Nestlé Makes the Very Best Choc… uh… Medicinal Foods

Nestlé has announced its intention to invest $500 million to “pioneer a new industry between food and pharma” by creating a medical nutrition institute in Lausanne, Switzerland and a stand-alone subsidiary called Nestlé Health Science SA.  Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, Nestlé’s chairman, said that Nestlé  is aiming to use the new business unit, and associated nutrition institute, to develop “personalized health science nutrition to prevent and treat health conditions such as diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, and Alzheimer’s disease, which are placing an unsustainable burden on the world’s health care systems. … Personalized health science nutrition is about finding efficient and cost-effective ways to prevent and treat acute and chronic diseases in the 21st century,” he said.  Nestlé anticipates a market that could be worth $100 billion to $150 billion.

Nestlé has a head start in the cardiovascular area, as we have already written about the positive effects of high cacao-content chocolates on cardiovascular disease.   

Nestlé is not the only player in this market.  Abbott Laboratories has already expanded its presence into the nutritional/medicinal food industry with its Abbott Nutrition Division.  Abbott Nutrition produces and sells nutritional products and medicinal products for infants, children, and adults.

It is very likely that others will attempt entry into this market as well.  The ultimate question is do we want to buy nutritional and medicinal foods from a pharmaceutical company or a food company?  No doubt, a company such as Nestlé, with its strong brand, may have the upper hand in producing products with a healthy benefit to them which consumers will actually buy.