Vitafoods Europe 2024: Clinical research is essential for innovative nutraceuticals in consolidating market
11 Jun 2024 | Biofortis
At the recent Vitafoods trade show, we met with two recently merged clinical and contract research organizations. Dr. Volker Schehlmann, managing director of analyze & realize, explained how companies need high-quality clinical documentation of an ingredient’s benefits to develop differentiated value propositions. Benoît Fouchaq, the CEO of Biofortis, added that companies increasingly face budgetary and time restraints when bringing products to market, which is one of the drivers of consolidation in the nutraceutical market.
This is Yolande van Gaal from Nutrition Insight.
I'm here at Vidy Foods Europe 2024 with Volker Schillmann and Benoit Fouchak van Baerfortis.
Thank you so much for joining us here today.
Can I ask you, what is your focus at this year's Vifoods.
And but it's very important to connect it also with the regulatory frames which are associated with the clinical trials, and that's the expertise we bring from both sides, from bioppartisan analyzing to get the regulatory expertise and the clinical trials and deliver them the studies according to the needs of from a product perspective, of course.
We see a lot of work ongoing on probiotics.
We see a lot of developments in proteins, new proteins, and changing regulation is something which we always have in mind.
Awesome, would you like to add some there?
Microbiome.
You're welcome.
Can you highlight some of the opportunities or challenges that either of you sees for nutraceutical companies in developing or marketing innovative products?
Not really a new development, but to have different shaded value propositions, meaning to work out something novel and differentiated which is really relevant for consumers and it's the necessary prework in order to set up the right project in the right way and this has always been a focus of us and we see that continuing.
And can you highlight because of course you do a lot of research as in terms of clinical research.
What's the importance of that in innovation in nutraceuticals?
So if you want to have differentiated value proposition and you want to have the documentation of the benefit of the of the product, raw material or finished product, then you need to have for your product.
The clinical documentation.
We can rely on literature, of course, many people do that, but if you are serious in innovation, you must be clinic.
Awesome.
That's right.
I see that really the main change now is really that the, the, the budget constraint that we have a new change in now and and banking market is very important.
This mean that not only the quality is very important.
So the budget, management and the and the banking market is really the main thing.
And to what extent or how has this changed in the last few years, both in terms of research but also in terms of budgets that we are seeing a consolidation of the market position of the added value of those just to speed up the consulting, the trials, the laboratory reports, and finding.
Consolidation in the industry, of course you see the very big companies getting even bigger by consolidating and acquiring or merging, you know all the company names who are active and it's not only on the product side but also on the service side so.
Getting bigger is getting important and that was also one of the reasons why has acquired.
Yeah, that makes sense.
And just in general for both of you, where do you see the industry heading and what trends do you expect will increase in the coming years?
Of data and the sophistication.
Get better data.
Different ways to prove the benefits of there is innovation and that will the value proposition will not be only on the product but it will also be on deliverable format and how the data is created together with devices for example.
Yeah, why would you like to add for me is a product that they were coming from the industriceutical market to the bridge between, you know, the nutrition and the drug and treatment for patients.
OK, awesome, thank you.
