The forecast for over-the-counter remedies is sunny, both immediate and long term.Uwe Reinhardt, professor of economics at Princeton University, told a packed room on the conference's last day that no matter how the health care crisis plays out for pharmaceutical p layers, the business of OTC should benefit. "If the insurance carriers knew what they were doing," the economist said, "they would actually cover most [OTCs] by having some reimbursement, rather than only prescription drugs.

" If health care spending this country continues to trend as it has, the United States will spend the equivalent of 17 percent of its gross domestic product (some $1.4 trillion) on health care.Though the increase in health care spending will result mostly from hospital stays, there still will be pressure to reduce prescription drug costs, especially from managed care. And that pressure will result in higher OTC utilization--whether it's consumers driven to OTCs by higher co-pays or whether it's consumers attracted to OTCs because they are covered by insurance.

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