In the first six months following its launch (January to June 2008), Zyrtec OTC shook up prescription and OTC allergy medication markets in the U.S.   Prescription allergy drug sales declined sharply, while over-the-counter allergy drug sales increased significantly.

By June 2008, prescription sales of Zyrtec had declined to nearly negligible levels.  Meanwhile, the OTC form quickly gained acceptance, capturing almost one-quarter of the OTC allergy medication market — the same share held by market leaders Benadryl and Claritin OTC, which have been available for several years. 

More than 60% of Zyrtec OTC’s business came from patients who had not used an allergy product in the previous two years, or who use Zyrtec OTC concomitantly with other products, according to Nielsen and Wolters Kluwer. 

Another 40% of Zyrtec OTC buyers switched from a competing prescription or OTC allergy medication.  Among this group, 84% of patients switched specifically from another OTC product.

Perhaps most surprisingly, while OTC products typically lure consumers with their cost savings, 68% of patients who switched to Zyrtec actually spent more than they did on their prior prescription or OTC allergy treatment, Nielsen and Wolters Kluwer found. 

Nielsen and Wolters Kluwer tracked the market transition behavior of 57,000 consumers vis-à-vis Zyrtec over a 30-month timeframe.

Read the related white paper.

Learn more about prescription-to-OTC pharma trends: attend Nielsen’s Webinar, “Revealing the Landscape of Rx-to-OTC Switching,” on November 18, 2008.

According to a global survey conducted by Nielsen and the Association of the European Self-Medication Industry (AESGP), U.S. consumers place more importance on price and value when choosing over-the-counter (OTC) medications than consumers in other countries throughout Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, and the Middle East. 

Thirty percent of U.S. consumers consider price to be important when choosing OTC products, while only 17% of global consumers do, Nielsen reported. Only Japanese consumers place more importance on price (33%).

And while just 15% of global consumers consider whether the product is a good value for money, one-quarter of Americans consider this factor being purchasing an OTC medication.

“With increasing medical costs and a fragile economy, the U.S. consumer is more price and value centric than ever,” Matt Dumas, managing director, NielsenHealth, noted.  “These findings highlight the rising importance of generic drugs in the U.S. market, which is underscored by low OTC product loyalty scores versus global markets.”

Nielsen’s Global Online Consumer Survey was conducted in April and May 2008, among 28,253 Internet users in 51 markets in Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, and the Middle East.

View the full press release.

Several of our staff have touched on the economy in recent days. As consumers’ healthcare costs continue to climb, it seems natural that healthcare cannot be immune to the effects of the downturn that has our world reeling. The New York Times on Tuesday published an article about a trend in patients stopping certain medications because they can’t afford them. Other news sources have reported on various patient cost-saving measures, from splitting pills in half to taking a medication every other day instead of every day.

I wondered if we would see evidence of this trend in our own data. Actually, I assumed we would and wondered just how prominent this topic would be in the online discussion we measure. There is definitely discussion of medication and affordability taking place within the blogosphere, with entry titles like “One Pill Left” and “I cannot afford to get sick” and the simple, direct “uggh.”

But what surprised me in looking at the broader trend of this discussion is that there has not been much of an increase in these messages over the past six months, as our BlogPulse data show:

There is a general upward trend in discussion of medication affordability, but it isn’t the steep climb I expected to see – aside from a noticeable peak in discussion during the week ending September 27 (which was the same week that the Dow experienced a 5% drop for the week and President Bush gave a primetime TV address to present his case for his $700 billion economic bailout plan).

To test the theory further, I compared two different sets of results: one that focuses on messages about not being able to afford medication, and another that uses the same search terms but excludes political discussion in the form of any mentions of McCain, Obama, election, politics, the economic bailout, the Medicare gap, etc. Still, the trend holds: the increase in blog posts about medication affordability is slight, not steep, despite the impact of recent changes in the economy.

It may be the case that people are just overwhelmed by concerns about the economy, to the extent that many aren’t talking specifics yet. Blogosphere discussion of “economy” significantly outweighs “healthcare,” as the following data show:

Will the days ahead bring a shift in discussion, with more mentions of medication affordability or specific steps patients take to manage their personal health and economic situation? Only time will tell, but it’s a trend worth watching.