Promoting the benefits of self-care to both governments and consumers is a shared priority for the biggest global consumer health players over the next 12 months. Meanwhile, market growth is expected to be driven by both M&A and new product development, particularly in burgeoning OTC categories like women’s health.
What will 2025 be the year of?
Filippo Lanzi, President, EMEA and LATAM, Haleon
2025 will be the year of empowering better everyday health at scale.
At Haleon, we see a growing urgency to bridge the health gap for millions of people across the Europe, Middle East and Africa and Latin America regions, as pressures on healthcare systems continue to challenge accessibility and affordability in healthcare. Our mission is clear: to deliver better everyday health with humanity.
In 2025, this means scaling our commitment to self-care innovation, empowering consumers to take charge of their health through trusted, superior brands. From oral health to pain relief, our portfolio will continue to focus on science-backed solutions that address everyday health needs and meet consumers where their needs are greatest.
Collaboration will be key to achieving this acceleration. We’ll continue to expand partnerships with healthcare professionals, governments, non-government organizations, and retailers to deliver health information and better access, ensuring consumers have the tools to make informed decisions to manage their own health.
But it’s not just about growth; it’s about doing so sustainably. Through innovative packaging, reduced carbon emissions, water stewardship and a focus on health equity, 2025 will mark a year where Haleon takes further strides toward leading the industry with our purpose and delivering impact—ensuring better health for people and the planet.
Victor Geus, Area Managing Director Central Europe, Kenvue
2025 will be the year of embracing conscious health management.
A continued trend for 2025 is the growing focus on longevity and holistic health. The idea of living healthier for longer and enhancing the overall quality of life is increasingly seen as an individual responsibility. People are investing in their own health and adopting healthier lifestyle choices. Central to this trend are self-care and prevention, which empower individuals to take control of their health and well-being. This trend is further driven by evolving AI and digital health solutions.
We already see consumers taking increasingly proactive steps in managing their health and seeking personalized approaches to well-being that encompass physical, mental, and emotional health. This involves not only self-medicating minor ailments like colds or headaches but also making lifestyle changes that have significant health benefits. Such changes include quitting smoking and adopting habits that contribute to overall health, like maintaining good oral care or wearing sunscreen and much more.
Consciously managing one’s own health not only promotes personal well-being but also alleviates the burden on our cost-pressured healthcare systems. There is a growing recognition of the vital role of prevention and self-care in enhancing the efficiency, quality, and sustainability of healthcare systems, with pharmacists playing a key role in enabling effective self-care.
As we enter a new legislative term in the EU, we find ourselves at a pivotal moment to advance Europe’s healthcare system. By ensuring a future where individuals are empowered to take charge of their health and well-being, increasingly fueled by data-driven personalized solutions, we can significantly impact both personal health and the pressure on our healthcare systems.
At Kenvue, we feel a strong responsibility to empower consumers to take their health into their own hands. We continuously support people’s everyday care choices with science-backed solutions and promote equitable access to healthcare products and services.
Mike Knowland, General Manager Northern Europe, Bayer Consumer Health
2025 will be the year of driving the self-care agenda even further forward.
Helping people to stay well is a key pillar to enable the shift from sickness to prevention. We must continue to highlight the integral role self-care can have to alleviate pressures on the UK National Health Service (NHS) and build a sustainable healthcare system for the future, saving primary care time and NHS money. We need to keep making the noise and driving the awareness of self-care that equips and empowers healthcare professionals and society – it’s a daily health essential. And that means continuing to drive education round the valuable role that community pharmacy plays, as well as the digital information tools we now have to help bridge learning gaps. Industry also has a role to play as partners in delivering healthcare information directly to consumers.
We can raise greater public awareness by being more present where our shoppers expect us to be. This includes through media and customer retail channels. OTC brands have built trust and loyalty with their consumers by ensuring access to reliable, accurate and useful information, with 73% of adults noting that they trust health information from OTC brand websites. There is an opportunity for the NHS to leverage these existing resources to ensure that the information, guidance and content offered through its digital channels is engaging and trustworthy – something that we at Bayer are keen to support with fellow industry.
Driving access to greater health equity and equality is a key pillar at Bayer under our global vision of “health for all”. As the consumer health arm of a global life science company, we are heavily invested in getting closer to the consumer and our retail and pharmacy customers to serve and meet public health interest.
Our UK team have delivered projects that serve to support broader communities. For example, we have introduced accessible QR codes on our Canescool and Berocca product packaging to enhance the user experience and support people who are visually impaired or blind. Our “The Truth, Undressed” intimate health education program continues to push boundaries and we recently partnered with a beauty brand, MUA Make Up Academy, to launch a campaign in Superdrug to directly reach and engage with new, younger beauty shoppers. We will focus on calling for self-care, including intimate health education, to be covered in the school curriculum to improve health literacy and support the long-term shift from sickness to prevention. We have also launched a pollen tracking tool under Clarityn, offering free access to allergy advice. In 2025, we will keep delivering such projects that normalize, educate and empower our consumers to take greater control of their personal health and wellbeing.
We should continue to build on the recognition of OTC as a cornerstone of the life sciences sector by asking the UK government to prioritize collaboration and engagement with the consumer health industry to ensure that the UK remains an attractive destination for innovation. The government should put in place policies that also ensure an attractive regulatory environment for OTC products and consumer medical devices. We welcome more reclassifications as a key avenue for safely widening access to OTC medicines.
Nick Linton, Head of UK, Opella
2025 will be the year of Opella leading the charge for self-care.
At Opella, we are thrilled about the prospects for 2025! This year promises to be one of remarkable performance and transformative growth.
In 2024, we proudly launched our new brand – Opella – establishing a fresh identity as we continue our mission to simplify health, empowering everyone to take their health in their hands. Our commitment to creating a healthier society and planet is unwavering, and we are fully dedicated to supporting the UK’s self-care agenda.
As the third-largest player globally in the OTC and vitamins, minerals and supplements market, Opella is making significant strides in the UK. We are reaching more consumers at critical moments of need, consistently outpacing the growth of the OTC market and the top 10 OTC companies. Our productive partnerships with retail giants like Boots and Tesco have earned us their top AGS supplier ranking. The industry has also recognized our efforts, naming us OTC Company of the Year for the second consecutive year at the OTC Marketing Awards.
Our four brands – Allevia, Busco, Dulco, and Cialis – are at the heart of our mission to educate consumers on self-care, yielding impressive results. Allevia continues to revolutionize the allergy market, with exciting plans for 2025 to help more people understand and manage their symptoms early.
With Cialis Together, we are breaking down stigmas and encouraging new and younger consumers to address their erectile difficulties. By referring to erectile dysfunction as “erection difficulties” and showcasing diverse relationships in our advertising, we are helping more individuals seek life-changing treatment.
In 2025, we will continue to champion self-care boldly. A key focus will be collaborating with the new government to remove barriers to self-care, alongside our partners at UK consumer healthcare industry association, PAGB. We are also committed to supporting pharmacists facing increasing pressures and assisting retailers in understanding how best to serve their customers in expanding self-care categories.
Yvan Vindevogel, Chairman, Cooper Consumer Health
2025 will be the year of consolidation and reshuffling in the consumer healthcare industry.
We expect a further consolidation of the market as the newly independent large players continue to prune their portfolios and almost all private equity continue to be on the hunt for quality assets in the space. An elevated number of assets coming to the market and existing platforms changing hands will only further reinforce this trend. So we expect that 2025 will be another exciting year for M&A in consumer healthcare.
After the last two years have been marked by significant gains through price increases, leveraging the high pricing power that exists in the industry, it will now come down to the consumer healthcare players reaccelerating demand to grow the overall consumer healthcare market.
This will be achieved by again focusing on NPD/innovation and the further development of exciting categories (e.g. women’s health, probiotics etc.) to match consumers’ needs. While also further increasing direct-to-consumer penetration allowing the sector to reach more people than ever before.
Anna Maxwell, CEO, Maxwellia
2025 will be the year for action in women’s health.
With exponential pace, the narrative around women’s health continues to shift as new data backs up this vital conversation.
Earlier this year the staggering economic cost of untreated menstrual health issues was revealed, with heavy and painful periods accounting for an astounding £8.4bn in annual absenteeism. These findings underline what women have long known: their health is not a luxury but a necessity deserving attention.
The Women and Equalities Committee’s recent report sought to turn statistics into tangible action, urging the NHS to implement training programs to improve diagnosis and treatment within gynecological care, prioritizing awareness and early intervention.
While systemic change takes time, companies like Maxwellia are making strides to improve access now. OTC medicines that enable women to manage their symptoms without enduring lengthy NHS waiting times are a crucial step toward equity. These commercial innovations are poised to be game changers in 2025, empowering women to take control of their health.
Yet, this focus on access must go further, with the FSRH Hatfield Vision calling for significant reductions in reproductive health inequalities by 2030 to ensure women receive the care they need. Reclassifying emergency hormonal contraception (EHC) as a General Sales List (GSL) medication could help achieve this by removing unnecessary consultations and stigma, and could offer a more cost effective use of NHS funds versus the proposed commissioned pharmacy service.
Whether through innovative medicines or dismantling barriers to essential care, 2025 is the year women demand—and deserve—real change. Society, and industry, must answer that call.
To view all articles in the HBW 2025 series click here.
