Synopsis:
Consumers' desire to prevent disease and to halt aging are propelling increases in demand for nutrient-based consumer products. The term "nutraceutical" has been used to describe these. The use of the suffix "-ceutical" inevitably implies parallels to its pharmaceutical counterpart. While the term is very effective in implying credible therapeutic benefit to the consumer, the corollary promise of pharmaceutical-like efficacy with nutrient-like safety is highly misleading, and, in many cases, incorrect. Significant technical obstacles to the delivery of effective nutrient-based therapies, not limited to weak-agonist competitive inhibitory effects of isomers, short half-lives, multiple modes of action, and functional synergism, remain. Additionally, required Phase I safety and efficacy studies of high-therapeutic-index compositions are subject to regulatory constraints. Last, and of significant interest to consumer-products companies, is the task of positioning bioactive nutrients in everyday products. This session will explore the technical, regulatory, and commercialization challenges facing the development of nutrient-derived consumer products.

Speakers:

Sekhar Boddupalli, Galileo Labs

David Kyle, Advanced BioNutrition Corporation

John Finley, Kraft Foods

Nancy Rachman, Novigen Sciences

This page last updated Monday, 11-Feb-2002 12:52:30 EST