Paul Dupont explains how growing trends in the consumer healthcare industry signal promising market opportunities for leading nutraceutical and pharmaceutical companies.

While originally regarded strictly as a specialty market, probiotic supplements are now mainstream. According to LexisNexis, 231 probiotic products were launched in 2008, compared with 34 just three years prior; 75 percent of women report being interested in a digestive system ‘makeover’. Distinguished medical journals confirm the industry’s credibility by publishing an increasing number of clinical trials with the popularity of probiotics being measured by the $43 million drugstore sales in 2008. Notably, probiotics are characterized as “the vital healthcare concept of the 21st century,” in Probiotics – A Global Update of Market Trends & Opportunities.