Can personalized nutrition help democratize wellness and health in an uncertain market?
September 3, 2024
Bayer acquired Care/of in 2020 for $225 million. Care/of is a New York-based company that is growing in popularity. This acquisition solidified the market into a well-funded and defined industry. One year later. There are over 425 companies that offer personalized nutrition.Nestlé bought Persona in 2019 for an unspecified amount. DSM, a Dutch life sciences company, invested $100 million to launch Hologram Sciences by 2021.
Care/of’s initial success was due to the fact that it asked consumers to complete a 5-minute online survey – a simple and straightforward process that revealed the vitamin regimen they should be taking. The vitamin packs are delivered by mail. The company was popularized by experts during the Covid-19 outbreak. Consumers prioritize health, buy more wellness and supplements.
The honeymoon didn't last. Bayer faced a number of financial problems, some of which were related to Monsanto's lawsuits. In addition, the company restructured earlier this year. NutraIngredients – USA received a report from a source.The parent company was under greater financial pressure than Care/of, but Growth forecastsBayer Consumer Health. Experts say Care/of made a serious business mistake by entering the retail business without a vision of how it would compete with other physical supplement companies.
Dr. Arielle Levitan, MD,Co-founder of Vous Vitamin – which provides all-in-one vitamin blends based on a health and lifestyle questionnaire – said Care/of had been a fierce competitor for years and was a key player in developing the personalised vitamin market.
She added: "They had a lot of money and they used it to put the idea of a personalized vitamin regimen in the minds of many people." They made it easier for consumers to understand the differences between mass-market options and personalized options. Now it's up to other players to provide value to those same consumers.
The global personalized nutrition market is expected to grow by around By 2027, $23 billion will be spentNoah Voreades is the founder and CEO of GenBiome Consulting. He believes that consumers are not spending a large portion of their budget on personalized supplements.
He said that "Bayer's decision to terminate Care/of is a sign of a major reevaluation by consumer healthcare companies."
Investors may not be as comfortable with 23andMe as they are with other companies. The company specializes in personalized biotechnology and genomics.This company is involved in the development of expensive drugs and has an ongoing dispute over a data breach.The company's shares closed at around 0.31 $ on Thursday. The company's shares hit a 52-week high of 1.25 $ on Thursday, February 4, 2021. The previous high was 17.65 $.
Voreades said the venture capital industry has responded to recent downturns by becoming more selective when allocating funds to startups. They must be able to show a minimum return of 3 to 5 times over a period not exceeding seven years.
These are the three main things you can do. [personalized nutrition] “Companies are engaged in a battle on multiple fronts,” he said.
With the introduction of new technologies, competition for market share has intensified. Companies are now less inclined to distribute supplements based solely on questionnaires. Instead, they have integrated wearables and a variety of biometric tests to better profile the user and their health needs.
Despite a cautious investor climate, Everlywell, a company that offers at-home lab tests, had a market value of $3.61 billion in 2023, according to UpMarket. Voreades said the company reached “unicorn” status when it combined its lab tests with supplement solutions.
Function Health has also received capital. It recently raised $53 million in Series A funding and has celebrity endorsements from Matt Damon, Colin Kaepernick, and others. The company uses biomarker testing and offers over 100 lab tests, including brain and hormone tests. The cost is $499 $ per year, which works out to $42 $ per month.
What is personalization?
Roger J. Williams, an American biochemist born in 1950, was the first to describe the concept of individualized nutrition. Genetotrophic diseasesAs "a disease that occurs when a person's genetic profile requires a high level of nutrition for one or more of these nutrients."
In 2003, personalized nutrition was a concept that aimed to help individuals develop healthy eating habits.
Kenn Israel is the founder and principal of Innovation Nutrition Consulting. He said that while personalization has been in the works for a long time, it was Theranos’s key findings on the microbiome and testing of hair, saliva and DNA that made it possible to detect hormones and understand how minerals are metabolized.
Theranos, a privately held health care company founded in 2003 by a man who claimed to be the inventor of a blood-testing technology that could run hundreds of tests with just a small amount of blood from a finger prick. The company’s claims were discredited in 2015, shortly after Theranos was valued at $10 billion.
The Theranos deception hasn’t stopped the growth of personalized nutrition companies. Many companies continue to collect and test biomaterials such as saliva, stool, and blood samples to get more accurate interpretations.
Ali Mostashari, CEO of LifeNome, is a B2B company that offers personalized services based on genomic AI for the food, fitness and beauty industries, as well as insurance, preventive healthcare and other businesses.
He said “precision health” is when there is real data. We take into account what people say in surveys, but we look at thousands of clinical trials that link genomics, methylation and the microbiome to specific needs that people might not have mentioned.
A pregnant woman may need folate without knowing she is predisposed to folate deficiency. A questionnaire cannot detect this, and a blood test is needed to check.
Mostashari said: “I would say precision health represents a higher level of individualization.”
What is the best way to fill a specific need?
The last time I saw you was several years ago. Dr Romy BlockVous Vitamin co-founder Judith Felt has noticed that patients are increasingly contacting her, confused about which supplements or vitamins they should be taking.
Patients' needs were not being adequately met by commercial products. They were not changing their symptoms. "Their health was not improving," she said. In some cases, the products were causing unwanted side effects.
Companies trying to alleviate these fears often provide 10 daily tablets or powders at 100 $ per month.
According to Dr. Block, "Based on our years of clinical practice and our experience in the medical field, we wonder if consumers can stick to these personalized routines, because no one likes to swallow a bunch of pills of different sizes and shapes."
Blood and genetic test results aren't as accurate over the long term, she said. Lifestyle choices such as dietary changes will cause vitamin levels to fluctuate from what the blood test shows.
The field of nutrigenetics is so new that just because a gene is present in a person's body doesn't necessarily mean it is active.
Israel believes that science still has much to learn.
He said: "The science is not there yet. It needs to be." How many Apple Watches do you see? How many have had a DNA test? We could get somewhere if you combined that with blood testing. "One or two of these companies will clearly show that the value they offer is greater than the 150 $ per month price they charge."
You Vitamin claims its vitamin blends are more convenient and affordable for consumers (about $30 per monthly subscription). Brad Helfand said customization is better integrated into the product than introducing new packaging such as the pillbox.
You can repeat the process at Target or Costco. [the Care/of model]" Helfand explained. We take data and ask ourselves, 'How can we design our product in a way that is more appealing to the mass market?'
Voreades acknowledged that Care/of doesn’t offer a clear value advantage over buying products separately in retail stores. One consultant who has worked on 25 or more customized plans noted that California-based Elo Health originally gave its customers packets of pills before switching to 3D-printed, seven-layer gummies.
He said: "I wasn't very compliant with the pill packets because I would look at them every morning and think, 'Do I have to take 10 pills?'
Artificial intelligence
Companies recognize that some people may find it physically intrusive to submit a stool or saliva sample. Imagine being able to accurately assess an individual’s nutritional needs while capturing biological data with minimal information.
Mostashari said AI will change the field of personalized nutrition, so companies will no longer need to run multiple tests to assess disease risks or supplement regimens, or modulate microbiomes. AI tools can collect data from large datasets, such as the UK Biobank. Data from more than 500,000 participants is included in the large, long-term database of biomedical research supported by the British government.
Instead of filling out a 30-point questionnaire, an individual could provide data to a company that would compare their responses to databases and population health information. The AI would match an individual to a subgroup and then make personal predictions and recommendations based on that information. Mostashari said this process would ultimately cost less for the consumer.
He added: “AI is very powerful because it can do that.” People don’t like to give data, so they won’t have to. “We will only have a small amount of data from users so that we can personalize our services.”
Mostashari believes that this information should also be stored in a non-profit consortium.
He said 67,% of people were okay with their data being used for research if it was not for the sole benefit of one company and could contribute to a wider body of academic knowledge. There is a notion in a market economy that everyone can make money. I don't agree with that unless other people benefit from it.
Human touch
Research supports the idea that personalized nutrition can be democratized or made more accessible. Joshua Anthony is the founder and CEO of the consulting firm Nlumn. He said that while subscription fees and product prices may be prohibitive for some Americans, most people are interested in personalized nutrition.
Nlumn data shows that 57% of 3,000 U.S. respondents expressed interest in personalized nutrition, as well as other aspects of personal health and wellness. This includes supplementation, fitness, and wellness practices. The most interested were households earning between $50,000 and $99,000 per year. However, 46% of respondents said subscription services were too expensive. According to the consultants interviewed for this article, 63% of consumers want significant help from their healthcare providers. This includes advice from a dietitian.
Anthony said people are looking for help to make lifestyle choices. I think it's important to provide personalized nutrition with support and access so we can reach those who need it.
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