Dominique Petruzzi
Research expert covering Cosmetics, Personal Care, Health & Hygiene industries.
The U.S. drugstore/pharmacy market in North America and predominantly in the United States has become a multi-faceted entity, selling not only medicines, but also items such as confectionery, cosmetics and groceries. In 2015, pharmacy and drug store sales amounted to approximately 263.47 billion U.S. dollars. In 2015, CVS Health was the second leading drug store chain in the United States, generating about 153.3 billion U.S. dollars as a corporation; about 52.5 billion U.S. dollars of that total was generated solely by Rx sales.
Over-the-counter (OTC) products, which are administered by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States, are sold to consumers without a prescription from a healthcare professional. These products can range from internal and external analgesics all the way to anti-dandruff shampoos. In 2016, the OTC market was valued at about 45.8 billion U.S. dollars. Cough/cold/allergy/sinus products have been the greatest beneficiary of this phenomenon, generating about 6.1 billion U.S. dollars worth of sales. These medications make it easy for individuals to care for minor medical ailments, thus allowing family and hospital practitioners to focus on more serious ailments.
Over-the-counter (OTC) products, which are administered by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States, are sold to consumers without a prescription from a healthcare professional. These products can range from internal and external analgesics all the way to anti-dandruff shampoos. In 2016, the OTC market was valued at about 45.8 billion U.S. dollars. Cough/cold/allergy/sinus products have been the greatest beneficiary of this phenomenon, generating about 6.1 billion U.S. dollars worth of sales. These medications make it easy for individuals to care for minor medical ailments, thus allowing family and hospital practitioners to focus on more serious ailments.
