GSK commits to investing behind OTC and oral health brands in India after offloading nutrition assets to Unilever.

Refinancing its debt and reducing its network of stores also expected as drags on 2020 earnings, GNC says. No avoiding the coronavirus pandemic, though, during its earnings briefing; with uncertainty brought on by the pandemic added to other headwinds, it didn’t offer guidance on its 2020 results.

As GSK continues to sell off OTC assets in the wake of its merger with Pfizer, HBW Insight Editors Tom Gallen and David Ridley discuss how this torrent of M&A activity is shaking up the global consumer healthcare market. 

Pain relief product sales grew 27% and upper respiratory sales 35% for the week ended 7 March as consumers respond to COVID-19, according to Nielsen data noted in a Jefferies report on consumer health purchasing trends. Private label market share is up slightly, while OTC purchases continue primarily in conventional stores.

GSK commits to investing behind OTC and oral health brands in India after offloading nutrition assets to Unilever.

'We've got be sure that companies can continue to get ingredients for their products," says CRN CEO Steve Mister, Concern supplies from India, which is a week into a a three-week nationwide lockdown, and other potential supply chain problems were noted by CRN members in a survey it conducted to help USDA gauge global food and nutrition ingredient supply chains during the pandemic.

Refinancing its debt and reducing its network of stores also expected as drags on 2020 earnings, GNC says. No avoiding the coronavirus pandemic, though, during its earnings briefing; with uncertainty brought on by the pandemic added to other headwinds, it didn’t offer guidance on its 2020 results.

Reckitt Benckiser's new CEO Laxman Narasimhan has unveiled a turnaround plan which will see the company's OTC drugs and dietary supplements housed in a separate business to its infant nutrition products. RB is investing £2bn to get back on track after a couple of difficult years.

OTC private label giant said gaining another grocery chain as an infant formula customer was a key sales driver in the 2019 Q4, with nutrition sales up 21% to account for 17% of Americas consumer health sales growth. The firm plans to re-enter the broader VMS space, but infant formula helped its global consumer health net sales reach $1.1bn in the October-December period.

Claims circulated on social media that its Cebion supplement could prevent coronavirus has led Italy's Dompé to take legal action.

Companies choosing between CBD options – namely broad- or full-spectrum hemp extracts or CBD isolate – need to appreciate the differences and potential legal implications, attorneys say.

"There is no need to litigate the same issue again," says District Judge Louis Stanton in granting most of the joint motions by FTC and New York attorney general to strike Quincy Bioscience's proposed defenses. The judge denied other motions, including whether NY state laws are applicable, saying a trial is needed to weigh the evidence.