Medical Foods: How Does the Industry Tackle This New Market?

Alcimed, an Innovation and New Business consulting firm, addresses the case of medical foods indications, their trends and new opportunities on this market for industry players
By: Alcimed
 
PRINCETON, N.J. - Nov. 21, 2014 - PRLog -- Medical foods or Food for Special Medical Purposes are food products specifically formulated for the nutritional management of diseases, disorders or specific medical conditions.  They must be taken under medical supervision; however they do not need market authorization approval prior to their launch.

Historically, medical food products were designed to partially or fully feed patients whose nutritional needs could not be met by conventional foods – usually due to their hospitalization or certain metabolic disorders. Today’s new developments target those therapeutic areas that have a strong impact on public health: chronic disorders, cardiovascular diseases, aging, etc. These developments are a new approach, complementary to existing ones, for the prevention or management of diseases.

A high growth market: $9 billion sales worldwide in 2011 and an annual growth of 10%

Pharmaceutical and food companies currently face daunting challenges, to which portfolio diversification with medical foods could bring answers. Indeed, pharmaceutical players need to find solutions to overcome their losses in sales due to the ever present patent cliffs, while food companies have to find new ways of offering high-margin products since their historic markets suffer from a strong increase in raw material prices.

The market potential is huge - $9 billion in global sales in 2011[1] - and its growth should be strong and sustained in the years to come, at a rate of 10% per year. Significant growth opportunities can be seized for those products backed by robust scientific data and clinical studies.

A case-by-case strategy on this new market

Medical food creates yet another interface between the food and pharma industries. First and foremost, the challenges to face are scientific and technological: understand the asset’s mechanism of action, establish the proper formulation and demonstrate the product’s added value through clinical trials. Then, the development of such products relies on a truly multidisciplinary approach as they frequently need to be paired with diagnostic tools or medical devices.

Strategic choices must be made with regard to the product’s positioning. The links between nutrition and health are complex and for the most part still not well understood. Results from clinical trials are often heterogeneous, varying from one patient to another. Should the product target the whole pool of patients in the indication? Or should it be offered to a niche group of patients in which the results are the most convincing?

The price is a critical element in the product’s positioning, even more so as reimbursement is becoming harder and harder to obtain.  There are no comparators. As a consequence, the choice of the price will greatly impact the perception healthcare professionals and patients have of the product, which tends to be seen merely as a dietary supplement from a lack of general knowledge about this class.

Lastly, pharma and food players can implement different marketing and commercial strategies: they can choose to focus primarily on healthcare professionals or on the general public. These strategies must be adapted on a case-by-case basis, depending on the product itself, its results in clinical trials, and the profile of targeted patients. Regardless, they should highlight the value brought by this booming yet relatively unknown category of products.

Souvenaid is an interesting example of medical food for Alzheimer’s patients. It is already marketed by Nutricia in several countries, including Germany and the UK. The results of the clinical trials varied depending on the stage of the disease. Thus, Souvenaid is positioned as a product offering a new nutritional approach that provides key nutrients to help support memory in aging adults suffering from prodromal or early Alzheimer’s disease thanks to its combination of active ingredients that help synapse function and development. Communications on Souvenaid stress on its benefits on memory. Nutricia chose a dual strategy: addressing key opinion leaders while having a communication geared towards patients and carers, given their strong expectations. “The balance is hard to find, all the more as the product costs around £1,300 per year (in the UK) and is not reimbursed” says Vanessa Hanifa, Business Unit Director at Alcimed.

About Alcimed

Alcimed is an Innovation and New Business consulting firm, specializing in innovative sectors: life sciences (food, biotech, healthcare), energy, aeronautics, ICT, chemicals, cosmetics, materials, transportation, space and defense. Thanks to a team of 180 highly skilled people, Alcimed’s mission is to help our clients in the private and public sectors explore and develop uncharted territories. This mission covers four types of uncharted territories: New Technologies, Market Innovation, High growth geographies and Strategic Foresight. The company, headquartered in Paris has seven offices in Europe, one in the United States and one in Asia.

[1] Global Industry Analyst, 2011

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Tags:Medical Food, Ingredient, Nutraceutical, Alternative Medical Therapy, Healthy
Industry:Food, Health
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