OTCs: A New Growth Opportunity?

The political and economic trends in the health care marketplace indicate a continuing move towards greater individual responsibility for health care and encouragement of self-treatment, according to Gilbert Mertens, international marketing manager at Merck Pharmacy Healthcare, speaking at a self-medication seminar in Lisbon, Portugal, this month.

He believes that as health care reforms of recent years start taking effect, managed care will emerge as a possibility in Europe, for example in the UK, the Netherlands and in Switzerland. "Many of us in the pharmaceutical industry feel we are being punished by price reductions and slashed margins, and are turning to the non-prescription sector to extend the product lifecycle and, above all, to exploit new growth opportunities," he said.

The 1980s brought the first serious signs of escalating costs, leading towards today's cost-cutting measures and confirming the high cost to the state of making available the treatment for minor ailments through the prescription route.