Retailers feel no pain with new analgesics

Drug Store News, Sept 13, 2000

While sales in OTC pain relief may have flattened a bit over the past several months, a rash of new product introductions coupled with the emergence of a whole new subsegment of the business--new relative to the aisles of OTC pain relief, that is--is quite likely to put the spike back in the category's growth curve.

True, sales of internal analgesics have backed off the mid-single digit growth pace the category had maintained through the end of 1999, leveling off at less than one percent growth on sales of more than $2.6 billion for the 52 weeks ended July 16, according to Information Resources Inc. (For more see chart this page.) It seems that the ripples created in the category by the late 1998 launches of Excedrin Migraine and Tylenol Arthritis (the analgesics formerly known as Excedrin Extra Strength and Tylenol Extended Relief, respectively) have leveled off, but not before floating the business to a new, higher water mark.

And at year's end, neither brand seemed to be showing signs of losing much momentum. Excedrin Migraine's business was up more than 26 percent in the drug channel alone in 1999; Tylenol Arthritis was growing at more than 400 percent.

Certainly, this trend towards more condition-specific indications continues in the OTC pain relief category as the niches initially carved out by Excedrin Migraine and Tylenol Arthritis have been widened significantly by some new brand extensions launched this spring.

The category now includes a fully-fledged migraine headache section with the launches of Motrin Migraine and Advil Migraine, which some retailers have wisely begun to group together on the shelf along with Excedrin Migraine, and Mentholatum's non-drug product Migraine Ice.

And it appears as if there is more than enough prospective business to go around. According to professional medical statistics, migraine headache is a major health issue in the U.S., affecting as many as 23 million Americans, and costing the nation as much as $1.2 billion to $17.2 billion a year in lost productivity. And, it is a problem that disproportionately affects women. More than 17 percent of American women report recurring attacks versus just 6 percent of men, according to a National Institutes of Health survey.

Aside from sheer prevalence, health officials insist that migraine also remains one of the most under-treated health conditions in the country, further fleshing out the full opportunity for this burgeoning piece of the business. To help raise awareness among silent sufferers, McNeil has supported the launch of Motrin Migraine with a special point-of-sale brochure entitled, "Living with Migraine: Ways to Take Control," to help drive home consumer education of the common symptoms and triggers of migraine headache.

A little further down the aisle in pain relief a similar experience is widening the selection of offerings in the arthritis segment of the business. However, the major buzz in the category has more to do with long-term pain prevention than short-term pain relief. The steady penetration of natural health into traditional segments of the OTO business continues with the recent launch of glucosamine products introduced under two very highly recognizable labels in the analgesic category.

It seems that the science on glucosamine was tough to refute and the business opportunity even more difficult for OTC giants such as McNeil and Whitehall Robins to ignore. Through the end of April, glucosamine-based dietary supplements generated sales of $321 million through food, drug and mass outlets, and were growing at more than 42 percent.

That was only when these items were only merchandised in the dietary supplement aisle. While McNeil's Aflexa and Whitehall Robins' Flexogen are clearly marked as dietary supplements, the manufacturers have lobbied effectively--more often than not--for retailers to merchandise these products in the pain relief aisle in close proximity to products such as Tylenol Arthritis and the various arthritis-specific external analgesic rubs.

According to several retailers with whom Drug Store News has spoken, these new big brand glucosamine supplements are quite likely to raise the bar on household penetration numbers, creating a whole new group of first-time users among long-time fence-sitters reluctant to buy in to the natural health craze. These consumers, the logic goes, would be much more likely to take a gamble on a glucosamine product that bears the Tylenol or Advil logo.

At press time at least one chain had committed to a similarly positioned private label glucosamine-based dietary supplement. Similar to Flexagen and Aflexa, Rite Aid's Flexacin, which began rolling out to stores this summer, bears the clear disclaimer, "does not contain pain reliever," but is still merchandised in the OTC pain relief aisle.