The year in focus for Health, Nutrition & Care
Continued growth in pharmaceutical sector
Our activities in the pharmaceutical sector saw continued growth in 2022, supported by an increasing number of medicinal registrations of over-the-counter and prescription drug products. We supported our customers’ growth and geographical expansion plans by efficiently assisting their regulatory filings in all major geographies, by applying alternative business models, and by expanding our portfolio offering and innovation platform – for example, by the addition of capabilities to support early-phase development of cannabinoid-based drug therapies.
Continued growth in medical nutrition sector
The medical nutrition sector continued to perform well in 2022, driven mainly by the growing proportion of the elderly in the world’s population and the accompanying rise in chronic diseases. Demand for new health care solutions remains high, as does awareness of the value of nutrition in the medical treatment of patients of all ages, and of the elderly in particular. Our expertise in developing science-based, condition-specific concepts, our customized premix capabilities, and our expert services – from concept to market access – helped our customers to serve the most vulnerable population groups.
Market-Ready Solutions
In 2022, our Market-Ready Solution (MRS) capabilities and strong customer relationships facilitated strong uptake of ampli-D® – a calcifediol-based form of vitamin D supplement that acts three times faster than normal vitamin D. Consumers are increasingly looking for holistic solutions that deliver proven health benefits including stress management, improved sleep quality, and healthy gut functionality. To maintain the momentum in the uptake of vitamin D and at the same time provide effective differentiation to customers in a commoditized space, we launched ampli-D® – our advanced and potent form of vitamin D for the dietary supplement market – in Latin America, with ANVISA approval.
The year 2022 also saw the creation of our ‘Health from the gut’ platform, which was designed to meet growing consumer demand for better gut health. Our ‘Health from the Gut’ offering, which will be commercially launched in 2023, will offer scientifically proven health benefits coupled with easy application and novel product formats. Based on a holistic approach to the human microbiome, it will deliver clinically proven, multi-ingredient products featuring our industry-leading brands, including our next-generation Humiome™ pre-, pro- and postbiotics, GlyCare™ Human Milk Oligosaccharides (HMOs), Tolerase® digestive enzymes, Quali® vitamins, and more.
Change in demand pattern for dietary supplements
The softening of demand for dietary supplements, which occurred mainly in North America and reflected the fall in demand for immunity-boosting supplements in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, was offset by resilient demand for other dietary supplements for gut health and for women’s health products (i-Health).
‘Sea the Difference’ with life’s™OMEGA
We launched our ‘Sea the Difference’ global campaign, designed to drive awareness of our life’s™OMEGA portfolio, made up of 100% algal-sourced nutritional lipids, as an alternative to fish oil. life’s™OMEGA provides consumers with a sustainable solution for obtaining omega-3s that does not intervene in our marine ecosystem.
Beyond this, we enabled our customers to get new products to market faster with our premix and Market-Ready Solutions, which are strongly supported by our end-to-end service model. Finally, we solidified our position as a leader in the dietary supplements space by working with key opinion leaders and developing new immunity campaigns that capture the latest science and consumer trends.
Good recovery for early life nutrition
The early life nutrition segment saw a good recovery after a soft 2021. Low birthrates persisted in China, offset by an up-tick in the US and parts of Europe. The industry also faced an unforeseen development involving infant formula shortages in the US. This led US manufacturers to source supplies from all over the world, presenting opportunities that we were able to capture.
Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) saw good customer interest, buoyed by expectations of further regulatory approvals around the world. We continued to make progress by obtaining additional regulatory approvals in several countries and by expanding our customer portfolio. We also strengthened our leading position in lipids by demonstrating to our customers the importance of algal-sourced versus marine-sourced microbial lipids and by demonstrating our capabilities in developing innovative maternal nutrition solutions.
Further progress in nutrition improvement
Leveraging our partnerships in the public and private sectors, we continued our efforts to create and implement affordable, aspirational and accessible nutritional solutions to improve the quality of life of those most in need. As part of our strategic Food System Commitments, we undertook to enable by 2030 the closure of the micronutrient gap for 800 million vulnerable people worldwide, who suffer from micronutrient deficiencies. Fortified staples, Ready to Use Therapeutic Foods, Micronutrient Powders for children and Multiple Micronutrient Supplements for pregnant women have a key role to play in this initiative. For more information, see our Food System Commitments.
Innovative new offerings from Hologram Sciences
Launched in 2021, our personalized nutrition pioneer Hologram Sciences, Inc. combines proven science, powerful technology and the promotion of habit-building to create personalized nutrition solutions designed to help consumers optimize their health and well-being.
The company’s first concept, d.velop™, a personalized vitamin D solution that is absorbed by the body three times faster than alternative vitamin D formulations, was launched in 2021. This innovation has since helped 97% of customers who tested with suboptimal vitamin D levels to see an increase in levels of this essential vitamin. Hologram Sciences signed its first license for the d.velop™ brand in 2022, expanding its global reach via an agreement with Maeil Dairies Co. Ltd., a company based in South Korea and principally engaged in the manufacture and distribution of dairy products.
In 2022, Hologram Sciences entered into its first strategic partnership with Momentous, a leading provider of human performance products, to provide digital, diagnostic, and personalized supplement solutions.
Hologram Sciences launched a new consumer brand, Phenology™, which offers advanced at-home diagnostics, hormone tracking and custom insights for women in the menopause. Users can follow a targeted wellness program with appropriate supplements and science-backed, naturally powerful health and beauty essentials. Users can also access one-on-one coaching and expert advice to unlock timely relief throughout their menopause journey.
Growth in i-Health
Our i-Health products continued to see positive consumer response in the US and China thanks to increased interest in self-care, immunity, and overall health and wellness. Our Women’s Health portfolio, including the AZO® and Estroven® brands, delivered growth due to impactful new communication campaigns and new product launches including AZO® Women’s Dual Protection Probiotics, AZO® D-Mannose, and Estroven® Complete. The AZO® brand was also launched in China, with promising early results. Recent customer surveys and in-depth consumer interviews were conducted in the US and China to better understand women’s journeys through the various stages of their lives and offer insight into the symptoms and conditions associated with intimate and hormonal health. The information from this research is helping us to identify the critical factors that inhibit women from taking action in respect of their intimate and hormonal health. It informs our product innovation pipelines as well as our communication activities aimed at addressing those barriers.
Our Culturelle® probiotic range saw continuous strong consumer interest, driven by the introduction of larger pack sizes and new innovative Culturelle® products covering consumer needs in Women’s Health, Kids’ Immunity, and Kids’ Gummies. The brand was also recently launched in Brazil, where it started to gain traction despite the challenging market conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We leverage a variety of digital data, including ratings, reviews and social listening, to ascertain trends and inform a fast-follower strategy for new ingredients (for example, boric acid, which is used to help treat yeast infections of the vagina, and ashwagandha, a herb used in the traditional medicine of India and best known for its anti-anxiety and stress-relieving effects) as well as vaginal health diagnostics.
We also introduced an innovation in the gummy product market, incorporating our lutein-based, vision-health product, FloraGLO® into a new Culturelle® gummy product for children, combining for the first time vision health with probiotics and vitamins to support immunity, digestion and vision.
Biomedical
In 2022, our Biomedical business delivered very strong performance as it successfully transitioned from its original home within the former DSM Innovation Center to a new one within Health, Nutrition & Care. The upturn was driven mostly by increased volumes of elective surgical procedures, which had been suppressed by the effects the COVID-19 pandemic and which reverted to pre-pandemic levels during 2022. Our running business grew, stimulated by the launch of various new customer products containing our materials, with this growth being particularly strong in China.
Our international growth in 2022 gave rise to a number of transformational commercial agreements, especially in the global orthopedic and cardiovascular markets. Our industry-leading medical coatings platform technology enabled one of our key strategic partners to successfully compete in this market, generating significant growth in our coatings revenue. Our polyethylene materials platform also allowed another of our global strategic cardiovascular partners to successfully launch a next-generation structural heart device in Europe. One of our pharmaceutical and drug delivery partners, Svelte Medical, received FDA approval to commercialize the SLENDER IDS™ fixed-wire and DIRECT RX™ rapid-exchange drug-eluting stent (DES) system for the treatment of coronary artery disease in the US. This DES system is enhanced by DISCREET bioresorbable coating technology based on our proprietary TheraPEA™ polyesteramide (PEA) bioresorbable polymer. Within our natural biomaterials portfolio, we successfully introduced our technologies into Latin America, expanding our global presence and bringing our healing technologies into strategic markets such as orthopedics and dental. Lastly, innovations within our polyurethanes portfolio generated strong customer interest in 2022, leading to commitments on the part of multiple partners to utilize our polyurethanes in human clinical trials for next-generation continuous glucose-monitoring devices in the field of diabetes management.
Strong growth in Personal Care & Aroma
Building on a record sales year in 2021, Personal Care & Aroma delivered strong growth, driven by high demand for skin, sun and hair care as well as fine fragrances. This demand was attributable to greater international mobility in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, along with high demand for bio-based aroma ingredients.
These strong sales results are attributable to the effective execution of our strategy, which offers proven, high-performance, cosmetic ingredients as part of broader customer solutions, complemented by our suite of services and sustainable practices. These solutions encompass, for example, trend-informed market concepts, such as our ‘microbiome-friendly’ range or our practical UV protection solutions. We continuously work to improve the social and environmental impact of our products and in 2022 partnered with the US Skin Cancer Foundation, joining them on their roadshow to raise awareness of sun safety and the benefits of using sunscreens. We were able to support our customers in their sustainability journey by providing information on the environmental and social footprint, traceability and identity (including naturality index) of our key ingredients, along with any applicable eco-certifications based on life cycle analysis (LCA).
Sustainability
Sustainability is an increasingly critical issue for our customers. In 2022, we integrated sustainability fully into our strategy, started to create better tools to give full transparency and insight about sustainability benefits at product level, and developed a more efficient and effective process for dealing with customer requests in this area. We engaged in more than 20 strategic dialogues with customers on the topic of sustainability.
