Women’s health at Vitafoods: ADM and Sirio Pharma spotlight supplement innovations

22 May 2024 --- At this year’s Vitafoods Europe, women’s health was a key topic, with leading brands showcasing their nutraceutical solutions for the growing category. Brands offer a range of products across the lifespan, covering concepts from prenatal care to menopause support. 

Innova Market Insights data indicates that women’s specialty supplements showed 22% growth from April 2019 to March 2024. Top claims in these supplements from April 2023 to March 2024 include brain or mood health (44%), pregnancy or breastfeeding (39%), energy and stamina (34%), immune health (27%), bone health (22%) and skin health (19%). 

Nutrition Insight catches up with key players Sirio Pharma and ADM on the show floor to discuss the companies’ expanding women’s health offerings. 

Sara Lesina, general manager of Sirio Europe and Americas, highlights the company’s women’s health platform launched at the show, with “25 proven concepts in different delivery formats, primarily soft gels and gummies.” 

“There is also a renewed focus on women’s health because women are typically the ones who purchase supplements, health and wellness products.” 

“As a category, women tend to shy away from being too medical when it comes to women’s health. We’re talking about women’s health in terms of the whole journey of female health from pre-puberty to post-menopause. There are a lot of elements that you can tackle. You can go to medical solutions when you have an issue, but we’re talking about holistic well-being, and then supplements are a good way to go.”

Targeted options 
Sirio Pharma’s women’s health platform includes concepts for menstrual care, fertility, prenatal and postnatal care, menopause, general health and urinary tract infection protection. 

“We want to provide women with more choice, more natural choice and more choice of dosage forms,” underscores Lesina. “That’s also why we have many smaller gummies or soft gels. These can be swallowed more easily, and they’re more pleasurable, helping to remove the medication element of supplements.” 

She adds that this helps to make supplements with proven health benefits more enjoyable and easier to take daily. 

The platform primarily includes existing, tried and tested formulations developed by Sirio Pharma. At the same time, Lesina details that the company has also launched three new products as part of the overview for postnatal care, prenatal care and menopause. All three products encompass the company’s focus on convenient product formats and feature an ingredient developed by Sirio’s partners. 

Sirio Pharma also launched three new products in the women’s health platform for postnatal care, prenatal care and menopause.New product development 
One of the new concepts developed by Sirio Pharma is Me & Mum, an all-in-one postnatal care soft gel featuring kd-pür from KD Pharma, an algae DHA, highly concentrated oil. In addition, the product contains folate, vitamins B12, B6 and D, magnesium, biotin, zinc, iodine and the botanical extracts of black pepper and safflower. 

Lesina explains that the concept helps “against hair loss, supporting hormonal balance and recovery postpartum and it helps with breastfeeding. All the nutrients are in one soft gel — you only need to take one daily, and it is in a very small shell at 11 oblong — it’s a very easy soft gel to take.” 

With Gnosis, Sirio Pharma developed Innofolate for prenatal care, a soft gel that uses Gnosis’s Quatrefolic, a highly available folate, to combat anemia during pregnancy. 

“Folic acid is also essential to prevent spina bifida in the fetus,” she adds. “However, 40% of the population worldwide does not absorb folic acid in its basic form. This highly refined version of Gnosis is more absorbable. If you’re taking this while pregnant, you know you will have the benefit and this is backed by scientific studies.” 

The third concept Sirio Pharma launched is Menobalance, a gummy powered by Novasoy, “which is a star ingredient of our partner ADM,” comments Lesina. “It’s a soy isoflavone, and it helps to combat menopause symptoms like hot flashes, hormonal imbalance and migraines in one very delicious gummy.” 

She emphasizes: “It’s an ingredient that has not been showcased in a gummy before, ever, because it’s not easy to incorporate due to the manufacturing process of the gummy, and in a delicious gummy at that.”

Lesina also highlights the importance of gummies’ taste and texture, noting that they must “taste right.” 

ADM highlights the widening range of women’s health products, focusing on alleviating menopause symptoms.Expanding categories 
Paula Limena, VP of global marketing in health and wellness at ADM, also highlights the company’s focus on women’s health at Vitafoods, illustrating how the category has changed in recent years. 

“What is interesting about women’s health is that it used to be a section by itself, just one category. Now, we are seeing menopause, menstrual health, lifestyle rituals and well-being across all life stages that we are targeting with functional solutions and ingredients to support different aspects of lifestyle changes.”

“This is what we are focusing on to support this huge demographic. On menopause, we know that in 2025, we are going to have over one billion women, which happens to be the largest sub-segment of a population or target market for dietary supplements.” 

She adds that “this is something to watch out for,” as there are at least 35 symptoms associated with menopause, including hot flashes, brain fog, bone health and skin health. 

“Sleep is a very important area as well, not only for women. We know that during hormone changes, women have difficulty sleeping, which is called out by women in those life stages.” 

Limena also notes that it is interesting to see how this market will develop for other targets within women’s health. She asserts that ADM is focusing on menopausal products as this is the largest category, such as the gummy the company developed with Sirio Pharma. 

“We are launching the first Novasoy gummy in the world, which is a phytosterol, and it is extremely welcome for women and women in menopause to support all those symptoms, such as bone density, hot flashes, brain health and so forth.” 

Meanwhile, Kaneka Nutrients shared consumer research revealing that its Ubiquinol product helps alleviate menopausal symptoms. 

By Jolanda van Hal