Dear Reader,
No this isn’t a Bridgerton Lady Whistledown letter, but it certainly reveals some juicy intel from my trip to to Supply Side West (SSW) 2024 in Las Vegas. You might have seen on LinkedIn, I was on a mission to find the latest trends and bring home intel for our clients – and I hit the show and the retail stores, hard!
Having been involved in the complementary healthcare industry for over 20 years at a retail level all the way through to lecturing, brand-side product development and regulatory affairs, and now as General Manager of HPS (and everything in between!), I can spot innovation and trends from a mile away.
Here are my insights, including some home truths, about the trends I saw (and what was left to be desired).
GLP-1
GLP-1 trended across the show and in retail in the US. From products and ingredients acting as ‘replacements’ for GLP-1’s , and supporting products used to minimise GLP-1 side effects, the prominence was noticeable – and that’s an understatement. What will be interesting to see, is how this translates to the Australian landscape. We don’t have as many users down under of GLP-1s like Ozempic, Mounjaro and Wegovy, mainly due to the lack of supply and our small population, but the number and interest is steadily growing, so I expect this category will too.
This steady growth (and global trend) translates to a major opportunity for brands and ingredient suppliers wanting to move into this space with ‘faux-zempic’ offerings to leverage the trend. A new trend with a potential for immense sales volumes and attention means whether you’re in product development, brand ownership or regulatory affairs, you need to keep your wits about you. I saw raw material suppliers dusting off studies from the back catalogue (some even right back to 2002), some with questionable evidence (barely scraping statistical significance, and no clinical significance to be seen) with tiny population groups, and a LOT of ‘window dressing’ for ingredients and products with even a hint of a link to GLP-1.
My key takeaway from SSW on the topic of GLP-1 replacements– be careful not to get too carried away with the shiny claims; there is a high level of risk attached to this category. The TGA’s current Evidence Guidelines (and historical negative bias) towards weight loss indications means they’re hard to retain under the pressure of a post-market review, as most of the evidence when you scratch the surface won’t meet the minimum hurdles to demonstrate efficacy by the TGAs standards.
The opportunity I see here is in the “support” space. Could we see a complementary medicine being recommended by Doctors with their GLP-1 prescription, much like we see with CoQ10 and statins? I certainly hope so!
Get in touch if you are interested in exploring this space, whether you’d like to brush up on your evidence development skills for weight loss indications, the development of a GLP-1 support range, or even leveraging your existing product suite for this purpose.
Fit Lifestyle
Along with losing weight, the ‘Fit Lifestyle’ category maintained a strong (and growing) presence. This makes sense, after all when you’ve got roughly 12% of American consumers[1] having used a GLP-1 drug, losing weight quickly and feeling the best they have in a long time, brands want to capitalise on helping them maintain (and build) their fitness level.
At a store level, this trend was evident from a ranging perspective and from the burgeoning number of products with cross functional benefits. Historically we might have seen clear lines delineating between electrolytes, greens powders and plant-based protein formulations, but in store, the lines are blurring with many greens powders also offering plant based protein and electrolytes (with some probiotics thrown in) because with so many consumers undergoing dramatic body transformations (and having a tiny appetite) packing as much into one formulation as possible and making it a one-stop shop is a must.
For Australian brands wanting to compete in this space, this means there’s a real cross over between the food-medicine interface, due to the ingredients, claims and overall product positioning of these kinds of products. The food-medicine interface is a tricky one to navigate in Australia, so if you’re not sure whether your product idea is a food or a medicine, you may be interested in our blog here. Alternatively, get in touch for a quick assessment by our team.
What else?
Nootropics have NOT left building. In fact, coupled with healthy ageing and a need to optimise your daily performance (see Fit Lifestyle above), this trend has not slowed down. Whilst the ‘medicinal mushroom’ marketing seemed to have slowed, the nootropic aspect had not. Some ‘older’ ingredients like choline (marketed to promote memory, mood and neuromuscular function), probiotics and postbiotics and the gut-brain connection, plus herbal extracts all featured heavily in space.
Did I see anything that was truly innovative? After a little break from the international tradeshow circuit, it was great to see what has changed and evolved in raw materials. Of particular note (and to be clear, as always, there is no partnership, sponsorship or kickbacks linked here, just genuine curiosity and intrigue), I came across a supplier of plant cell cultivation for botanical extracts. Essentially, nature-identical herbal extracts cultivated from the plant cell genome. Completely unusable in listed medicines in Australia at the moment, but I had a really interesting (and totally geeked out) discussion about cellular cultivation and ‘first-ever’ plant cell cultivated Lemon Balm, Echinacea and other herbal extracts. As a naturopath with a deep sense of respect for Mother Nature and the important plant medicines she provides us, paired with concern for the ongoing sustainability of these natural resources, the idea of plant-cell cultivated extracts is super interesting to me.
It’s so easy to get swept up in the moment at shows like this, and despite my natural desire to make these new and innovative ingredients and manufacturing processes ‘fit’ the Australian regulatory landscape, there is no doubt that these are not quick-wins. It is a good reminder about the importance of a well-rounded product development strategy, one that has a healthy mix of quick commercial wins balanced with blue-sky projects that require greater investment in research and development.
If you came across a similar amazing ingredient on your travels and you’re not sure if you can use it in Australia – or perhaps you want to pioneer and bring it to Australia, we have a 100% strike rate getting new substances approved in Australia, so get in touch! Equally, it may be time to re-group on your product development strategy and range architecture and our “Clarity Accelerator” is the perfect option here.
All-in all it was a great show with many new connections made and existing relationships tended to. In the city which is like no other place on Earth, the show never seems to slow down, with more exhibitors promised next year.
Until then, I’ll be working with our clients to execute the many opportunities I brought back to them!
Cheers,
Rhi
