PUBLISHER: Frost & Sullivan | PRODUCT CODE: 1133564
PUBLISHER: Frost & Sullivan | PRODUCT CODE: 1133564
Collaborative Efforts Between Drug Manufacturers and Medical Food Manufacturers to Boost Growth Opportunities for Medical Food
The US FDA defines medical food as "a food, which is formulated to be consumed or administered enterally under the supervision of a physician and which is intended for the specific dietary management of a disease or condition for which distinctive nutritional requirements, based on recognized scientific principles, are established by medical evaluation." Medical food is interpreted as 'food for special medical purposes (FSMPs)' in several countries, including Europe, India, China, and Australia and New Zealand. In Japan, medical food is interpreted as 'food for sick'. In Canada, medical food is governed by food for special dietary use (FSDU) and infant food regulations.
Globally, the regulatory landscape for medical food is not clearly defined, even in developed economies. As medical food is not intended to prevent or treat diseases, it is not subject to the same regulatory requirements as pharmaceutical drugs.
This Frost & Sullivan study aims to understand the role of medical food in patients' recovery. It provides qualitative and quantitative analyses of medical food ingredients and finished product medical food.
By ingredient, the medical food market is divided into vitamins and minerals; protein ingredients (animal and plant); nutritional lipids; prebiotics; and others (amino acids and probiotics). Of these, protein ingredients held the majority share of 64.0% (2021) in the total medical food ingredients market due to the important role they play in trauma and illness recovery.
Geographically, the study covers North America, Europe, Asia-Pacitfic, and Latin America and the Middle East and Africa (LAMEA). North America and Europe accounted for most of the market share for both medical food ingredients and finished product medical food in 2021 due to the rising physician awareness and the increasing medical adherence by patients. Factors supporting market growth in these regions are the expanding geriatric population, the prevalence of chronic diseases, and policymakers' growing emphasis on malnutrition management.
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is taken into account in the analysis. The pandemic induced both positive and negative changes in the medical food market. Supply chain disruptions due to the shutting down of processing facilities and other lockdown measures affected the sale of ingredients and finished medical food. However, the negaitve effects were reduced to some extent due to the growing consumer awareness and research highlighting the benefits of medical food in patients' recovery.