Drug Store News - Zyrtec sneezes up $100m in first six months on shelf
Zyrtec may soon challenge Claritin for the top spot as king of the allergy hill, as OTC powerhouse McNeil Consumer Healthcare wields its marketing might behind its switch of Zyrtec, the second of three second-generation antihistamines to make the migration from prescription pads to self-care shelves.
It’s the biggest switch to hit allergy shelves since Schering-Plough brought Claritin over the counter in 2002, and it’s expected to crave quite a bit of allergy-related visits to the drug store this year. McNeil Consumer Healthcare began shipments of Zyrtec in late January, where, like Claritin, it was joined on shelf with store brand equivalents courtesy of Perrigo and a host of other generics manufacturers. With the launch, McNeil will be battling Claritin and its own Benadryl for a share of the allergy sufferer category–two brands that occupy the three leading spots in sales of cough/cold/allergy/sinus products across food, drug and mass (minus Wal-Mart), for the 52 weeks ended May 18, a $2.4 billion category according to Information Resources Inc.
And earlier this year, NielsenHealth released findings that 62 percent of Zyrtec OTC buyers had been on a prescription allergy medicine in the past year, although more than half of those consumers said they were very satisfied with that product. But when Zyrtec hit store shelves, they said they had to try it.
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“This is … a signal that OTC alternatives to allergy prescriptions may become the preference,” noted Matt Dumas, managing director of NielsenHealth.
Consumers visiting the Zyrtec Web site (www. zyrtec.com) are being invited to join Zyrtopia–an online community for allergy sufferers that can help them track daily allergy forecasts (coming soon, according to the site) and compare them against their allergy symptoms, as well as alert those consumers to any Zyrtec promotions.
As for prescription competition to McNeil’s Zyrtec, Pfizer announced in January it would no longer sell a prescription version of the brand, which generated $1.5 billion in sales through 2007.
Cold/allergy/sinus tablets
PERCENT
BRAND SALES * CHANGE
CATEGORY TOTAL $2,429.9 10.2%
CLARITIN 151.9 14.2
CLARITIN D 146.6 5.4
MUCINEX 146.4 15.7
BENADRYL 137.9 3.9
MUCINEX DM 123.9 29.5
AIRBORNE 102.9 -7.2
SUDAFED PE 101.2 -4.9
ZYRTEC 99.5 N/A
TYLENOL 97.3 19.0
THERAFLU 70.1 4.6
* in millions
Source: Information Resources Inc. for the 52 weeks ended May 18,
2008, for food, drug and mass, excluding Wal-Mart
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COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning
