Small Business Matters

Ongoing regulatory issues and restrictive marketing rules are prompting CBD brands to pivot to functional mushrooms, the market for which in the UK is predicted to reach a value of £62m by 2025. With both reportedly offering cognitive health benefits, marketing mushrooms and CBD makes good strategic sense, explains Nootro Group CEO Cary Holmes in this HBW Insight deep dive. 

Amsterdam-based TheOTCLabs breaks into the UK consumer health market with Kidsner, a playfully marketed range of wellness products aimed at children aged 4 to 12 years old. 

In this episode, HBW Insight catches up with UK switch specialists Maxwellia to find out what’s next for the company that gave to the UK one of the first OTC daily contraceptive pills. Now a disruptive consumer health player in its own right, the company is looking for investors to take it to the next level and help launch two new women’s health products in the pipeline for next year, CEO Anna Maxwell reveals in this exclusive interview.

London-based start-up Phizz markets in the UK's busy wellness category effervescent products that it claims effectively hydrate while also providing essential vitamins and minerals.

UK consumers will soon be able to purchase at an "accessible" price branded levonorgestrel-based emergency contraceptive, LoviOne, marketed by switch specialists Maxwellia. 

A partnership with Swiss functional ingredients supplier Phytonet AG brings UK prebiotic specialist Clasado 14 steps closer to global coverage for Bimuno GOS. 

Flarin Holdings recently secured £5m ($6.2m) investment from UK television company ITV's Media for Equity fund in return for a minority stake in the company, which markets analgesic brand Flarin in the UK. The investment could be a springboard for international expansion, including in the US, Flarin's managing director Philip Lindsell tells HBW Insight in an exclusive in-depth interview.

A multimillion-dollar partnership will bring together Bayer Consumer Health's digestive health brand equity with Mahana's cutting edge digital therapeutic technology for treating irritable bowel syndrome. 

Futura Medical's MED3000 erectile dysfunction gel gets OTC approval in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where Switzerland's Labatec Pharma has the rights to commercialize the product under the Eroxon brand. 

In the first of a new series profiling small- and medium-sized innovative players in the European consumer healthcare market, HBW Insight speaks to Swedish “revolutionary pre-drinking pill” manufacturer De Faire Medical.

Haleon steps into the US OTC erectile dysfunction market with a commercialization deal for Futura's drug-free MED3000 gel, recently approved by the FDA as a de novo medical device. 

In this episode, we explore recent consumer interest in prescription weight loss drugs such as Novo Nordisk's Wegovy with gut health expert Stephen O’Hara. As CEO of microbiome specialist OptiBiotix Health, O’Hara points to over-the-counter alternatives like prebiotic food supplements and medical devices, which may offer similar hunger-reducing benefits without the side effects associated with these drugs. By successfully negotiating health claim regulations, as well as investing in new markets and in new delivery formats like gummies, companies like Optibiotix are looking to take advantage of this new interest in slimming solutions, he explains.

According to Futura's UK distributor, the recent launch of its Eroxon drug-free erectile dysfunction gel has been an outstanding success. Ceuta's Jon Connolly described the strategy behind the launch at a recent investor event. 

Maxwellia responds with “Lovi” – an online, interactive, AI-powered avatar – to a trending movement on TikTok that encourages women to stop taking daily contraceptives like its UK Lovima progestogen-only pill. 

With the help of Ceuta Healthcare, Irish men's health specialist Careforsons is launching its hair loss treatments in UK Superdrug stores. CEO William Kennedy talks to HBW Insight about the transition from the direct-to-consumer, online, subscription-based model to the bricks-and-mortar channel, and how the company intends to differentiate itself from category incumbents like Kenvue's Regaine and Dr Wolff's Alpecin. 

A recent decision by the European Commission provides UK microbiome specialist ProBiotix Health with an opportunity to present its CholBiome extension as an alternative to red yeast rice as a way to “maintain normal blood cholesterol levels.”