See our top 10 most read China stories of 2020, featuring fraudulent claims, the COVID-19 business impact, and NPD opportunities.
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See our top 10 most read China stories of 2020, featuring fraudulent claims, the COVID-19 business impact, and NPD opportunities.
Thailand and Laos were following China’s footstep in embracing a TCM formula in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
China had added three TCM formula, namely the Lianhua Qingwen Capsule, Jinhua Qinggan Granule, and Xuebijing Injection, as part of the country’s standard therapy for COVID-19 following positive clinical trial results.
Against the backdrop, more countries were starting to embrace TCM formula, with authorisation from Thailand’s and Ecuador’s health ministry and Laos adding TCM formula to their COVID-19 treatment scheme as examples.
Taking the limelight is the TCM formula Lianhua Qingwen Capsule produced by Shijiazhuang Yiling Pharmaceutical.
The Chinese government had officially recognised three TCM formulas as part of its standard therapy for COVID-19.
The three formulas – Lianhua Qingwen Capsule, Jinhua Qinggan Granule, and Xuebijing Injection – were patented products that are already commercially available and have been tested on COVID-19 patients in clinical settings.
The first two were herbal products featuring ingredients such as honeysuckle and weet wormwood.
They were now recognised as part of China’s Standard Therapy for Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia (Tentative, version VII), the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine announced last Wed (Apr 15).
Chinese e-commerce giant, JD reported that sales of vitamin C dietary supplements on its platform were up five-fold in March, after the onset of COVID-19.
Sales of health products including vitamin C effervescent tablets, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) brand Banlangen, and Xiao Chaihu (herbal formula) saw big increases.
These supplements are used to help prevent fever, cold, and other respiratory symptoms. JD said the virus outbreak was the cause of the surge consumption, and its higher online sales was attributed to consumers preferring to order delivery online instead of going to supermarket to purchase products.
As retailers like JD saw a spike in sales of vitamin C and immunity products, suppliers of these products also saw higher demand.
Some Chinese health food firms have revealed increased demand for products related to immunity boosting and respiratory health amid the Wuhan virus outbreak.
While the novel coronavirus had led to a sharp rise in the demand for face masks, hand sanitizers, some supplement firms said demand for some of their products had increased too.
At Chinese firm Angel Yeast, demand for glucan, lactoferrin, selenium-enriched yeast had gone up three-fold.
The firm’s overseas business director Jimmy Fu said in response to NutraIngredients-Asia’s queries that products that boost the immunity or prevent upper respiratory tract infection were in high demand.
Australia and New Zealand health foods companies saw strong online sales of immune boosting supplements from the China market.
This has helped to offset a drop in their in-country sales due to a decline in the number of visiting Chinese tourists.
Mānuka honey maker Comvita said in its latest NZX market update that its online sales during the first 10 days of March in China had grown by 70%, largely driven by the sales of its immune boosting products.
Comvita’s flagship product is the Propolis and Mānuka honey, which is said to display anti-viral and immunity-boosting benefits.
Authorities from a raft of countries had stepped out to caution against the advertising of health supplements that claimed to prevent or treat the novel coronavirus.
As of March 8, the number of COVID-19 infection had exploded to 105,586, with cases reported in 101 countries, territories, and areas. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has increased the global risk assessment level to “very high”.
As individuals seek to safeguard their health, cases of supplements sold at heavily marked-up prices and fake product claims made in relation to COVID-19 prevention had surfaced.
In Vietnam, there had been cases of vitamin C, black garlic syrup, and mouthwash sold at jack up prices, ranging from VND$280k (US$12) to VND$890k (US$38), according to local media Vietnam Plus.
China’s nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) supplier EffePharm had embarked on its first human clinical trial as it seeked to validate the anti-ageing effects and safety of its ingredient “Uthever”.
NMN is an intermediate compound of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+). A low NAD+ level is linked to the onset of age-related diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease.
The trial would take place in different parts of the world and will measure two specific outcomes, namely 1) whether NMN intake increases the NAD+ level in blood serum and 2) its impact on body stamina through a walking endurance test.
“Besides measuring the NAD+ index from blood serum, we have added exercise performance as another outcome measure. The purpose is to see whether the body stamina will be improved,” scientific affairs director, Hank Hwang told NutraIngredients-Asia.
A nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) supplement made by US supplement firm Doctor’s Best hit the US$1m sales in the first 10 days of its launch in China.
Over 5,000 bottles had been sold on its Tmall flagship store in July, its parent company Xiamen Kingdomway Group said.
Following the sold-out of the initial batch of 1,406 bottles, subsequent pre-orders of 3,605 bottles were received within three days between July 16 and 19.
Together, the product had brought in sales amounted to RMB$7.68m (US$1m).
The ongoing COVID-19 outbreak had affected a number of nutrition retailers which relied on Chinese tourists as a key revenue stream, with some putting on hold new plans and adopting a ‘wait and see’ approach.
The 2019-nCov Coronavirus, which originated from the Chinese city of Wuhan, has crippled the outbound tourism industry, with China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism issuing a ban on its citizens from booking overseas tours and purchasing overseas flights and hotel packages.
The cut in the number of Chinese tourists has affected the business plans of some health and nutrition products retailers.
Speaking to NutraIngredients-Asia, Australian daigou specialist REACH China, which sells a range of dietary supplements, foods, and personal care products, said it would need to defer its opening of its retail stores.
Supplement manufacturers and suppliers in China sought return to normalcy as they resumed operations after the extended Chinese New Year holiday – lengthened by the COVID-19 outbreak – came to an end.
Examples included Lonza which resumed production of its L-carnitine at Guangdong a few days ago on Feb 10, while DSM said its large-scale sites had been fully operational.
For Lonza, its L-carnitine production site at Nansha, Guangdong resumed operation only this week. The epidemic had required the company to await approval from the authorities to recommence operation.
Its other site for producing nutrition capsule at Suzhou had earlier resumed operation on Jan 30, head of global marketing communications, Lonza Nutritional Ingredients, Aparna Parikh, said in response to queries from NutraIngredients-Asia.
