Claims/Political Issues Dominate Nutraceuticals Meeting

Nutraceuticals are legitimate not alternative medicine, according to Stephen DeFelice, chairman of the Foundation for Innovation in Medicine. He told those attending a FIM-sponsored symposium on how to develop, make claims on and market medical foods that these products will exceed the benefits of conventional western medicine in the next 20 years, in some areas.

Nutraceuticals have a potential US market of $250 billion dollars, four times that for conventional medicine, he maintained, adding that it takes only $10 million and two years to get a product to market, compared to hundreds of millions and 10 years for a pharmaceutical. But the margins on nutraceuticals are similar to those for drugs, at around 68% gross profit.

Small wonder that a broad range of players, from small start-up ventures through "big pharma" and the food industry, are racing to carve a slice of this new opportunity. This diversity is forcing different cultures (eg commercial and medical) together, and Dr DeFelice believes that in time "there will be no distinction between health and medical claims, between health food and the medical sector, between diet and dietary supplements or between the treatment and prevention of disease."