Medical Foods Market Trends

Growth Drivers

• Targeted government projects to promote medical food- Government research projects focus on areas including food resource coaching for patients, investing in R&D of personalized medical foods, and public policy advocacy to drive the adoption of nutrition-based interventions in underserved communities. For instance, the American Heart Association in January 2024 announced a funding of USD 7.8 million for 19 research projects, focused on heart and brain health as a part of its Health Care by Food initiative.
  
  Furthermore, the U.S. FDA plans to invest USD 7.2 billion as part of the fiscal year (FY) 2025 proposed budget. This funding will allow the FDA to enhance medical food safety and nutrition, advance medical product safety, and support supply chain resiliency. An agency-wide crosscutting initiative will aid the FDA in advancing its capabilities with improved analytics and regulatory approaches.

• Expansion of product pipeline and innovation- There is an increasing need for innovative foods to treat hereditary metabolic disorders and chronic illnesses. The demand for medical foods is anticipated to be propelled by increasing numbers of product launches and ongoing innovations by manufacturers. For instance, in May 2024 Wolters Kluwer Health and the International Food Information Service (IFIS) collaborated to unveil Ovid Nutrition and Health (Ovid NutriHealth), an exclusive interdisciplinary health research database. It will help Wolters Kluwer Health to explore new resource for the development of FSMPs.
  
  Additionally, in July 2022, Danone announced their first-ever Dairy and Plants Blend baby formula in response to the high demand for vegetarian and flexitarian options. According to a report by the Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MPDI) in February 2024, about 8%, 13%, and 21% of the younger population in Britain are vegan, vegetarian, and will adopt vegetarianism in the future. Moreover, the dietary fibers revenue has increased tremendously augmented by the influenced adoption and growing use of medical foods.

Challenges

• High Cost- Medical foods are prepared using carefully regulated and customized recipes that are created and evaluated by professionals, attributed to this their cost is comparatively higher. Moreover, there are various pharmaceutical options available that increase the medical foods market competition and act as a restraining factor for the medical foods sector.

• Unavailability of FSMP in hospital pharmacies- As FSMPs are not considered drugs; the products cannot be placed in most hospital pharmacies. However, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) is keen on improving the registration of FSMPs and formula for infants in hospitals.