Lonza targets millennials with innovative capsules for beauty-from-within and joint health

02 Apr 2024 --- Lonza Capsules and Health Ingredients highlights the importance of science-backed ingredients and capsule technologies amid heightened consumer demand for supplements with proven health benefits.

Nutrition Insight meets the team to discuss the latest developments in collagen and beauty-from-within, how to communicate health benefits and the company’s capsule technologies. 

Emily Navarro, the company’s global product marketing manager for nutrition products and services, highlights that the company is launching a new campaign for its UC-II undenatured type-II collagen, “one of our biggest joint health ingredients.” 

“In the market, this new demographic is entering the joint health space. Joint health as we know it is evolving and expanding to include a younger audience. The millennials are getting close to mid-life and looking to be more proactive, maintain their health and wellness and stay moving.” 

“It’s not just about joints and knees anymore; it’s about [being able to keep] doing the things we love.” 

Booming collagen  
Navarro sees the collagen market booming. According to proprietary consumer research, “younger consumers are more likely to take products containing collagen to support their mobility, and they’re also just as interested in maintaining their mobility as their older counterparts.”  

She underscores that although people are taking collagen, there is confusion among consumers about the different forms and associated health benefits. “There’s a big opportunity here for brands to expand their focus from just joint health to appeal to the younger audience, talking about staying active and educating about what the different types of colleges can offer.” 

“We know this group is much more likely to pay more for products with clinically proven benefits. They want to know what to spend money on, especially in this economy. With UC-II, what stands out most is that we have an unsurpassed body of evidence-based and brand-specific research as well.” 

Moreover, while a daily dose of hydrolyzed collagen may be around 20,000 mg, UC-II consumers only need to take a small dose of 40 mg daily, making it more convenient.  

Younger consumers are more likely to take products containing collagen to support their mobility.Innovating capsules 
Juliana Erickson, product manager at Lonza Capsules & Health Ingredients, explains that innovation comes from the company’s customers, who focus on specific trending categories, such as beauty-from-within and women’s health. 

“When working with these customers, we found that many of the ingredients didn’t work very well in many delivery formats — that’s where our dosage form solutions come into play.”

For example, companies sometimes want to combine ingredients that do not mix well, such as lipid soluble and water soluble ingredients, or they want a multi-phase approach, where ingredients must be delivered in different parts of the gut. 

Lonza Capsules and Health Ingredients offers several options to combine multiple ingredients in one capsule, offering customizable release profiles. These include its Capsugel Beadlets technology and the Capsugel Duocap capsule-in-capsule technology. 

“It combines two ingredients you couldn’t combine before,” adds Erickson. 

“We also have a technology called DRcaps. We did research in 2021 on that technology, showing that DRcaps get delivered to the colon, where a probiotic is supposed to go. We showed in that study that it creates short-chain fatty acids, so we know that it’s getting delivered and is doing the job it’s supposed to do.”

Targeted release 
Zain M Saiyed, the company’s director of R&D, delivery solutions and product development, adds that the company researched to understand different capital polymers and different combinations to determine where they release in the gut. 

“We conducted a study and an MRI study for each of these polymers, such as traditional gelatins and or HPMC polymers, which are more vegetarian and vegan friendly. Each of these capsules has a different dissolution device, so when the customer wants an ingredient that needs to be delivered and opens fast in the gut, we can say you need to use this capsule because that opens up in less than 15 minutes.”

“Or if they want something protected from stomach acid like probiotics or enzymes, our DRcaps or designed release capsules come into play because the dissolution is 45 minutes later than gelatin.”  

The company offers several options to combine multiple ingredients in one capsule, with customizable release profiles.Erickson highlights that in addition to these tailored solutions, the company has market-ready options — ready-to-go formulations. “Some companies want a turnkey solution. For those who don’t want to go through a complete innovation process, we offer that, which shortens the time to market by three months.” 

Beauty-from-within and mental health 
Lonza Capsules and Health Ingredients focuses on working on products with its customers at the start of an innovation cycle. Erickson explains that customers usually suggest categories to work on. 

“We do some marketing insights to find whitespace. For example, if they come with a beauty-from-within product, a popular category right now, we’ll work with them on identifying their whitespace,” she explains. “We also work closely with science-backed ingredients, and companies approach us with some of them.”

“One of the biggest trends with beauty-from-within is this routine that consumers are adopting, and I feel that it’s tied to mental health. Specifically, younger consumers look at their health care routine differently than older generations.” 

She highlights that supplements fit well into the important routine these consumers develop. 

In cognitive health, another trending category, Erickson points to the gut-to-brain axis as an essential development area. Many companies, including Lonza, are looking at how probiotics affect mental health. 

“We’re also seeing that people define their health as their mental health. They take care of their health by taking care of their mental health. We want to understand better what that means, what problems people are facing and what products fit in their daily lives. For example, they may have a presentation in the morning or go to a social event.” 

Lonza showcased its capsule solutions at this year’s Natural Products Expo West trade show.Translating benefits 
Navarro underscores that she focuses on helping Lonza’s brands communicate the benefits and significant types of collagen, especially UC-II, to consumers who are indiscriminately taking collagen, not knowing that other options are available. 

“For the marketing and R&D colleagues, it’s helping our customers and other brands understand what that might look like in the real world. We have a lot of new imagery and messaging that we’ve tested with our customers or in consumer research to see what resonates with them.” 

She explains that customers want to be able to explain the mechanism of action for UC-II, for example, through more consumer-friendly language.

“To market a product effectively and appeal to the right audience, you need to understand it, and I think that’s where the educational content comes in. We’re pushing to create more videos, assets and training to help not only our internal team understand complex and exciting new products but also our customers and brands.” 

By Jolanda van Hal