54th AESGP

Annual Meeting
Amsterdam, 5 – 7 June 2018

Connecting the smart consumer

Conference Report
The 54th AESGP Annual Meeting – the annual gathering of the self-care sector in Europe – was held in Amster-
dam, the Netherlands, from 5 to 7 June 2018. The conference entitled “Connecting the smart consumer”
looked at the evolving self-care market place, addressing challenges related to digital space and e-commerce,
and how to best serve the expectations of the newly informed consumer.

Sustainable Healthcare Systems and the Role of Self-Care

In the opening session, attention was paid to the chal- neither a sufficient reward nor an incentive for innova-
lenges governments are today facing to provide quality tive switches. The role of brands and branded infor-
and accessible healthcare to citizens in Europe and mation in helping people make informed decisions was
across the world. The role of self-care and consumer highlighted.
empowerment in providing solutions and further im-
proving the sustainability of healthcare systems was Dr Jacques de Haller, President of the Standing Com-
explored. mittee of European Doctors (CPME), confirmed support
of doctors to self-care and the important role it plays in
Speakers from the industry Birgit Schuhbauer, AESGP healthcare systems. Referring to the results of the EU
President, Tamara Rogers, Senior Vice-President and funded PiSCE Project on which AESGP and CPME
Region Head for Europe, Middle East and Africa at GSK worked together, De Haller noted that patient educa-
Consumer Healthcare, and Heather Bresch, CEO of tion should be at the heart of the self-care policy in or-
Mylan, presented the contribution and potential of the der to realise a full potential of self-care, starting early
self-care industry in helping resolve these challenges on in schools.
and stressed the need for innovative solutions. Encour-
aging self-care and empowering individuals to take re-
sponsibility for their health and bear the cost of some
interventions aimed at preventing ill health or treating
suitable conditions is an obvious response to many of
the problems modern healthcare systems come across
nowadays. Non-prescription medicinal products are the
most frequently used healthcare intervention, benefiting
millions of Europeans every day. However, the industry
is worried about the fact that the number of active in-
gredients available without prescription is stagnant.
Back-switches also always remain a threat. Access to
products for the most recurring conditions should be
improved by switching them to non-prescription status,
thereby freeing time for healthcare professionals, and
more should be done to prevent back-switches. It was
observed that the short data protection of one year is

1
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is
a major threat in the modern
healthcare delivery said Filipe
Froes, Member of the Commit-
tee of the Portuguese Ministry of
Health for national guidelines on
antimicrobial resistance, preven-
tion and control infection. Res-
piratory tract infections, such as
common cold, are one of the
major reasons for the trivial use
of antibiotics; what is more criti-
cal is that antibiotics are inap-
propriately prescribed for viral
infections in more than half of
the consultations. The self-care
industry, and in particular cough
and cold products, play an im-
portant role in tackling antimi- From left to right: Heather Bresch, Filipe Froes, Tamara Rogers, Birgit Schuhbauer, Cathy Smith
(moderator) and Jacques de Haller
crobial resistance through dis-
couraging the inappropriate use
of antibiotics and providing effective solutions to man- solutions, such as wearable technology and mHealth
age cold and flu symptoms. Empowerment, literacy and apps, citizens can actively engage in health promotion
trust are key to the fight against AMR and self-care has and self-management of long-term conditions. This in
a role to play. turn can help control the rising demand for health and
care. Digital tools hold great potential to disseminate
All speakers acknowledged that consumers are in favour scientific knowledge and information in an easily acces-
of a greater availability of self-care products, but should sible form, so as to help people stay in good health –
be properly informed and supported. By using digital thus preventing them from turning into patients.

The Changing OTC Market Place

non-prescription medicines. Buying products online

presents a number of advantages, such as: availability,
speed and anonymity (particularly when it comes to
embarrassing conditions). However, for ailments for
which instant relief is crucial (headache, hay fever,
cough and cold), going to the local pharmacy still
proves faster. Despite the fact that the share of OTC
online sales remains smaller compared to traditional
brick-and-mortar pharmacies and other traditional
channels, the industry needs to be aware of the major
players in the area, as e-commerce continues to be con-
centrated in the hands of a few global operators.

Consumers’ behaviour is changing too. Consumers are

From left to right: Alan Main, Andy Tisman and Matthew Oster
The changing landscape of the OTC market place, espe-
cially the increasing importance of e-commerce, was
discussed by Matthew Oster, Head of Consumer Health
Research at Euromonitor International, Andy Tisman,
Global Senior Principal, Consumer Health at IQVIA, and
Alan Main, Executive Vice-President of Sanofi Consum-
er Healthcare.
Consumer health channels, and in particular e-
commerce, are rapidly evolving across the world. E-
commerce currently represents a small share of global
OTC sales, but it is growing very quickly. The consump-
tion of food supplements increases faster than that of
becoming more informed, engage online, try to better
understand and manage their own health, and to em-
brace healthy lifestyles. However, despite the growing
information resources, consumers too often do not
know how to take advantage of the information and
need to be further educated and supported in making
informed decisions. Different generations of consumers
mean different behaviours and their needs should be
addressed accordingly. Younger generations have a very
different approach to managing their health, while baby
boomers remain the most engaged in self-care. For that
reason, the rapid growth of the aging population re-
mains a major factor in the evolving OTC market place.
Within ten years, the trend will go towards more digital-
isation, more personalisation of products and self-care
will have a more visible and established place within

2
healthcare. Examples of products associated with per-
sonalised services / chatbots working thanks to artificial
intelligence were given.
All speakers agreed that the industry should have a co-
ordinated approach to the challenges of the changing
market place and invest in better understanding of the
Switch: A Growth Driver?
From left to right: Stefan Walk, Ilaria Passarani, Michelle Riddalls
and Uwe May
The third session of the conference went over the re-
sults and commercial success of recent innovative re-
classifications from prescription to non-prescription sta-
tus. Michelle Riddalls, Regulatory Affairs Director at
connected consumer. In order to succeed, it must create
partnerships with both traditional and ‘new’ stakehold-
ers. The consumer health industry is a trusted and re-
sponsible partner that needs to further engage with
regulators in developing an appropriate framework to
ensure access to data for the public benefit and to gain
further insights in consumer needs.
Pfizer Consumer Healthcare, and Stefan Walk, Head of
Marketing and Sales OTC at Hexal, presented recent
switches, namely Nexium and Viagra connect (Pfizer)
and MometaHEXAL (Hexal), and their experience and
lessons learnt with the change of legal status from pre-
scription to non-prescription. The key success factors
for a switch are an unmet consumer need, simple use of
a product, strong prescription brand and market poten-
tial. They both agreed that the most important factor for
ensuring commercial success is market readiness. This
could be achieved through training and education pro-
grammes and collaboration with pharmacists as part of
stakeholder management. It is also important that the
switch review process be transparent and fast.
Ilaria Passarani, Secretary General of the Pharmaceuti-
cal Group of the European Union (PGEU), presented the
positive view of community pharmacists to the reclassi-
fication of medicines. Greater availability of non-
prescription medicines facilitated the evolution of the
pharmacists’ role. She emphasised that it is important
that as part of reclassification process pharmacists are
engaged early on and receive the necessary information
and training.
3
Uwe May, researcher at May and Bauer, pre-
sented the results from a study conducted on
behalf of IGEPHA, the Austrian Self-Care As-
sociation. The study aimed at identifying op-
portunities for innovative switches and at
providing some recommendations for deci-
sion makers. A methodology to identify and
prioritise potential switches was also devised
by the researchers. May underlined the eco-
nomic benefits of switching: EUR 5.20 saved
for every euro invested and 1.9 hour per day
and per GP is saved! The risk of not switching
needs to be taken into account. What will the
consumer/patient do? Turn to an alternative
product available OTC? Take nothing? Go to
the GP? All these alternatives may have an
impact on the consumer’s/patient’s health.
Self-care and switching need to be discussed
at societal level, as data show there is a great
potential.

New Perspectives and Research in Self-Care

The session highlighted the need to build national self-
care policy supporting citizen empowerment and ensure
an adequate political support through a proactive advo-
cacy. It is essential to set up a positive environment for
the industry and improve the public’s perception of self-
care by showing that it can significantly contribute to
the sustainability of healthcare systems in Europe. Fabio
Mazzotta, Vice-President of ASSOSALUTE and General
Manager, Italy & Malta Sanofi Consumer Healthcare,
showed clear benefits of self-care to an overburdened
Italian healthcare system. However, as pointed out by
Traugott Ullrich, Vice-President, BAH, the German
Medicines Manufacturers Association and General Man-
ager at Schwabe Pharmaceuticals, the self-care industry
has often not been seen as a credible promoter for the
improvement of public health.
A shift from being product to citizen centric is needed,
providing citizens with personalised solutions. In order
to realise the full potential of self-care, consumers need
to have access to quality information; health literacy is
key to promoting self-care. National studies show a lack
of knowledge not only in relation to one’s own health
and health condition, but also to the healthcare system
and regulatory framework. Much more still needs to be
done in countries such as Russia as was presented by
Vera Suldenko, Public and Government Affairs Advisor
at Bayer Russia, where a clear information and educa-
tion gap with regard to self-care still exists, not only
among citizens but also among healthcare practitioners.
In filling this gap, industry can follow the example of
recent success stories such as in Greece, as highlighted
by Aggelos Tsakanikas from the Greek Foundation for

From left to right: Aggelos Tsakanikas, Vera Suldenko, Fabio Mazzotta and Traugott Ullrich

4
Economic Industrial Research. Significant progress was duction of semi-free pricing and overall improved per-
achieved in the last years with non-prescription medici- ception of the industry.
nal products no longer being reimbursed and the intro-

Digital Revolution – The Impact on Consumer Health

Digitalisation is transforming the con-

sumer health industry and there are
many challenges as well as opportuni-
ties, which should be addressed if the
industry itself wants to become a dis-
ruptive force, actively engaged in the
transformation.

Karl Pall, Director Brand Solutions,

Google, provided an overview of the
type of information consumers are
looking for online, noting that after
searching online, consumers indiffer-
ently purchase on- or off-line. The cen-
tral role of consumers in digital revolu-
tion was also stressed by Marc
Speichert, Chief Digital Officer, GSK
Consumer Healthcare and Jeroen Tas,
Member of the Executive Committee From left to right: Jeroen Tas, Karl Pall and Marc Speichert
and Chief Innovation & Strategy Officer
at Royal Philips. They both talked about
how their companies engage with con-
sumers and empower them to manage
their own health data, thereby enabling
them to take control of their own bod-
ies and well-being.

Big data presented a major opportunity

to improve consumer experience and
the overall quality and efficiency of
healthcare. The speakers were of the
opinion that sensitive health data
should be appropriately protected,
while allowing use of anonymised data
sets.

5
Artificial Intelligence: A Game Changer?

Starting off with a thought-

provoking presentation by Adrian
David Cheok, Director of the
Imagineering Institute, Malaysia,
and Chair Professor of Pervasive
Computing at City, University of
London, the session explored the
impact of artificial intelligence in
everybody’s daily life and
healthcare. The application of ar-
tificial intelligence for healthcare –
and particularly for the consumer
health industry – and how it can
be used to improve patient out-
come, assist healthcare profes-
sionals in clinical decisions as well
in designing and delivering public
awareness campaigns were pre-
sented by Lisa Latts, Deputy
Chief Health Officer, IBM Watson
Health, and Kenton White, Chief
Data Scientist, Advance Symbol-
ics. Artificial intelligence can help
treat a vast amount of data and
monitor behaviour, thereby ena-
bling consumers to manage their
health and become empowered.

Following the presentations,

speakers among other things dis-
cussed ethical dilemmas posed by
artificial intelligence and offered
reassurance that the responsible
implementation of this tool is up
to humankind. While it is im-
portant to keep all the risks in
mind, this technological progress
promises better lives for every-
one.

From left to right: Kenton White, Lisa Latts and Adrian David Cheok

6
Consumer Health Products Regulation: An Update

Session 7 provided an
updated overview of the
regulatory develop-
ments in the consumer
health area in the EU.
Marcel Van Raaij, from
the Dutch Ministry of
Health, presented the
ongoing progress on the
relocation of the EMA
from London to Amster-
dam as a consequence
of Brexit, stressing the
importance of business
continuity and the op-
portunities the move
offers to the Nether-
lands. He further gave
an overview of the im-
plementation of the new
Medical Device Regula-
tion, both at national
and European level, not-
ing some of the chal-
lenges still to be ad- From left to right: June Raine, Bernard Mauritz (moderator), Alexandra Nikolakopoulou and Marcel Van Raaij
dressed, notably the
availability of notified bodies, the setting up of Eu- via a QR code on the packs and the Dutch pharma-
damed, the consequences of Brexit for all actors of the covigilance centre Lareb which has an application to
system as well as the availability of expertise. He report adverse reactions. She reminded that the 5-year-
acknowledged the importance of stakeholder involve- old Tajani initiative, which resulted in the “Good govern-
ment in the implementation process. ance for non-prescription medicines” recommendations,
continues to be implemented and to have a positive
June Raine, Chair of the Pharmacovigilance Risk Assess- impact in the UK.
ment Committee (PRAC) at the EMA, presented the
main achievements of the PRAC with a particular focus Alexandra Nikolakopoulou, Head of the ‘Food Infor-
on lessons learnt since its establishment in 2013. Agree- mation and Composition, Food Waste’ Unit of the Euro-
ing with AESGP’s prior suggestion, she underlined that pean Commission, gave an overview of the regulatory
referrals for well-established substances have decreased developments in the area of food supplements. She
and have been replaced by a more appropriate handling noted that it is a highly regulated area, although some
of those issues via Periodic Safety Update Reports. She issues are yet to be regulated. Regarding the specific
also touched upon the digitalisation of pharmacovigi- directive on food supplements, maximum levels of vita-
lance, giving examples of a product’s survey accessible mins and minerals still need to be set. Referring to the
Regulation on fortified foods, specifically the Article 8
procedure for “other substances”, the ongoing proce-
dures for three plant substances – hydroxyanthracene
derivatives (HAD), green tea catechins and monacolin K
– were noted. Following the EFSA opinion on HAD, the
decision on risk management is to be adopted by the
end of the year in light of the many challenges related
to the opinion. With regard to botanicals, there has
been a substantial delay of the re-evaluation process of
the legislation. Nikolakopoulou also provided an update
on the ongoing REFIT evaluation of the Nutrition and
Health Claims Regulation, notably with regard to botan-
icals, indicating that the results of the evaluation were
now expected for the end of 2018. Last but not least,
she presented the key changes to the General Food Law
included in the Commission’s proposal on transparency
and sustainability of the EU risk assessment.

7
AESGP in Transition: The Future of Self-Care

In light of the change in AESGP

leadership, the final session of the
conference covered the past and
future of self-care and AESGP. The
session provided an opportunity to
meet the new AESGP Director Gen-
eral, Jurate Svarcaite, and Deputy
Director General, Maud Perrudin,
and hear their views on the main
challenges the industry is facing
today, the impact of digital tech-
nology and innovation in self-care.

AESGP outgoing Director General,

Hubertus Cranz, who has led the
association for 30 years, together
with Hans van Zoonen and Hans
Regenauer, AESGP Presidents re-
spectively from 2005 to 2009 and
from 2009 to 2014, shared their
experience and reflections with the
new leadership and audience. The From left to right: Martin Bangerter, Hans Regenauer, Maud Perrudin, Jurate Svarcaite, Cathy Smith,
Hubertus Cranz and Hans van Zoonen
past presidents emphasised that
AESGP is a humble, competence-
based organisation with a credible reputation and the All reckoned that, in order to succeed, the engagement
right attitude towards authorities. The association exists of members in the various works of the association was
thanks to its membership (balanced with both multina- key. To ensure that the voice of the consumer health
tionals and SMEs) and it is therefore crucial that mem- industry is heard in Brussels, it was deemed important
bers carry on their commitment. to prioritise issues where AESGP could add value, and to
develop partnerships and synergies with other organisa-
Ingredient challenges and back-switches narrow down tions. Finally, it was highlighted that the representative-
self-care choices and were identified by the speakers as ness of AESGP was ensured through national member
one of the challenges AESGP will have to deal with. In- associations and their respective members and it was
creasing distrust in science was also a noted worrying considered essential to keep that close link.
trend.

The closing event in the Winter Garden of the NH Krasnapolsky was the occasion to pay tribute to Hubertus Cranz for his 30 years of leadership

8
Conclusions

The two-days discussions on the future challenges for
the self-care industry in Europe were marked by a few
main concepts and ideas, and opportunities for the in-
dustry to expand its role and promote self-care were
identified.
The self-care industry can make a significant contribu-
tion to the healthcare systems in Europe as shown by
different case studies from across Europe. Initiatives
promoted by national associations have been an effec-
tive way of creating a positive environment also by im-
proving public perception of self-care.
Switching medicines from prescription to non-
prescription status should be encouraged as a path to
success, taking into account enablers, such as unmet
needs, market readiness and stakeholder engagement.
There are opportunities for innovative switches, which
would bring clear benefits for all involved.
Digitalisation can be noted as an overarching topic, yet
with specific challenges which remain to be addressed
at the legal and regulatory level, focusing primarily on
big data and access to data, the increasing relevance of
e-commerce and the connected consumer.
In line with the title of the conference, the digitally em-
powered consumer was at the heart of the debates.
Connected consumers need to be put at the centre and
be offered holistic solutions so that they can become
full actors of their own health and engage further in
prevention. The industry should be active and ready to
respond to the changing needs.

Invitation to the 55th AESGP Annual Meeting in Geneva

At the end of the conference, Martin Bangerter, Director of the Association of the Swiss Self-Medication Industry
(ASSGP), invited all participants as well as those interested in the latest developments on self-care around the world
to the 55th AESGP Annual Meeting, which will take place in Geneva from 4 to 6 June 2019.

Self-Care: The first choice in healthcare

7 avenue de Tervuren, B-1040 Brussels | Tel: +3227355130 | info@aesgp.eu