Known as the Wellness Life Study, this is a series of longitudinal observational studies that measure multidimensional wellbeing indicators, including physical condition, mental state and social relationships.
Real-world evidence studies allow the company to tap into its vast consumer database, which currently spans more than two million users annually through its mail-order service.
“We have a large customer base for our products and while we have conducted clinical trials involving interventions in the past, we wanted to understand how the benefits of our products manifest in real-world conditions and incorporate that insight into our product development, as we do not yet have a clear picture of how these benefits are actually expressed following supplementation under real-world conditions,” Toshiaki Sueyasu, general manager, Institute for Science of Life, Suntory Wellness, told NutraIngredients.
While clinical trials focus on measuring the impact of supplementation in a controlled environment, real-world evidence studies allow formulators to observe how consumers’ well-being evolves in real-world settings.
Acknowledging that this is a rare endeavor in the nutraceutical industry, Sueyasu said that this would be useful for providing stronger consumer insights and services.
“Conventional studies typically test a single hypothesis and the average effect of one intervention on one outcome in a defined group. This approach remains essential for product development, but we wanted a platform that could answer a much broader range of questions,” said Sueyasu.
Accessing real-world data is increasingly seen as important among the nutrition industry.
Companies like Qina, for example, have launched a Food Health Ecosystem to improve data insights for personalized nutrition services in response to a lack of real-world and long-term data.
3,500 health indicators
To conduct real-world evidence studies, Suntory has examined over 3,500 health indicators related to areas such as aging, brain and musculoskeletal health. These are also the health areas that the company has already developed products for.
Sesamin EX, for example, is a line of products containing bioactives extracted from sesame seeds for health benefits such as brain and heart health. MEMO+, on the other hand, contains hydrolysed chicken extract for supporting brain and cognitive function.
Elsewhere in Thailand, Suntory has also developed meal replacement products that have been clinically studied for weight management benefits.
The process of using real-world data for new product innovation could be likened to a cyclical loop that leads to new consumer insights and builds stronger products, said Sueyasu.
“What we are building is a cycle. We collect data from our customers’ lives, generate insights, return these insights as improved products and services, and those products in turn generate the next round of data,“ he said. ”We call this platform a bridge between science and our customers, so that more people can live well and longer."
In addition to supplements, the company also plans to use the insights generated to offer consumers advice on lifestyle habits.
The first set of findings
Suntory released the findings of its three-year-long longitudinal observational study at the 80th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Nutrition and Food Research this year.
At the meeting, the company reported the potential link between the duration of nutrition supplementation - in this case, glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate - and good knee health.
It also reported that P16, a marker of cellular aging, increases with age, based on findings from blood samples of the study subjects. Individuals with a higher expression of P16 also showed shorter telomere G-tail lengths.
This is a finding of interest, as most of the existing studies and theories on P16 involved Western populations and the marker’s impacts on Asian populations are not yet well understood, said Sueyasu.
The longitudinal observation study involved a total of 1,500 adults, of whom 1,000 were users of Suntory’s products, namely Suntory Glucosamine Active and Suntory DHA & EPA + Sesamin EX and the remaining 500 were from the general public as a control group.
Three key topics were covered during the longitudinal observational study: the long-term efficacy of glucosamine, the associations between senescent-cell markers and various health indicators, and fatigue-related factors at the individual level.
Participants answered a survey questionnaire on lifestyle habits, including diet and exercise, motor function and cognitive function and biometric data was also analyzed from blood, urine and saliva samples collected during the research period between June 2023 and January 2026.
It was found that individuals who took the supplement for more than one year - with a median period of 2.3 years - reported a greater perceived ease of walking in daily life and higher sleep scores compared to subjects who took the supplement for less than one year - with a median period of 0.7 years.
By combining biological and health data with artificial intelligence (AI) analysis, the study also reported that not only do physical factors such as exercise and sleep affect fatigue, but there is also a potential association between fatigue and mental factors such as loneliness and relationships with others.
