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Deliver Us From Illness

Deliver Us From Illness

by Carolyn Steber | September 1, 2013

Companies are meeting discerning customers needs by innovating new ways to deliver nutrients.

Customers are always looking for new and easy ways to get their daily supplements, and manufacturers are striving to keep up with demand. The method through which a nutritional supplement is delivered greatly impacts whether a customer will want to, or be able, to take them. Whether the consumer is a picky child or an elderly person who has trouble swallowing pills, the way a supplement is delivered can make all the difference.

The industry is innovating with everything from drinking straws lined with vitamins to liquid emulsions. But first, it’s important to look at the two traditional methods, tablets and capsules, which still remain on top.

According to Dr. Mercola, owner and founder of the top natural health website Mercola.com, capsules and tablets remain the two most popular methods for delivery today. “Capsules are No.1 In popularity, tablets are No. 2,” he said. “Capsugel did a global Attitude and Usage study regarding these two methods in 2012. They found that in the U.S., liquids (within capsules) are very strong in the minds of the consumers … They expect this trend to continue.”

South Carolina-based Capsugel, a leader in dosage forms and solutions for the health care industry, works closely with Dr. Mercola. And, according to Missy Lowery, the company’s marketing manager, Americas Region, “The U.S. is the most diverse market in terms of usage of different forms. But regardless of the market, ‘is generally easy to swallow’ and ‘works quickly’ are the form benefits that rank among the top five in terms of importance. Capsules, gelcaps, liquid-filled capsules and soft gels are the forms that are most closely associated with those attributes.”

Capsule Innovations

Retailer Trent Hurley, owner of No Name Nutrition Markets in Omaha, NE, agreed that capsules are the most popular.“Capsules are still preferred about 70 to one,” he said.

But even though they have been a mainstay for a while, capsules and tablets are still undergoing innovations.“In general, capsules lend themselves to ever-changing and ongoing development of design for nutrient delivery,” said Lowery. “They are a very flexible delivery form. They are perceived as easier to swallow by consumers, which helps to support compliance.”

For example, Mercola said he is excited about the latest delivery system technology, which is a “capsule within a capsule.” His company’s Saw Palmetto with Lycopene supplement offers this system.“There’s actually a capsule of lycopene inside a slightly larger capsule containing saw palmetto, giving you a distinct advantage over traditional supplements.”

The capsule works by keeping the two ingredients separated to prevent the pH levels of the saw palmetto from potentially degrading the lycopene, Mercola explained. “In addition, the capsule-in-a-capsule delivery system offers a combinational release mechanism for an immediate and then delayed release of two different ingredients,” he added.

Mercola has also been utilizing Capsugel’s Licaps technology, which are liquid-filled, and he noted it has been very well accepted among all age groups. “Smaller sized Licaps have been especially useful for products geared toward children or others that might have a challenge with swallowing large-sized capsules,” he added.

“Its thin capsule shell is leak proof and airtight, providing a high degree of protection against moisture and oxygen, essential for nutrients requiring a fast release,” Mercola said. “Long-term stability, maximum bioavailability and being impermeable to oxygen are highlights of Licaps technology.”

Combatting Pill Fatigue

While tablets and capsules are a known and trusted way to take supplements, sometimes consumers experience pill fatigue, or have trouble swallowing. “I have an employee [who] can’t swallow any pills as she has a very strong gag reflux,” said Hurley. “She opens up all capsules and dumps them into her mouth or chews all of them up until they are a fine powder, then swallows them. If customers are tired of swallowing, I tell them her story.”

This can be a common problem, and retailers may need to steer their customers in another direction. “A significant percentage of the population has difficulties swallowing pills and tablets, or simply dislike doing so,” said Brian Direen, chief business officer at Unistraw Holdings Pte. Limited in Singapore. “When this is the case, innovative new delivery methods can come to the rescue.”

One such innovation is Unistraw’s Tubulars, which are vitamin-lined drinking straws. “Tubulars add vitamins, minerals and natural flavors to milk,” Said Direen. “As milk is sucked through the straws, the vitamin-filled beads dissolve into the milk, adding flavor and fun creating a unique drinking experience.” Direen added that delivery systems suitable for the whole family could win over existing consumers and bring new consumers to the industry.

Another way for consumers to avoid pills is with fast-melting tablets, such as Qspeed Fast-Melt CoQ10 from New Yord-based Nuline Nutritionals, LLC. Kishor Parekh, the company’s president, said Nuline noticed that many available dosage forms on the market did not address the needs of consumers who had trouble swallowing pills or who wanted a more convenient dosage form that didn’t require a need for water. “The fast-melt technology used in Qspeed allows for a great-tasting tablet to dissolve in the mouth, making it ideal for children, the elderly, athletes and those with an active lifestyle,” he added. Further, the fast-melt tablets come in portable foil packs, making them convenient for consumers “on the go.”

The award-winning Qspeed Fast-Melt CoQ10 has been clinically studied at Baylor University and was shown to increase muscle CoQ10 concentration and to support exercise performance, according to Parekh. Nuline Nutritionals is currently offering natural orange-flavored CoQ10 fast-melt tablets in 100 mg, 200 mg and 400 mg strengths, and will be offering natural peach-flavored 1,000 IU Vitamin D3 fast-melt tablets in late October.

Parkekh added that liquids are primed to be another favorite format for those who dislike pills. “Besides fastmelt tablets, I see emulsion in liquid And spray form to be the next big thing to hit the market,” he said.

Stacy Wick, co-owner of Living Green Natural Food & Apothecary in Langley, WA, agreed, and added that she has experienced this trend in her own store.“We have liquid multivitamins and minerals that are very popular and easy to absorb,” she said.

No Name Nutrition Market’s Hurley also has customers coming to his store asking for liquid alternatives. And if a customer is struggling to swallow pills but doesn’t know which direction to go in, Hurley will lead them to easy-to-use liquids and sprays, such as Nelsons’ RESCUE Remedy Spray.

Convenience & Efficiency

In today’s fast-paced culture, customers want supplements that can keep up with their hectic schedules. RESCUE Remedy from Massachusetts-based Nelsons offers many “on-the-go” formats, which appeal to customers who like efficiency and convenience.

“When planning for our next new product launch, we looked at RESCUE Pastilles and Gum, our ‘on-the-go’ formats, and how they quickly became our bestsellers soon after their launches,” said Curt Finckler, Nelsons’ marketing director. “We knew another ‘convenient format,’ one that is easy to keep in the car, on your desk or in your handbag, would meet consumer demand, engage new customers and keep existing consumers interested in the RESCUE brand.”

According to Finckler, Nelsons’ market research indicated that many consumers like the idea of dissolvable gel capsules. Following the company’s success with RESCUE Sleep Liquid Melts, it decided to introduce more dissolvable gel capsules with its RESCUE Pearls, released in January 2013. The product quickly became a bestseller.

Absorbing the Benefits

Consumers have also started placing easily absorbed vitamins at the top of their lists, according to Brett Taylor, owner of Good Earth Healthfoods in Edmond, OK. Taylor said his customers often come in looking for products that are quickly and efficiently absorbed in the body.

“Since supplements are ingestible, suppliers and their partners innovate together to ensure the quickest absorption, protection and bio-utilization in proper areas of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract,” said Mitch Skop, Senior director of new product development at Pharmachem Laboratories, Inc. (Kearny, NJ), a family of companies specializing in the manufacture and supply of custom and branded nutritional ingredients.

“One of our latest delivery innovations is microencapsulated probiotics.Probiotical, our Italian partner, successfully developed a microencapsulation technology, which coats probiotic cells in an allergen-free vegetable lipid matrix,” Skop said. “Microencapsulation protects the strains during manufacturing, through shelf-life and through the gastric barrier, so they can survive for intestinal colonization.” Biotrust Nutrition’s ProX-10, available to retailers, is one product that utilizes Pharmachem’s Probiotical.

Other products focusing on high absorption include Nelsons Spatone PurAbsorb Iron Supplement, a 100 percent natural liquid iron supplement with a clinically proven high absorption rate, according to Finckler. “One box of purAbsorb contains 28 easy-to-open, individual sachets of iron-rich water from the Snowdonian Mountains in Northern Wales,” he said. Each of the sachets contains 5 mg of iron.

The iron bioavailability of purAbsorb was tested in a clinical study of women with low iron levels. According to the study, a high correlation between maximum increase in serum iron and absolute iron absorption measured by radioisotope techniques was found.Spatone purAbsorb has a proven high Absorption rate of at least 40 percent, supporting the daily-absorbed iron needs of more than 80 percent of menstruating women in one dose.

Mercola pointed out that manufacturers are developing highly absorbable Micro-emulsions, which can be found in his company’s Liposomal Vitamin C. “The goal of this methodology is to have the ingredients delivered to a desired target for maximum absorption,” he said. “The ingredients also remain in a stable emulsion rather than ‘crashing out.’”

“Consumers have increasingly felt that ingredients can be better absorbed and more effective through synergistic combinations and/or via targeted, timed-delivery,” said Capsugel’s Lowery. “In beads in a liquid-fill capsule, the liquid dose is designed to offer quick release of an ingredient, while the beads provide for a controlled, or delayed-time, release.”

Making the Change

With new innovations it can sometimes take a little convincing to get retailers to jump on board, so manufacturers are willing to go above and beyond to show the benefits of their new products.

Because Unistraw is new to the U.S., Direen said the company has been investing in experiential retail and utilizing in-store sampling to drive trial, product awareness and brand experience.

Meanwhile, Nuline Nutritionals also offers demos to prove customer interest in its products. “Our experience has been that health food stores were reluctant to try new delivery forms due to limited shelf space,” said Parekh.“However, we’ve shown through our demos that people really like our fastmelt tablets.”

Vegetarian Options

Vegetarian and non-animal source supplements are becoming more popular as the vegetarian population continues to grow. Thirty five percent of U.S. supplement users say that a vegetarian or non-animal source is important when choosing a supplement, according to a survey conducted by Capsugel. This is up from 26 percent in 2006. “And this group is among the most frequent users of supplements,” said Missy Lowery, marketing manager at Capsugel.

Capsugel often conducts surveys about consumer preferences and needs from independent research firms and institutes. “We also listen to our customers who manufacturer supplements,” said Lowery. “More specifically, the consumer buying habits of the booming lifestyle-driven market has spurred endless innovations with our plant-based portfolio of capsules.”

More than a decade ago, Capsugel pioneered the vegetarian capsule Vcaps, said Lowery, and has expanded to offer Vcaps Plus. These animal-free capsules appear the Same as gelatin capsules, with a smooth, transparent, high-gloss surface.Lowery said the visual appearance of the capsule helps it stand out in a lifestyle-driven marketplace.Vcaps are made of plant-based hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC.)

Another HPMC formula, Drcaps, slows disintegration so that most of the capsule content opens in the small intestine, not the stomach, Lowery explained.

Other vegetarian options include Plantcaps Pullulan Capsule, which was introduced in 2012. “This plantbased pullulan capsule, fermented from tapioca, distinctively appeals to the booming and discerning healthy lifestyle market worldwide,” Lowery added. “Plantcaps is a clean-label product that can allow for several other important product claims, including vegetable-origin, preservative- free, gluten-free, starch-free, allergen-free and non-GMO.”

The capsules are also approved by the Vegetarian Society—a distinction that is becoming more important to consumers.

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