It was announced in February of this year, that the new company to result from the proposed demerger of Consumer Healthcare from GSK, will be called Haleon. Haleon has now begun trading as a separate company, focusing on consumer health with brands trusted by millions not just across Ireland, but globally.
As a standalone company, Haleon (pronounced Hay-Lee-On) will be a new world-leader in consumer healthcare, offering a compelling proposition – to bring deep human understanding together with trusted science – to deliver better everyday health with humanity.
We recently spoke to Haleon Country Manager Dave Barrett to gain further insights into what this means for the pharmacy market within Ireland and for the team behind the brand.
Highly Valuable Global Business
The creation of Haleon results from a series of successful investments and strategic changes to GSK’s consumer health business over the past eight years, including integrations of the consumer product portfolios from Novartis and Pfizer. It is now a highly valuable and focused global business generating annual sales of approximately £10 billion (For FY 2020).
Dave explains, “In establishing Haleon as an independent company on 18th July, we have created a new world-leader, purely focused on consumer health, with wonderful brands that our consumers and customers know and trust such as Voltarol, Centrum and Panadol, which is manufactured in Dungarvan where we employ over 900 people.”
Haleon is inspired by the words ‘Hale’, which is an old English word that means ‘in good health’ and Leon, which is associated with the word ‘strength’. So what does this new entity hope to deliver?
“We couldn’t be more excited about our future – as a global leader, 100% focused on consumer health,” says Dave. “Our purpose is to ‘Deliver Better Everyday Health with Humanity’. We now have the platform to drive everyday health for people and our planet and we are thrilled to finally get going.
“What has changed, is that rather than being Consumer Healthcare as a division of GSK, Haleon is now an independent company, with a new brand and identity. Having completed our formal separation from GSK in July, Haleon is now a standalone company. Consumers can still buy and use the same brands they know, love and trust, all over the world.
“Guided by our clear purpose of ‘Delivering Better Everyday Health with Humanity’, and with our world class portfolio of brands people know and trust, Haleon stands ready to help address consumer needs and make better everyday health more achievable, inclusive and sustainable.”
Category Development
Haleon’s products span five major categories – Oral Health, Pain Relief, Respiratory Health, Digestive Health and Other, and Vitamins, Minerals and Supplements (VMS). “We have a world-class portfolio of longstanding brands – such as Voltarol, Otrivine, Corsodyl, Sensodyne, Centrum and Panadol – that are built on trusted science, innovation and deep human understanding.
“In Ireland, our site in Dungarvan produces both ‘over the counter’ pain relief and oral healthcare products for global supply to over 70 markets.
“Over time, consumers will see their brands and products updating their packaging from GSK to Haleon. Similarly, the brands will update their marketing assets to reflect Haleon as the company sponsor, not GSK. This will take a period-of-time to be realised.”
Much like the rest of the sector, Dave and his team have not been without their challenges, especially those thrown up by the pandemic. But overcoming these has only served to further showcase their leading position.
“Throughout the last two years, we’ve all been challenged to optimise our support to our teams and customers and ensure we continue to have products available for our consumers when they need them,” Dave told us.
Optimising Support
“I’m really proud of the Haleon team in Dungarvan for continuing the supply of Panadol when demand across the world spiked, and also the Irish commercial team for working closely with all our customers to ensure we maintained stock on shelves.
“In relation to Haleon, there was naturally a number of logistical and communication challenges in the years of planning for the demerger but we overcame these. Driven by brands, innovation, leading-edge science and human understanding to deliver better everyday health, we now continue to support our customers and consumers, and invest in our brands that make such a difference to people’s lives.
“To keep all of our key stakeholders informed, we hosted a Consumer Healthcare Investor Day (called Capital Markets Day) in February to share more about our new company, our new corporate name and an update on our brands and our future strategy.
“The last two years have been challenging for our industry in different ways. Despite the global supply chain issues, I am proud of how we have maintained supply of many of our critical brands and worked with our customers to ensure continued availability on shelves.
“With the overall global consumer healthcare sector now valued at £160billion, the new business is well positioned for further growth in the years to come.”
As a global company, Haleon has deep technical and scientific expertise, with world-class regulatory and medical capabilities and trusted relationships with more than three million healthcare professionals worldwide. The team use proprietary assets, such as cutting-edge centres for shopper research and social listening to generate deep human understanding to support brand innovation, engagement with experts and education of consumers.
Supporting Innovation
GSK Consumer Health have held a long and renowned presence in Ireland, with over 900 employed at their manufacturing facility in Dungarvan alone. What will this new company mean for them?
Dave says, “The establishment of two separate companies is designed to support innovation and is focused on opportunities for future growth, so this is great news for all our employees in Ireland.
“Our plan is to create a new world leader in Consumer Healthcare with category leading brands based on deep human understanding and trusted science – and Dungarvan is at the very heart of this vision.
“In Ireland, Haleon employs over 930 people many of which are located in Dungarvan, one of the largest manufacturing sites in Haleon’s Consumer Health network.
“Approximately 9 billion Panadol tablets are produced in Dungarvan each year, while 131m tubes of Poligrip and 3.2bn denture care tablets are produced annually.”
Of course, self-care is always at the heart of everything Haleon does, as Dave highlights, “Driven by brands, innovation, leading edge science and human understanding, we believe that ‘self-care’ means better everyday health and this is now the focus of everything we do.
“We want to redefine the role self-care plays in people’s lives because it can bring long term benefits for individuals and society and is also a key component of a sustainable healthcare system.
“Through our brands and our work with Community Pharmacists to provide the best guidance and advice, we want to empower consumers to take responsibility for their own self-care.”
Improving Health and Wellbeing
The self-care market continues to thrive. After 2 years of the pandemic, physical and mental health have gained more traction as consumers face isolation and sickness. Overall, health has broadened and matters to more people globally as self-care has become a major priority. More people in 2022 are reflecting and planning for a healthier, more vibrant year, and this is set to continue.
Haleon is solely about improving health and well-being, Dave reflects. “We are 100% focused on consumer health, and everything we do is driven by our purpose to deliver better everyday health with humanity. We build category leading brands that have a positive impact on people and their communities, with a strong focus on future innovation. We want to make everyday health easier and more available to more people. To do this, we combine reliable research findings with our extensive knowledge of human needs.
“With an increased consumer focus on health and wellness, an ageing global population, an emerging middle class in highgrowth economies, growing self-care in the face of increased pressure on public healthcare systems and sizeable unmet consumer needs.
“We believe that self-care is critical to a functioning health care system, and that an appropriate self-care culture brings many benefits to individuals and society. That is why we want to expand the population’s knowledge of options for self-treatment, self-medication and self-prevention and impart the relevant skills. Consumers should understand, thanks to Haleon and its brands, how they can promote, better protect and quickly restore their own health in everyday life. In short, we want to increase health literacy among the population.
“Overall, we are committed to empowering people to be more included in opportunities for better everyday health, with the aim of helping 50 million people a year by 2025.”
Haleon has a portfolio of worldleading healthcare brands in distinct categories. These include, for example:
• In the Oral Health Care category: Sensodyne, Pronamel, Corsodyl Medicated and Daily, Poligrip and Biotene
• In the Over-the-Counter Medicines category: Panadol, Voltarol Piriton, Otrivine, Zovirax, Nicotinell
• In the Vitamin and Mineral Supplements (VMS) category: Centrum
Dave adds, “All of Haleon’s OHC and OTC products, without exception, are among the most popular in their respective categories. Our power brands have been used for generations – the likes of Sensodyne, Panadol, Advil, Voltarol, Otrivine and Centrum are trusted by consumers, and recommended by experts.
“The health of the world, socially and environmentally, directly affects the health of people. We are focusing on tackling the environmental and social barriers to everyday health and driving health inclusivity through the promotion and delivery of sustainable solutions.
“As mentioned previously, we are aiming to empower people to be more included in opportunities for better everyday health. We aim to achieve this in three key ways:
(i) driving change through our brands;
(ii) empowering self-care; and
(iii) investing in thought leadership and research.”
So what is next? Delivering better health is core to Haleon’s development.
Haleon Health Partner
“Pharmacists, PTAs, physicians, and other health professionals are important partners of Haleon. It is their expertise and advice that makes functioning health selfcare possible in the first place. Our partners are the best way to reach our consumers. Healthcare professionals can help their patients take charge of their own health through direct contact. They can provide the necessary knowhow to close the gap between prevention and professional treatment and thus ensure better health in everyday life.
“To help them do this, we offer health care professionals our exclusive “Haleon HealthPartner” portal which can be found online. There, health care professionals can download comprehensive information materials, get advice, order samples, or participate in online trainings and webinars. For example, there are patient materials such as “My Pain Helper” and “Healthy Workout” that pharmacists and physicians can use for their patients. Various e-learnings and webinars are available in the training centre, which provide information on the development and treatment of pain, for example.
“Another key focus for us is OTC switches. Haleon is committed to ensuring that more active ingredients find their way out of prescription. We also want to see processes simplified. If medicines are available without a prescription, patients can save themselves a trip to the doctor for minor illnesses and have a greater say in their therapy. They get faster and less complicated access to suitable medicines directly at the pharmacy.
“This not only strengthens their own health competence, but also the role of the pharmacist. For pharmacists, an OTC switch also has a positive effect because they can include innovative products in their advice. At the same time, it also reduces the burden on the health care system, because it reduces the number of visits to the doctor and the corresponding treatment costs.”
Dave concludes,”As with much of the economy, community pharmacists have experienced issues with supply chains and rising inflation. There is also increased pressure on public healthcare systems and sizeable unmet consumer needs.
“Haleon’s focus on continuous supply chain improvements after the global pandemic drove demand for paracetamol to unprecedent levels. With our purpose to deliver better everyday health with humanity, we now have the platform to drive everyday health for people and planet and we are excited to finally get going. This will help us achieve a brilliant culture of self-care at affordable prices and produce easily accessible products.”
Read the full magazine: September IPN
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