Consumer Healthcare Brands Rework Paid Media Playbook as OTC Sales Hit $58.2 Billion

Companies including Opella are borrowing strategies first built for consumer packaged goods brands, according to CMI Media Group's client president Sandy Weag. The shift reflects a broader change in how households handle routine health needs, with shoppers increasingly weighing products the way they would any other consumer good.

The numbers behind that pivot are substantial. Over-the-counter sales reached $58.2 billion in 2025, compared with $44.3 billion the previous year, while the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has signaled a willingness to let more medicines move from prescription-only access to the OTC aisle.

Weag said the change in consumer behavior marks a break from the past. "Historically, people relied more on their physicians," she said, adding that people now take a far more proactive approach to their health and make product decisions as shoppers rather than as patients.

Those twin forces — rising demand and looser regulatory barriers — mean pharmacies and direct-to-consumer operators are playing a larger role in everyday health decisions, a shift that pushes healthcare marketers toward paid media channels and brand-building tactics long associated with fast-moving consumer goods.

That also raises a question for the sector, according to the source material: whether consumer healthcare firms can adopt FMCG marketing methods without importing the problems that category already faces.