DSM partners with personalized supplement ‘gel pack’ company Panaceutics
Headquartered in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park, Panaceutics wants to disrupt the personalized supplement subscription space with its packs of tailored gels and purees. While most supplement subscription companies offer packs of multiple pills, tablets, and capsules (think Persona or Care/Of), Panaceutics wants to make it simpler for both brands and consumers by mixing what would have been five different pills into one packet of puree.
The six-year-old company will start aggressively expanding in the supplements space as it recently announced a partnership with global chemicals giant Royal DSM.
A future for personalized bars, beverages
“DSM is the exclusive partner of Panaceutics worldwide and the companies will collaborate in presenting the Panaceutics solutions to a wide range of channels and brands,” Hugh Welsh, general counsel, secretary, and president at DSM North America, told NutraIngredients-USA.
This means that not only will DSM be the exclusive supplier of the micronutrients used in Panaceutics’ products (other ingredients, such as fruit puree, will be sourced elsewhere), Panaceutics will also enjoy its global partner’s capabilities in nutritional ingredient selection, application, science, and especially B2B marketing to different brands and channels, Welsh added.
Through its venture investment arm DSM Venturing, DSM is a minority investor in Panaceutics.
In a press release announcing the partnership with DSM, founder and CEO of Panaceutics Edison Hudson described its process as a "proprietary robotic technology" combined with "digital health platforms to rapidly manufacture products to serve individuals' needs and health conditions."
While gels and purees are a start, DSM said that the two companies will develop ways to use Panaceutics' technology to manufacture additional formats such as personalized beverages and bars.
Poised to conquer a category
Panaceutics and DSM aren’t directly targeting consumers with a finished product or service. Instead, they want to offer Panaceutics’ technology to add to the product and service portfolio of existing or new supplement brands.
“The unique feature of the Panacuetics solution is the ability to produce fully individualized formulations covering a single person’s specific nutrient needs, in a scalable and cost-effective manner,” Welsh said.
“The technology makes it possible for an individual consumer, in the comfort of their own home, to receive a specially tailored daily formulation with a precisely dosed range of macro and micronutrients unique to that person. The formulation is based on dietary intake questionnaires, meal tracking and lifestyle data tracking which are easy and intuitive for the consumer to use.”
Like many other supplement subscription companies, Panaceutics can deliver the personalized products in one-month batches of one-a-day formats.
“Many personalized nutrition companies can only personalize the recommendation based on existing mass-produced products already on the market,” Welsh said. ““This often leads to needing to take multiple pills or follow complicated regimens.”
“The Panaceutics technology allows for a truly custom recommendation and a single serving pill free product experience that also tastes great.”
"This exciting venture with DSM will help us to reach our goal of serving large numbers of people with data-driven personalization," Panaceutics' Hudson added.
