What the data says, and what it does not
Before the month-by-month, a word on the numbers. IQVIA publishes a public report every month on the Spanish pharmacy market and comments on the categories that moved most. It is not a seasonality series covering all twelve months of each category: it is snapshots of specific months, from different years, with categories that change from one report to the next. This calendar puts those snapshots together and checks them against what is known from the health calendar. Where there is no public figure, we say so.
Two practical consequences. First, the figures below are national market data and tell you when to look, not how much you will sell. Second, once you have a year of sales by product family in your pharmacy management system, your own curve outranks any report.
Summary table
| Moment | When it starts to move | What goes up on the shelf | What the screen says |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sun | February-March | Sun protection, after sun, travel kit | How to choose sunscreen; skin type; care with children |
| Allergy | March-April, peak in May | OTC antihistamines, nasal rinse, eye care | What helps through spring; when to see a doctor |
| Summer | June-July | Wound healing, bites, travel first-aid kit | Holiday kit; hydration; heatstroke |
| Back to school | Late August-September | Head lice treatments, vitamins, hygiene | Checking heads at home; school kit |
| Respiratory | October onwards | Painkillers, mucolytics, thermometers, tests | Hand hygiene, when to see a doctor, vaccination |
| Christmas | Late November | Dermocosmetic gifts, gift packs | Gift ideas, holiday opening hours and on-call rota |
February and March: the sun arrives earlier than it seems
IQVIA's report with February 2025 data records an increase in sun product sales: +21.4% on January, to EUR 14.4 million in the month, and EUR 351 million over the twelve months to February 2025 (+5.5% year on year). In other words, the sun market is already moving while it is still cold. An earlier report, from March 2022, already noted that pharmacies were restocking sun products and the traveller's kit ahead of Easter trips.
On the shelf: if sunscreens show up in May, the campaign is late. Restocking and the gondola-end space are prepared in February. One detail almost nobody plans for: Easter moves between March and April, so the travel kit and facial sun products have to come out earlier when it falls early.
On the screens: advice before offers. How to pick an SPF for a skin type, how often to reapply, what to do with children. Any properties claimed for a product must comply with health advertising rules; the guide to pricing and advertising rules explains where the line is.
March to May: allergy gives no warning
In IQVIA's May 2023 report, antihistamines billed EUR 24 million in the month (+13.24% on May 2022) and EUR 187 million between April 2022 and May 2023. IQVIA attributes it to the arrival of spring, with more fungal spores, high temperatures and dry weather. In the February 2025 report, the anti-allergy and respiratory category was already up 6.0% on January, to EUR 2.1 million, with +13.7% year on year over twelve months (EUR 30.9 million). Spring, then, shows up in the figures before it shows up in the tissues.
There is another clue in the same May 2023 report: vitamins and minerals rose 9.08% on the previous month, EUR 14 million in the month, and IQVIA suggests spring fatigue or the end of the school year as possible causes. That is the report's hypothesis, not a certainty, but it justifies keeping supplements near the allergy area without attributing to them anything that is not authorised.
On the shelf: allergy is not just the antihistamine. Nasal rinses, eye drops, dust-mite sprays and nasal barriers make up a set that is bought together. Grouping them in one zone is worth more than adding a second facing of the antihistamine.
On the screens: non-prescription medicines can be advertised, prescription ones cannot. Within what is allowed, useful advice (what to do on high-pollen days, when to book an appointment) works better than a list of brands.
June to August: holiday kit and damaged skin
The July 2025 report gives a clean case of a seasonal pattern, wound-healing products: IQVIA speaks of "recurring billing peaks in the summer months", with EUR 1.7 million in July, 32.44% more than in June. It is a small category (EUR 15.1 million over the year), but it illustrates something general: in summer people buy first-aid items, and they buy them together, before the trip.
On the shelf: a holiday kit built as a set (disinfectant, dressings, healing cream, topical antihistamine, sun protection) saves the customer five stops. With a bundle price or without, what matters is that it visibly is a set.
On the screens: services. Summer opening hours, medication to take on a trip, how to store drugs in the heat (and, if you have a fridge, what changes: the article on electronic shelf labels for the pharmacy fridge covers it). And if summer brings in cover staff, a screen with instructions says what nobody has time to repeat.
September: back to school
We found no public IQVIA series for this category, but there is a wholesaler figure. According to the Cofares Trends Observatory, as reported by Redacción Médica in October 2023, unit sales of head lice treatments rose 22% over the past year compared with 2022 levels, and in September 2023 they grew in every region (Madrid +32%, Catalonia +18%, Andalusia +14%). The piece links the rise to children going back to school and nursery. It is a single source and does not say what the regional figures are compared against, so read it as direction rather than measurement: September pushes head lice.
On the shelf: lice treatments and nit combs in the paediatric area, next to hair care. Vitamins and minerals if the pharmacy works that category, with the same caution about authorised claims.
On the screens: instructions for checking at home and when to ask at the counter. It is a good month for service, more than for offers.
October to February: the respiratory winter
Here there is solid official data. The Ministry of Health explains in its 2026-2027 recommendations that the flu vaccination campaign will start from the last week of September and during October, with a date adaptable to dose availability. And the SiVIRA surveillance system recorded, in the 2025-2026 season, a flu epidemic period from week 47/2025 to week 3/2026, peaking in week 50 (438.8 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in primary care). The previous season ran from week 52/2024 to week 9/2025, peaking in week 4/2025. The epidemic came about five weeks earlier from one year to the next.
That gap is the argument against a fixed campaign date. Whoever set up the respiratory display on "1 December" was late in 2025 and on time in 2024.
On the shelf: non-prescription painkillers and cough remedies, thermometers, self-test kits and hygiene products, grouped and visible from mid-October. With cough remedies, paracetamol and ibuprofen in the same space, customers find what they are looking for sooner.
On the screens: the October message is vaccination, with the details from your autonomous community's calendar (each one organises the procedure). In December, hand hygiene and when not to wait it out. Make clear what is advice and what is selling.
December: Christmas and on-call rotas
We found no reliable public IQVIA data on gift seasonality in pharmacies, and nothing that follows is a figure. It is merchandising practice: in December the dermocosmetics customer buys to give, and someone buying to give needs to see a clear price and the complete pack without asking.
On the shelf: cosmetics and fragrance packs, hand and lip care (the cold puts them in the front line), and a gift stand by price band.
On the screens: holiday opening hours and the on-call (duty) pharmacy rota. At this time of year it is what people ask about most at the counter, and the most useful thing a screen can answer without anyone raising their voice.
How to keep the calendar from falling apart
A campaign calendar fails in three ways, and all three show up at the January meeting.
The start fails. The data above shows that the market moves before the announcement: sun products in February, vaccination in October. The useful rule is to set each campaign's start four weeks ahead of the first sign in the figures, not off the date in the almanac.
The removal fails. An allergy poster in July makes everything else the screen says look careless. Every item has an end date from the day it is created.
The measurement fails. Without a baseline you cannot tell whether the campaign worked. Record sales of the families involved for the four weeks before and during, and compare them with the same period last year. The guide on what to show on the screens explains how to organise that measurement.
A note on manual work. In a campaign, the same product changes place, grouping and sometimes price several times a year. With paper labels, that means hours of relabelling and a real chance that shelf and till say different things. It is one of the arguments for considering electronic shelf labels in the pharmacy and, if the parapharmacy area is large, labels for parapharmacy and dermocosmetics. If part of your space is taken by manufacturer campaigns, the article on retail media in pharmacies covers how to organise it without breaking the rules.
What any pharmacy can do this week
- Pull from your management system the monthly sales of five families (sun, anti-allergy, wound healing, respiratory, gifts) for the last two years.
- Mark the month each one starts to rise. That is your real start date.
- Write next to it the removal date and who sets up and takes down.
- Check against the guide to pricing and advertising rules what each screen may say.
That gives you a calendar of your own, more reliable than any generic one, this one included.
Sources
- IQVIA: Evolución del mercado de la farmacia española, datos de mayo 2023
- IQVIA: Evolución del mercado de la farmacia española, datos de febrero 2025
- IQVIA: Evolución del mercado de la farmacia española, datos de julio 2025
- IQVIA: Evolución del mercado de la farmacia española, datos de marzo 2022
- Ministerio de Sanidad: Recomendaciones de vacunación frente a la gripe, temporada 2026-2027 (incluye datos SiVIRA 2024-2025 y 2025-2026)
- Redacción Médica: La venta de antipiojos aumenta un 22% en 2023, en comparación con el periodo de 2022, según Cofares (4 oct 2023)
- Texto refundido de la Ley de garantías y uso racional de los medicamentos y productos sanitarios, art. 80 (BOE)
