Scott Melville, CHPA

Scott Melville has spent more than 15 years elevating self-care from a collection of consumer health categories to an increasingly important part of the nation’s healthcare system.

As president and chief executive officer of the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, Melville helped transform the organization from an association focused primarily on over-the-counter medicines into a broader voice for self-care, bringing O-T-C medicines, dietary supplements and O-T-C medical devices under one vision.

“My mission is to lead the industry’s primary trade association and realize its vision of happier, healthier lives through responsible self-care,” Melville says. “We advocate for our industry, convene and educate our members, and help consumers on their self-care journey.”

His tenure has included significant policy achievements. CHPA helped conceive and advocate for O-T-C Monograph reform, enacted in 2020, which modernized the regulatory system governing nonprescription medicines and created a more efficient pathway for innovation. That year, federal legislation also restored HSA and FSA eligibility for O-T-C medicines and, for the first time, extended it to feminine hygiene ­products.

Melville also championed efforts to preserve consumers’ access to pseudoephedrine as an O-T-C medicine and to reverse state laws that had moved the product to prescription-only status. He strengthened CHPA’s relationships with the FDA and policymakers while guiding the industry through the COVID-19 pandemic and a changing healthcare environment.

For Melville, the most rewarding part has been the people. “Our industry is full of competitors, yet they come together through CHPA to advocate for self-care,” he says.

Melville plans to step down in early 2027 as CHPA approaches its 150th anniversary.