Bosco also expanded in the consumer-health sector. Traditionally lower-margin business than brand-name prescription drugs, consumer health had been growing rapidly and offered some often overlooked advantages. For example, there were limits on the synergies available for acquiring prescription pharmaceutical products. A pharmaceutical sales force could, at maximum, promote two products. After a merger, both legacy sales organizations were needed; however, a consumer business somewhat resembled a catalog business because new products could be added to existing sales and marketing organizations
Driven by that logic, Bosco's consumer healthcare division acquired Winthrough Consumer Health for $2 billion in August 2005. The deal brought Bosco pain relievers, antiseptic creams, and multivitamins, making Bosco the third-largest provider of nonprescription medicines. At the time, analysts thought Bosco had significantly overpaid for Winthrough. But compared with more recent acquisitions in the over-the-counter (OTC) consumer sector, Bosco actually got a bargain and the advantage of being in on the start of the OTC consolidation
One particularly hard decision Bosco made was to exit a market that had been one of the richest in health care for decades: diagnostics. At the time, the market speculated that this was a high-risk strategy, and yet, 18 months later, just as with the Winthrough acquisition, it was considered a smart move. Letting go of diagnostics not only improved Bosco's profitability but also served as the catalyst that allowed the company to focus more closely on specialty products