In a nation where pharmaceutical product costs are unpredictably fluctuating, consumers, the NHS and pharmacies, are feeling the brunt of it. The NHS is crippled by the price points of certain drugs and medical supplies, and whilst consumers are first to complain about the costs of prescriptions, they would soon understand by reading into the costs behind the scenes.

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Similarly, in the retail market global brands are fighting for the monopoly of shelf space but maintaining premium costs. However, consumers are gifted with more of a choice in this realm. In the past few years private label brands, offering cheaper alternatives, have earnt themselves a gateway and many consumers have been happy to embrace them. In the supermarket retail sector, we are living in the world of the ‘alternative consumer’, where many have moved past the perception that private labels and cheaper brands are low quality and are instead seen as a smart bargain.

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Yet, arguably when it comes to pharmaceutical and health products, we haven’t quite got to where we want to be with this perception. There has still been a reluctance to purchase cheaper alternatives of generic drugs such as paracetamol, which can be bought for as little as 19p over the counter. The NHS has even clamped down on the ability to write prescriptions for over the counter products after it was revealed to be costing them around £136 million a year for prescriptions for medicines that can be bought from a pharmacy or supermarket1. The same perception challenges are felt by healthcare brands with conceivably lower price points.

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Darren Collett-Mills, Managing Director of Axis Medicare Ltd. and Early Bird Swift, the home pregnancy and fertility test brand, shares his view on why lower price point healthcare products should not be overlooked by consumers.