Health Mart is launching a line of private-label, over-the-counter health care products and will be expanding the brand in the coming months.

The McKesson pharmacy franchise network said the products will bear the Health Mart brand and begin appearing in stores this month. The first items rolled out will be diabetes care products, introduced in tandem with American Diabetes Month in November.

SAN FRANCISCO — Health Mart is launching a line of private-label, over-the-counter health care products and will be expanding the brand in the coming months.

The McKesson Corp. pharmacy franchise network said Tuesday that the products will bear the Health Mart brand and begin appearing in stores this month. The first items rolled out will be diabetes care products, introduced in tandem with American Diabetes Month in November.

Plans call for more health care categories to be added to the Health Mart brand lineup regularly, including smoking cessation and analgesic products to be launched in January, according to Health Mart.

The pharmacy franchise said the Health Mart private label will eventually include such health care product segments as upper respiratory, baby care, first aid, personal diagnostics, skin care, vitamins, incontinence, eye and ear care, and digestive health.

With the new line, Health Mart pharmacies will be able to offer high-quality nonprescription health products at 20% to 40% less than the retail prices of their national-brand counterparts, according to McKesson. Items for the Health Mart label were chosen via an analysis of the best-performing products as preferred by consumers, the company said.

Brian Tyler, president of McKesson U.S. Pharmaceutical, noted that the new private brand reflects Health Mart’s identity among consumers as a trusted health care destination.

The new Health Mart brand will start with diabetes care and be expanded to include other health product segments over the coming months.

"Health Mart pharmacies continue to be recognized by consumers as health care leaders. This is most recently exemplified by the franchise ranking highest in overall customer satisfaction among chain drug stores in the J.D. Power National Pharmacy Study," Tyler said in a statement. "The Health Mart private label will help our Health Mart pharmacists advance their relationships with customers with an affordable, high-quality line of over-the-counter health products."

The design of the Health Mart brand packaging features a white lab coat with a mortar and pestle icon to embody the personalized patient care that customers get from their trusted Health Mart community pharmacist, according to McKesson.

Citing data from Nielsen Co., McKesson reported that sales of private-label products are growing faster than those of branded items across most OTC categories, with revenue up 7% over the past year.

"McKesson continues to provide Health Mart pharmacies with innovative solutions and tools that support our goal of delivering high-quality, personal care to our communities," stated Michael Butler of Village Health Mart pharmacy in Hot Springs, Ark. "We are very excited about the launch of the Health Mart private label during American Diabetes Month, as studies have shown that community pharmacists can play an important role in helping diabetic patients better manage their condition. In addition to valuable programs such as the Diabetes Life Center and the Health Mart Healthy Living Tour, the Health Mart private-label diabetes products will further enable us to showcase our leadership in diabetes care." 

Health Mart is the fourth-largest drug chain by store count, with about 2,900 pharmacy locations, and the sixth-largest by dollar volume, with revenue of nearly $7 billion, according to research by Racher Press Inc., publisher of Chain Drug Review.