As Alvita marks its 20th anniversary, the milestone feels less like a moment to look back and more like a useful prompt to ask what community pharmacy actually needs from the brands that sit on its shelves, today, and over the next two decades.
The honest answer, in my view, hasn't changed much since 2006. Pharmacists need products they can recommend without hesitation. Their customers need quality they can rely on at a price that doesn't force a difficult choice. And the wider healthcare system needs a strong, well-supplied community pharmacy network capable of absorbing more and more of the pressure that primary care can no longer carry alone.
Every decision Alvita has made over the past 20 years has, in one way or another, been an attempt to respond to those three needs.
The growth of own brands
It is worth remembering how much has shifted in that time. Two decades ago, the conversation about own-brand healthcare products was largely about cost. Today, it is about something more substantive: how community pharmacy continues to deliver quality, choice and value in the face of stretched health systems, ageing populations and tighter household budgets right across Europe.
Own brands have had to grow up alongside that shift, broadening their range, raising their standards and earning a place in categories, from diagnostics to incontinence, where customers are no longer willing to compromise.
Alvita's own evolution over 20 years has tracked that wider change closely, because pharmacists, market by market, have made clear what their customers need.
What I find more interesting than the brand's growth, though, is what the past 20 years have revealed about the role of the pharmacist. The pharmacy counter has quietly become one of the most important touchpoints in European healthcare. A customer might arrive looking for a thermometer they can trust at three in the morning, or a blood pressure monitor following a new diagnosis, or something to help a parent manage incontinence with dignity.
In each of those moments, a pharmacist is doing something remarkable: translating clinical knowledge into a practical recommendation, often within the space of a minute or two. The products on the shelf behind them either support that conversation or get in the way of it. There is very little middle ground. That is the standard we all must hold ourselves to, and it is the standard the next 20 years will demand even more rigorously.
Out-of-pocket healthcare spending is under closer scrutiny than ever. Customers are better informed and more willing to ask hard questions. And pharmacists, quite rightly, are being asked to take on a broader clinical role within their communities. A brand that wants to be useful in that environment cannot stand still. It has to keep listening, keep investing in quality, and keep being honest about the role it plays, which is to support the pharmacist, never to replace their judgement.
Pause for celebration
I am incredibly proud of Alvita’s evolution, from its newly introduced packaging design – which keeps patients in mind by making products easy to self-select from the shelf or for the pharmacy team to refer, to its expanding product offer. We have launched c.50 new products and entered entirely new product categories, such as topical pain and eyecare in the last few years. All of which are intended to keep pace with the expanding role that pharmacy performs within our communities.
So, while a 20th anniversary of Alvita is a natural moment for me to celebrate, it’s an opportunity to reflect on the industry as a whole.
The milestones that genuinely matter are the ones happening at the counter every day: the reassurance offered, the recommendation made, the small daily moments where a trusted product helps someone manage their health a little more easily.
A good own brand should be dependable, fairly priced, great quality, and well-supplied.
