Dickerson believes the combination of brand blocking and a broader assortment could help drug stores drive growth in the category.
“When you walk through eye care, you’ll have four or five facings of the exact same product,” she noted. “Whereas in ear care, pretty much everything is single faced and just hard to find. So, I think there’s definitely an opportunity to try to allocate a little more space; it doesn’t need to be a lot.”
Innovation counts
New on-trend products also could be growth drivers for the eye-care and ear-care categories.
Last summer, AbbVie debuted two preservative-free eye-care offerings in soft-squeeze multi-dose bottles: Refresh Relieva PF Xtra and Refresh Tears PF. The former is designed to provide temporary relief of dry eye symptoms, Berg noted, and is the only lubricant eye drop enhanced with trehalose, sodium hyaluronate and HydroCell technology—a glycerin-based, sodium-chloride-free technology. The latter provides the same hydration as the original Refresh Tears, instantly moisturizing and lubricating dry eyes.
“Both products are designed to meet a wide range of individual needs and lifestyles,” Berg said. “Additionally, the double lock-out system ensures the drops remain sterile.”
Dry eyes are also the focus of two new Bausch + Lomb products. Lumify preservative-free redness reliever eye drops contain the same active ingredient, brimonidine tartrate 0.025%, as the company’s original Lumify eye drops, Ferris noted. The only FDA-approved, preservative-free offering of its type, the product is packaged in single-use vials and delivers “noticeable results” in only 60 seconds. It helps eyes “look whiter, brighter and more beautiful” for as long as eight hours.
[Related: Consumers embrace sustainable choices in period products, lubricants]
Blink NutriTears, meanwhile, is a clinically proven, “first-of-its-kind” nutritional supplement for dry eyes. Developed in collaboration with nutritional and eye-care experts, it features a blend of lutein, zeaxanthin, vitamin D and curcumin, Ferris said.
“This unique combination targets the key root causes of dry eyes, promotes healthy tear production and improves tear stability,” he explained. New on the ear-care side, meanwhile, is EarAcheRx from Doctor Easy Medical Products. The 4% lidocaine medication provides numbing relief of ear pain on contact, Garcia said. And Eosera recently introduced unit-dose vials of its Ear Wax MD and Wax Blaster MD products for ear wax removal.
“It provides just the right amount of solution in a little vial,” Dickerson noted. “Right now, they’re just for wax, but we’re looking at the unit dose vials for other [ear] conditions.”
Also in the works for Eosera are products and packaging that speak directly to the needs of hearing aid wearers. “Ear wax impaction is a huge problem for people who have devices in their ears,” Dickerson pointed out. “These people might need to clean their ears on a weekly or biweekly basis.”
link