GSK Launches Contac Brand Revamp in Collaboration with Eight Leading Chinese Retail Pharmacy Chains

On September 23, 2021, Contac NT held a grand brand relaunch ceremony at the 2021 China Health Industry (International) Eco-Conference (hereinafter referred to as the “Xipu Conference”). Gu Haiying, General Manager of GSK Consumer Healthcare for Mainland China and Hong Kong; Yao Peichun, Chairman of Sino-American SmithKline & French (Tianjin) Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.; Zhang Zhanhong, General Manager of the Over-the-Counter (OTC) Business Unit of GSK Consumer Healthcare; and Zhou Qiang, Deputy General Manager of Sino-American SmithKline & French (Tianjin) Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., joined hands with senior executives from eight leading domestic retail pharmacy chains to jointly unveil the new brand. This brand upgrade reflects Contac NT’s continuous innovation to meet increasingly evolving consumer demands and underscores its solemn commitment to safeguarding the respiratory health of the general public.

New Contac Brand Relaunch Launch Ceremony

“Leveraging its robust R&D capabilities, Contac NT continues to launch innovative products. The successful launch of this new product helps enhance consumers’ efficiency in managing respiratory diseases,” said Ms. Gu Haiying, General Manager of GSK Consumer Healthcare for Mainland China and Hong Kong, at the brand revitalization ceremony. “We aim to collaborate with industry partners to jointly build an ecosystem for consumer self-health management, promote the efficient development of China’s health industry, and contribute to the ‘Healthy China’ initiative.”

Ms. Gu Haiying, General Manager of GSK Consumer Healthcare for Mainland China and Hong Kong

Cold and flu medications represent the largest category among over-the-counter (OTC) drugs, characterized by substantial overall demand. They serve as a key traffic-driving category for brick-and-mortar pharmacies. Furthermore, as a highly associated product category, cold and flu medications offer numerous opportunities for cross-category interaction and bundled sales, making them a significant driver of basket size growth in pharmacies. However, in recent years, cold and flu medications—particularly Western pharmaceutical formulations—have increasingly failed to meet consumer demands and pharmacy needs due to factors such as regulatory oversight and severe product homogenization.

As a professional brand with over 30 years of expertise in respiratory health, Contac actively embraces challenges by launching its new product, Contac Paracetamol, Caffeine and Chlorphenamine Maleate Tablets. Formulated with three key ingredients, this new offering provides rapid and potent relief from seven bothersome cold and flu symptoms, including fever, headache, nasal congestion, and runny nose, significantly enhancing consumers’ efficiency in managing colds. The new formulation is free from pseudoephedrine, aligning with regulatory policy trends. Meanwhile, it will provide pharmacies with enhanced online and offline channel support, facilitating rapid development in store shelf placement, new retail O2O sectors, and the establishment of high-quality private domain traffic systems. This helps retail pharmacies improve sales per square meter and unlock business growth potential.

Leveraging its profound brand heritage and professional image in the field of respiratory health, Contac NT’s recent brand upgrade will unleash powerful brand promotion and traffic-driving capabilities. Through a series of co-branded initiatives, it empowers pharmacy partners to build private-domain traffic systems within a homogeneous market, enhance brand recognition, and drive business growth. Furthermore, by coordinating consumer education campaigns and science popularization activities on respiratory health, the initiative aims to improve the professional service quality of pharmacy pharmacists and disseminate relevant knowledge and healthy living tips to consumers, thereby boosting consumer loyalty and satisfaction towards both the brand and pharmacies.

New Contac Paracetamol, Caffeine and Chlorphenamine Maleate Tablets Successfully Launched

At the “Xipu Night Talk” event, New Contac invited over 400 chain pharmacy partners to jointly witness its brand revitalization campaign. Zhang Zhanhong, General Manager of the Consumer Healthcare Over-the-Counter (OTC) Business Unit, China, at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), emphasized: “The upgrade of the New Contac brand is not only a manifestation of our self-driven innovation and breakthroughs, but also a fulfillment of our commitment to the field of respiratory health. New Contac focuses on the experience of every consumer and is dedicated to achieving mutual benefit and win-win outcomes with our partners. We hope to join hands with retail pharmacy partners to ‘breathe together, share our destiny,’ build a robust and healthy marketplace, uphold our role as the frontline of pharmacies, and safeguard the respiratory health of countless households.”

Zhang Zhanhong, General Manager of China Region, OTC Division, GSK Consumer Healthcare

Amid this brand refresh, New Contac has also launched an initiative, inviting industry partners to become its “Respiratory Health Brand Partners.” Leveraging its new brand positioning, New Contac aims to deepen collaboration with industry stakeholders in promoting the concepts of scientific medication, symptom-targeted therapy, and precision medicine tailored to refined needs; enrich its respiratory health product portfolio; exchange insights on innovation and breakthroughs in R&D; and work together to meet the growing public demand for health awareness and proactive health management. Looking ahead, New Contac will continue to leverage its strong capabilities to support the development of retail pharmacies and facilitate the upgrading of the healthcare industry.