick, and lip gloss, the collection features shades ranging from luminous and matte to bold and neutral, e.l.f. said. Modern Metals is 100% crueltyfree and vegan. Products range from $6 to $12, and are available for purchase at e.l.f. Cosmetics stores and online. The collection will launch at Ulta Beauty stores in October.

are brothers, to star in a new campaign, titled “The Old Spice Guys’ Grooming Guidance for Guys with Beards.” The Kelce brothers also penned a beard poem book, titled “The Old Spice Guys’ Grooming Guidance Guide for Guys with Beards and Other Poems,” which is available for purchase on Amazon and will have proceeds donated to charity organizations committed to improving men’s health, the company said. The Old Spice Beard Care collection’s full product lineup includes: the Old Spice beard collection grooming kit, which contains oil, balm, conditioner and wash and retails for $49.99. The beard wash, beard conditioner, beard balm and beard oil, are all sold individually as well, with each of the products carrying a suggested retail price of $12.99.

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CONSUMABLES | TOBACCO

Tobacco Road State-of-the-art developments are lighting up tobacco sales By Carol Radice

elling in the tobacco category is not what it used to be. The Food and Drug Administration has adopted regulations that give it oversight and authority over all tobacco products, including vaping products, which puts manufacturers in a sticky position, particularly because the FDA has even asserted that nicotine-free and synthetic (i.e., nontobacco) nicotine products also could be considered tobacco products. Additionally, tobacco companies must now get preapproval before any new products can be introduced. These challenges, category observers said, soon could start to hinder companies’ abilities to innovate in the category given the cost and regulatory burden. Yet in spite of them, manufacturers still are launching new products meant to meet the shifting demands of tobacco consumers as some segments in the category already are seeing slower growth due to the new regulations and declining interest in established products.

Alternatives Thriving

One area faring well is the alternative segment. Wayne Jones, senior vice president of sales and operations at Fontem Ventures, makers of the blu brand based in Charlotte, N.C., pointed out that pod-style devices continue to represent a rapidly growing segment of the U.S. e-vapor market. According to Jones, blu has been working to maximize its offerings with myblu and ensure the brand can continue to provide options that satisfy adult smokers. Since its release in February 2018, myblu has been performing above expectations, Jones said, noting that it has captured 7.4% of market

October 2018 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM

share in its first four months on the market. “During the first month of the myblu trial kit promotion, our kit represented roughly one-third of all retailer kit purchases,” Jones said. In addition to products that use pods, new segments are emerging and generating excitement in the category, including nicotine salt e-liquids. Created with adult smokers and vapers in mind, Fontem recently launched Salt of the Earth, a line of nicotine salt e-liquids available in five flavors, including The Classic, Just Menthol, Orchard, Lady Camellia and Bee’s Milk. The line is available in 30-ml bottles and in two nicotine strengths. “Our goal was to offer a range of closed system devices and open system e-liquids to meet a wide variety of consumer usability and flavor preferences,” Jones said. Likewise, E-Alternative Solutions has introduced Leap, a line of above-ohm

products with a nicotine-salt-based e-liquid formula. Value-priced Leap will be offered in both rechargeable and disposable models. Each model offers a wide range of e-liquid flavors and three nicotine levels, including a 0%; so adult consumers can experience a unique, customizable satisfaction. Leap’s rechargeable device features a sophisticated design, powerful battery and high-capacity e-liquid pods, officials at EAS said. The company also said its products enable users to experience a more authentic gratification that closely resembles traditional tobacco use. According to Jacopo D’Alessandris, CEO and president of the Darien, Conn.-based company, Leap was created exclusively for adults who seek a satisfying vapor experience, based on the latest science. “Our goal is to deliver powerful, simple-to-use vapor products that can be customized to both a retailer’s business model and its consumer base,” he said. “Leap is only the latest example of our commitment to innovation,

WARNING: This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.

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Most recognized EVP brand in the US market is now available in the fastest growing segment. To order, contact your ITG Brands sales rep today. ©2018 Fontem. NOT FOR SALE TO MINORS. blu®, the blu logo, my blu™, and the myblu logo are trademarks of Fontem Holdings 4 B.V.

CONSUMABLES | TOBACCO category growth and, ultimately, to ensuring our distribution and retail partners achieve outstanding profit margins.” Given everything going on in the category, officials and manufacturers said tobacco companies and their retail partners simply cannot follow old school marketing techniques and expect to do well today. Rather, they said, the better strategy is to follow a broad tactic that incorporates both traditional and digital media platforms. “We have had much success utilizing an event platform to create traditional and digital exposure,” said Dave Savoca, president of Smokey Mountain Chew based in Sandy Hook, Conn. “As a company, we are constantly looking at different avenues and ways to reach our target consumer base.” For Smokey Mountain Chew, lifestyleoriented promotions have become one of the key opportunities for promoting its brand. Smokey Mountain incorporated the “Major League Bowhunter” logo into its race car’s paint scheme during a race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. It was announced that Smokey Mountain’s driver, Daniel Hemric, would be moving up to NASCAR’s Cup Series full time next year, which Savoca said garnered even more exposure for Smokey Mountain Chew. “This was a huge digital event for us, which was also covered by a national TV station,” Savoca said. “We were able to get Chipper Jones, who is currently the cohost of “Major League Bowhunter,”on NBC’s pre-race show in his Smokey Mountain Garb. Chipper also tweeted to more than 1 million followers during the race.”

Increasingly, successful retailers are thinking beyond how the tobacco category has traditionally operated and are asking themselves what their e-cigarette consumers need from them. 72

October 2018 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM

Promote the Category

Demystify the Shopping Experience

In addition to partnering with companies that actively promote its brand, best practice retailers are optimizing their assortment based on consumer trends and needs, not checkbook category management, experts said. As Jones pointed out, successful retailers are thinking beyond how the tobacco category had traditionally operated and are asking themselves what their e-cigarette consumers need from them. “The category is still new with many consumers just coming in or returning to these products,” Jones said. “It is important to keep products visible so that adult consumers can investigate and make the best choice for themselves.” Educating consumers is key, Jones said, adding that it remains the best way for retailers to maximize sales of e-vapor products. Fontem supports this by providing materials that explain the differences and advantages across its entire product range. The company also arms its retail partners with category information on how current e-vapor products deliver penny profit, as well as brand SKU ranking reports to help them optimize sales. More importantly, experts said it all comes down to minimizing consumer confusion. As D’Alessandris pointed out,

consumers often are unsure which product, nicotine level and brand they should use. To mitigate this problem, he suggested giving shoppers a simple, clear purchase funnel. “Don’t confuse them with an overly complicated on-shelf assortment,” he said, noting that the most effective on-shelf assortments correspond to consumer demand. “A shelf set should not overwhelm with too many brands, but should have the right mix of device, flavor and nicotine choices, corresponding to what consumers seek from the category,” he said. In addition to choosing the right product mix, partnering with the trustworthy companies behind the brands, experts said, is critical. They advise choosing suppliers that support retailers beyond selling them the product. “At EAS, we bring an entire support system to the retailer, including category management expertise, shelf management, merchandising, compliance and promotional tools,” D’Alessandris said. EAS takes a solution-based approach and works with retailers to put together the right education materials and in-store advertising to help move sales and ensure products comply with the latest state and federal regulations, D’Alessandris said. “We are focused not only selling in, but also helping retailers sell out.” dsn

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LAST WORD

A Game-Changer for Community Efforts Activities bring together retail partners — and even competitors By David Orgel

R David Orgel is an awardwinning business journalist, industry expert and speaker. He is currently the principal of David Orgel Consulting, delivering strategic content and counsel to the food, retail and CPG industries.

etailers have been involved in community programs since the beginning of time, or at least since the first merchant opened its doors. These often follow a similar pattern. A retailer works with one or more community partners to help support local efforts. Activities typically involve in-store programs, education, donations, local volunteer efforts and the like. All this supports the community, results in a positive halo for the retailer and draws the company closer to its customer base. Retailers in the food and drug industries tend to be especially good at these efforts. However, there’s a built-in challenge. Community efforts often have limited scale. They don’t usually involve a widespread number of local and national partners, especially retail competitors. This makes it hard to build a 360-degree community initiative with game-changing impacts. Enter The Consumer Goods Forum, or CGF, and its groundbreaking ”One for Good” health campaign, launched in the middle of last year in Hagerstown, Md. This is an initiative chock full of best practices for all kinds of retail community efforts, whether for wellness or other topics. And so far, it has progressed without too much national exposure, as partners take the time to experiment with best approaches on a local level. CGF, a global organization of retailers, manufacturers and service providers, has partnered with Healthy Washington County, a public and private collaboration of community partners in the Hagerstown area. Those participants range from Meritus Health to the local chamber of commerce. Providing even more fuel is a considerable number of manufacturer partners, including General Mills, Campbell Soup, Danone and Johnson & Johnson. And here’s the most interesting part: The effort even brings together competing local retailers as partners, including Martin’s of Ahold Delhaize, Walmart and Walgreens Boots Alliance. That kind of collaboration ensures the impact will extend to

October 2018 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM

multiple consumer segments of the community. The One for Good name alludes to how small steps —– whether from consumers or partner collaborators — can make huge differences over time in consumer health outcomes. One for Good initiatives have included targeted health-and-wellness campaigns; distribution of “CarePacks” with information about healthier food choices, coupons and recipes; health events, in-store presentations; and associate training to highlight One for Good and its purpose. I spoke to Sharon Bligh, director of health and wellness at CGF, who explained why it’s essential to involve so many players, including retail competitors in this campaign. “No retailer, manufacturer or community can do something like this alone,” she said. “The learnings are faster when you do it together.” The One for Good program pursues a metricsbased approach that looks at two major KPIs: raising awareness of health and wellness and supporting healthier baskets. The campaign just received a boost from a positive assessment of early results by partner Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. What’s next? CGF hopes to add initiatives in more U.S. communities over time, which would be tailored to local needs, and to introduce components for online shopping, as well. Also, given its global reach, CGF is pursuing a range of consumer health initiatives in numerous countries, and expects to share lessons between countries and CGF members. All this makes sense, and there’s no reason One for Good-type strategies can’t be used for other industry community efforts that go beyond health. CGF’s approaches are solid and transferable. It’s about collaborating at the local and national levels for maximum scale, measuring results and adjusting based on feedback. It also is about the benefits of involving a maximum number of participants. If that doesn’t represent an ideal approach to community efforts, I’m not sure what does. dsn

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At Amneal, we treat every patient and customer as a

“Quality begins with me.”

member of our extended family. That’s why great care goes into creating and preserving the trust placed in us. Our goal, every day, is to consistently produce high quality, affordable medicines. That’s how we make healthy possible.