The Rise Of Lifestyle Medicines Sector In India

Lifestyle medicines seek to address daily life health issues and work towards improving the overall well-being of individuals and societies. Regular consumption of these helps to prevent, reverse and better manage health conditions. The best part about lifestyle medicines is that one can depend on them without seeking any doctor's consultation as they are safe and suited to consume on a regular basis.

IANSlife spoke to Divij Bajaj, CEO, Power Gummies to share his views on lifestyle medicines and their growth in India.

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Q: Why are people shifting towards these medicines?

A: The fact that lifestyle medicines are coming from nutraceutical categories or pharmaceuticals are convenient as well as effective and at the same time brings comfort and suitability to the fast-paced life of millennials. As a result, the dependency on such nutritional alternatives is increasing as a lifestyle practice.

Q: Has the pandemic impacted the adoption of these lifestyle medicines?

A: In my opinion, a revolution has been on a roll ever since this pandemic has hit, changing the potential with the changed consumer behavior of adapting to adding healthcare products in their daily lifestyle, which also includes lifestyle medicines in form of supplements vitamin capsules, and gummies. The Covid-19 crisis has seen sales growing in folds during the last months creating value even amid the lockdown, pre and post-vaccine phase in a global scenario.

The grip of fear to feel safe from the after-effects or getting infected from coronavirus or any medical condition is making people aware and conscious about their health and fitness, in addition to their regular food intake which lacks nutritional value at times. Even, our brand has seen massive sales growth with a 6X increase in our valuation over just 6 months. This is a result of how people are resorting to vitamin supplements be it in any form — pills, powders, or gummy. From where I see, the nutraceutical space has been consistently rising sustainably in domestic markets with increasing demand from tier-2 or tier-3 cities.

Q: With the pandemic bringing in a lot of lifestyle changes, how helpful and effective are these supplements?

A: I believe amid this pandemic, people are wanting to find easier and less complicated things which bring them happiness. Alternatives can be stocked as well. The gummy alternative has proved to precede all other alternatives with all people's terms — taste, interest, durability, water retention, weather adaptability, composition, and effectiveness. The business is driving digitally as well during the pandemic as people have started resorting to every possible alternative as prevention regime and immunity building as well globally. The digital consumer healthcare brands across verticals are projected to grow at an exponential rate during the coming months as well. The pandemic has reminded the importance of health to every person with CAGR doubling like never before on a global level.

Q: What are the various benefits these medicines provide and how are they different from the traditional supplements?

A: Traditional supplements are usually in taste, bitter, or bland whereas we have brought in nutritional health supplements catering to adult nutrition in tasty, healthy, and chewable gummies driving away from the fear of medicines or pills. Our focus was to facilitate them with supplementation that can bring both health and happiness in their lives. It just had to be made fun and easy to consume. Our team of taste experts and food scientists helped us to discover sweet and tasty gummies that are both nutritious and yummy.

Q: How long does it take for these medicines to show results, are there any side effects?

A: Usually, in any lifestyle medicine or nutraceutical medicine, one needs a cycle of regular consumption to give results rather than pharma medicine which is there to quickly give relief from a chronic disease. As per our clinical trials, we have found a minimum of 90 days of regular consumption of gummies with a simple rule of 2 gummies a day. Our gummies are crafted with high-quality ingredients, FSSAI licensed, and FDA compliant. Hence, they are completely safe with no side effects.

Q: How are they impacting the beauty industry as a whole?

A: The idea of giving the right nutrition to your body with chewing gummies has been seeming interesting to the customers. As in the beauty industry, there are a plethora of products for hair, skin, and more. Talking for our first variant, there is an abundance of hair care products — shampoos, oils, serums, and masques. However, since the products cannot take away the issue of nutrition but only work on exterior hair health. Hence, as an observation people are starting to depend on both, and understanding the importance of what they put inside the body is as essential as what they use over their body for ultimate beauty.

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Q: Do you see India becoming a global leader in this sector?

A: Surely, India is a densely populated country and with one of the highest numbers of young and working generation. This signifies that there is a huge demand for gummy players to cater in India as increasing health concerns are projected to augment the importance of proper nutritional intake among all age groups. Talking about the gummy format, there has been a rise in spending on functional gummy vitamins targeted at personal care as consumers enhance their personal care regimes with the addition of dietary supplements. The vitamin gummies segment is expected to grow rapidly and close the gap in penetration levels when compared to other markets.

Going ahead with the market size figures, gummies are revolutionizing the west and east both. The adoption rate of gummy vitamins in the U.S. is estimated to be maximum. The global market for gummy vitamins was valued at $2,864m in 2017 and is expected to reach $3,804m by 2023 growing at a CAGR of 4.8 percent. Out of India's $4.0 B nutraceutical market share, the gummy vitamins hold the share of $3.6 M, and the APAC gummy vitamin market share CAGR is expected to grow to 8.5 percent by 2026 from 0.87 percent in present times. (IANS/JC)