- What marketing strategies could you attribute to your company’s success in forging meaningful global partnerships?
Nutriventia is focused on developing differentiated and clinically substantiated ingredients that help brands stand out and provide consumers with significant benefits from clinically substantiated curcuminoids with proven low-dose efficacy to a controlled-release long-acting vitamin C to support immunity. Our technologies and science set us apart from other ingredient suppliers. Now more than ever science plays a significant role in the dietary supplement, functional food, and beverage markets. Delivering enhanced value to our customers by thorough understanding what their consumer audience wants and needs for now and the future. This is an integral part of our strategy and incorporating this is a requirement of the innovations we develop. Nutriventia dedicates tremendous resources around developing products and claims and building the relevant scientific substantiation to support these claims.
- How does Inventia stay updated on the latest trends as it pertains to the nutraceutical area of its business?
Our branded ingredients offer solutions based on science and technology. From market experience and regular interaction with customers, our teams strive to identify critical challenges in available products in terms of manufacturing convenience, applications, and consumer usage. Thereafter developing products utilizing our novel delivery platforms to address these issues. Post development of the concept ingredients we then work on developing scientific substantiation to offer customers a complete package. We have a clear focus on enhancing benefits for the end consumer. Like converting a product that needs to be administered 2-3 times a day to a single dose, improving taste, and creating a specific delivery system. A key criterion in the development guidelines to our teams is to avoid harsh excipients with a preference to use using clean, diet-sourced, and nature-alike as well as a preference for a solvent free process. For example, TurmXTRA® consumption results in equivalent plasma levels of curcuminoids from a dose of 250 mg compared to 1,575 mg standard turmeric extract. Now consumers can get the benefit with one single daily dose for which they initially needed of three.
- Inventia’s Nutraceutical business unit, Nutriventia, recently unveiled successful findings of its turmeric branded ingredient, TurmXTRA60N. Is your company planning to distribute the product on a global platform?
TurmXTRA is our flagship product and significant manhours have been invested on it. The foundation of the strategy for the development of TurmXTRA has been that inspite of the plethora of supposedly enhanced turmeric ingredients in the market, none of them offered a lower dose with clinical substantiation, which our research showed was what consumers were looking for. The market is filled with water dispersible ingredients of every form and shape, however the difference in these ingredients is restricted to claims on higher absorption and bioavailability. However, they have no correspond reduction in their recommended doses. This resulted in customers still having to consume the same 2-4 tablets per day to get the full benefits of turmeric (curcumin) supplementation. Thus, TurmXTRA was designed to ensure a high level of curcuminoids in a water dispersible format and supported by clinical substantiation. Our extensive clinical package involved establishing the equivalence in plasma of the curcuminoids from a 250mg dose of TurmXTRA to the clinically substantiated dose (1575mg) of turmeric extract standardised to 95% curcuminoids. We further validated the clinically efficacy of the same 250mg dose through a RDBPC clinical trial in healthy individuals.
With the extensive research support that has been developed for TurmXTRA, it is already available for brands and customers though our distribution partners globally, with numerous companies worldwide having already started the evaluation of TurmXTRA as their choice ingredient for turmeric (curcumin) supplementation.
- Innovation is a critical foundation of Inventia. How do you ensure product development meets the gaps in consumers’ health and wellness needs?
Innovation has always been the cornerstone of all activity at Inventia right through our 37-year existence. More specifically, it has been innovation in terms of benefits to consumer. Therefore, it is a logical extension for innovation to be a key focus at Nutriventia.
To ensure that the innovation is creating value to customers and consumers alike, we start with detailed interaction with customers and when possible, with consumers (our customer’s customers), to understand their needs and wants and the gaps in the products available to them. This is normally followed by extensive testing of available products and review of literature to ensure the problem statement is clear with no ambiguity, thus the actual development of a concept is initiated.
Since our process puts the customer and their customers at the center of our universe, in line with our tag line – “Nature, Science & You,” we are sure that our innovation and branded ingredients addresses the gaps in consumer health and wellness needs.
- What approaches has your company taken to stay ahead in the competitive nutraceutical industry?
Our approach to the industry space and business is different from the traditional business view of wanting to be ahead of our competition.
Our outlook is to create value for our customers and consumers in our product and communicate this enhanced value as part of the interaction with customers by highlighting the tangible benefits to them. This showcases the benefit and advantages that our customers get from including our branded and clinically substantiated ingredients in their supplements.
Of course, our quality systems that have been drawn from our immensely successful pharmaceutical business which have been validated by inspections from the strictest health authorities the world over (including the USFDA, ANVISA, EMA, ANVIMA, KFDA among others). This quality system validates all aspects of our manufacturing process ensuring the best quality of raw material compliant with the regulatory requirements of the market are sourced and the full spectrum of activities are governed by good manufacturing practices (GMP).
Thus, we believe that the foundation of our business practice being innovation for consumer’s benefits and the use of advanced technology, supported by a strong quality management system, ensures that we are differentiated within the highly competitive nutraceutical industry.
This belief is validated in the varied branded ingredients that have been developed and introduced over the past 18 months from a low dose clinically substantiated turmeric extract (TurmXTRA), to a long acting and clinically substantiated C-Fence granular system that provides a tablet with a guaranteed sustained release profile with just one manufacturing operation or a Green Tea extract standardised to 20% EGCG which is completely bland and neutral tasting as compared to the conventional green tea extracts which are extremely bitter.
Anand Godbole is Assistant Vice President, marketing strategy and a pharmacist by qualification with a master’s degree in business management, Godbole leads the strategy and business development function at Nutriventia www.inventia.com With over 20 years of experience in business development and client management across pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals. His role at Nutriventia allows him to focus on ideate, understand, and promote nutraceutical and functional ingredients. His penchant towards science and the communication of the science enables Nutriventia to create products that are not only differentiated by way of technology benefits, but also provide science backed health benefits direct and indirectly to consumers.
