Nutraceuticals
Demand for nutraceuticals skyrockets
Fueled by the pandemic, a growing population, and increased access to technologies, certain sectors of the life sciences have attracted attention for how quickly they are growing. Not only do these areas of innovation generate revenue and create employment opportunities, but they often can be used to amplify domestic healthcare coverage, adeptly penetrating rural and suburban regions of India that are often excluded from centralized health schemes.
India’s soaring population, set to overtake China as the world’s largest by 2028, is witnessing a transformation. Life expectancy is on the rise and middle-class incomes are growing, driving greater demand for healthcare products coupled with the financial means to better afford them. Many consumers, taking the pandemic as a wakeup call to become empowered in making choices about their health, are increasingly conscious about lifestyle-related treatments and therapies that can help prevent illness before it occurs.
Despite having a deep tradition of ayurvedic medicine, India’s health industry pre-Covid was driven nearly exclusively by prescriptions, even when it came to OTC products like vitamins. Yet industry stakeholders are observing a paradigm shift unfold as people realize that if they take proper care of their health, they are more likely to survive diseases. “Within India, people are starting to take vitamins and exercise more, for example, without waiting for direct instructions from a doctor to do so,” explained Vishal Rajgarhia, marketing director of Finecure Pharmaceuticals.
“Whether it is from climate conditions, pollution, continuous population growth, or stressful lifestyles, new health issues will continue to emerge. To counter these issues, medicines and preventative healthcare is paramount, but people will also have to resort to the Indian system of health by which you eat healthy and do yoga, meditation, or exercises which will relax you without putting any extra chemicals in your body.”
Rajiv Maniyar, CEO, Aligns International
In this way, the life sciences industry is making headway into the personalized medicine, and in doing so, is harkening back to a style of medicine that was practiced thousands of years before the world adapted its current, one-size-fits-all model. Enabling this transition are modern online educational resources and commercial platforms that consumers can access to make purchases directly. “We see a clear trend in the e-commerce segment in which people now have more trust and acceptance towards nutraceutical products and herbal supplements that emphasize health and wellness,” commented Sagar Patel, director of Vasu Healthcare.
In addition to the catalyst of a global pandemic and the advent of digital tools that empower consumers, the rising prevalence of certain health conditions may in itself be amplifying the need for nutraceuticals. “Beyond the shock of Covid-19, chronic ailments are becoming more prevalent, and pharmaceuticals do not necessarily have clean solutions for many chronic health issues,” said Chintan Gandhi, managing director of Millennium Herbal Care. “Even if you look at something as simple as high cholesterol, the patient is prescribed statins, which have side effects. This is where herbals and nutraceuticals have a large role to play.”
As the industry shifts from illness to wellness, the nutraceutical space has received more regulatory attention. In March 2022, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) drafted a new framework, the FSS (Nutra) Regulations 2022, that encompasses health supplements, nutraceuticals, food for special dietary or medical use, prebiotics, and probiotics. Two months later, the FSSAI provided slight amendments regarding the use of certain additives and enzymes.
Beyond enacting regulations, the Indian government also established an AYUSH export promotion counsel to help develop marketing for Indian companies and streamline regulations for exports to other countries with the overall aim to boost demand for the Ayurvedic sector. As part of this global ambition, in March 2022 the Government of India signed an agreement with the WHO to establish the WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine, which will create new methods of publishing information on traditional medicine from around the world in addition to outlining standards for testing and certification. This flurry of activity underscores how important the alternative medicines space has become within the life sciences, which is an immense advantage for patients around the world who now enjoy access to treatments that had not previously existed in the market.
Bombay Hemp Company, known as BOHECO, was established nearly a decade ago with a focus on the use of cannabis in the health and wellness sector. As India’s first medical hemp company, BOHECO was in many ways forging a new path. In doing so, the company identified an avenue to provide Indian patients seeking pain management for cancer and other chronic diseases an attractive alternative to narcotics. “India is a lead cultivator of opium, which is used for pain management for cancer and other chronic diseases,” explained Avnish Pandya, co-founder and chief research officer. Despite the country’s robust opium production, however, little goes to the Indian market given its high export potential. “As a result, there is a huge void in terms of analgesic and anti-inflammatory drugs that come from natural substances. This is where we see the historical use of cannabis having a significant impact on today’s patient population.”
In addition to its high export value, opiates are classified as narcotics, unlike cannabis, which is classified as an intoxicant. This distinction makes it all the more difficult for domestic patients to receive pain management. “We have heard from practitioners who have patients with stage 3 or stage 4 glioblastoma and have not been able to get access to carfentanil, codeine, or any other morphine derivative to manage pain because in order to get a small amount, they have to go through enormous amounts of paperwork,” commented Jahan Peston, a fellow co-founder and the company’s chief strategy officer.
“We combine indigenous knowledge passed down over thousands of years with modern extraction techniques.”
Avnish Pandya, Co-Founder and Chief Research Officer, Bombay Hemp Company
The evolution in consumer preferences in other sectors can also have an effect on the life sciences, as companies that are attuned to these changing demands can carve out new niches for themselves by adapting accordingly.
Gaurav Kaushik, managing director and CEO of Meteoric Biopharmaceuticals, a company founded in 2006 with a focus on biological enzymes that has since expanded its focus to probiotics, highlighted an innovative enzyme his company has brought to the market that fits within this framework. “The enzyme portfolio for any company is dominated by animal-derived enzymes, like pepsin and pancreatin that often come from pigs or cows,” Kaushik explained. “As the world is moving towards veganism, Meteoric Biopharmaceuticals developed a vegan alternative to pancreatin.”
According to Kaushik, his company has found commercial success for its product not only amongst people looking for alternatives to animal-derived products but also in countries that do not consume pork for religious reasons. Though not a pure-play nutraceuticals company in its own right, Meteoric Biopharmaceuticals demonstrates the power at play when life sciences innovators apply a forward-thinking approach to innovation.
With all the activity in the sector, the biggest task the nutraceutical sector currently faces is not to attract talent and resources or to come up with the next exciting innovations but rather to create an identity for itself separate from its pharmaceutical counterpart. As it stands, the recognition and legitimacy ofAyurvedic practices often relies on secondhand exposure from allopathic medicine.
“In many ways, the Indian nutraceutical industry is dominated by the pharma industry,” said Ankit Khokhani, director of Generex Pharmassist. “Unlike in the West where most consumers understand the difference between a company like Pfizer and a company like Nature’s Way or GNC, in India the space is very amalgamated, and it is actually pharma companies driving the growth of the nutraceutical industry. Here, the perception is anything that comes in a pill or a capsule is a drug.”
Gandhi of Millennium Herbal Care agrees. “Nutraceuticals and herbals deserve their own place within the life sciences,” he said, highlighting that unlike prescriptions that are only consumed for a specified time period, nutraceuticals, herbals, and probiotics should be seen as supplements that function as lifestyle additions. “It is the responsibility of alternative health companies to educate consumers on preventative medicine, an area the pharmaceutical industry is failing at.”
This process will take time, though with the work nutraceuticals companies and consumers alike are doing to increase awareness about what practices may best serve an individual’s health needs, the dialogue has already begun.
Image courtesy of Deposit photos