Alexander Fishkov, Ph.D. student Computer Science
One of the largest retail markets in the United States is the over-the-counter drug market. Its value was nearly $28 billion in 2016, a $3 billion increase over its $25 billion value three years prior in 2013. Today, we’ll take a look at Statista.com data and projections for the OTC drug market in the U.S. and specific product types.
Minerals and vitamins is the largest group of OTC products sold in drugstores: It accounts for more than 32 percent of the market share but is expected to decrease slightly. Weight loss tablets and analgesics, on the other hand, will increase their share according to this projection.
The latest sales data for 2017 is in agreement with the previous chart, but contains more detailed product categories. Along with the categories mentioned before, top OTC drug categories include nasal products, foot care and denture products. Vitamins made more than $7 billion in sales in 2017, while sleeping remedies made $743 million. Cough syrup, another popular category, amounted to even less: $617 million in sales.
Our last chart breaks down the top-grossing vitamin, mineral and supplement brands for 2016. Even the numbers for individual brands and product lines are impressive — for example, vitamins and supplements from the company Nature Made made more than the entire cough syrup category made in 2017.
About Alexander Fishkov
Alexander Fishkov, Ph.D. student Computer Science
Alexander is a Ph.D. student in Computer Science. He currently holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Applied Math. He has experience working for industry major companies performing research in the fields of machine learning, data mining and natural language processing. In his free time, Alexander enjoys hiking, Nordic skiing and traveling.
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