With the number of U.S. clinics located within retail locations exceeding 2,000, they have become an important target for IVD products, according to Kalorama Information. There is over $200 billion in supplier sales to these centers, Kalorama found in its most recent research report, Retail Clinics 2016. And this is up from five years ago.
Retail clinics are small healthcare venues entirely within a retail store, usually staffed by a nurse practitioner in states where the scope of practice permits. They tend to offer later and weekend hours for busy shoppers and provide routine services. Retail clinic locations have expanded from 1,605 to 2,215 in the United States between 2011 and 2016, with drug store chains CVS and Walgreens accounting for the largest share of the locations.
According to the findings, this trend is now large enough to be part of manufacturer strategy and a realistic sales target for IVD and pharmaceutical companies. Kalorama said that sales of three types of products to retail clinics—vaccines, POC tests, and lab tests—reached $240 million in 2015, with vaccines accounting for a greater share than POC tests or laboratory tests. This reflects total annual growth of over 26 percent per year since 2010, when retail clinics accounted for about $75 million in purchases of these products.
“Point-of-care test makers in particular should be aware of this growing trend,” said Bruce Carlson, Publisher of Kalorama Information in a recent webinar. “You see companies like Alere and Roche making products for common ailments that can fit in smaller locales. They are thinking of urgent care, but also with an eye towards the new venues.”
Roche Diagnostics, for instance, has developed the cobas Liat for smaller venues. The company recently announced that its cobas Strep A, the first molecular PCR test to deliver laboratory quality results in ~15 minutes was “now available for use in physician offices and retail clinics.”
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