Speaking during the recent “Innovation in Action” Business Leaders Forum hosted by NutraIngredients+, Raza Bashir, CEO of Iovate Health Sciences International, Nate Freeman, vice president of science and innovation at Ortho Molecular Products, and Ken Rowe, chief R&D officer at Thorne, noted that the sector is entering a period where speed matters—but that proof, trust and responsible execution matter more.
For these leading companies across sports nutrition, practitioner-channel supplements and premium wellness, the innovation brief has expanded to include clinical validation, personalization, artificial intelligence, delivery formats, microbiome science and consumer education.
Innovation becomes a mindset, not a launch calendar
Consumer trends are emerging and peaking faster than ever in today’s booming dietary supplement market, accelerated by social media and ingredient virality. Creatine, berberine, electrolytes, magnesium and protein have all moved mainstream at an unprecedented pace, and while innovation rhythm in this environment has increased, filters are also tightening.
“It’s exciting because it’s a great opportunity, but you do need to make sure you’re not chasing every spike and that you really are validating that [it is] something that is a durable consumer need—so I’d say the speed ultimately matters, but the discipline is also going to matter so that it’s not a short-lived idea," Bashir said. Here, innovation starts with “the mindset of never settling” and the ability to translate science into trustworthy, understandable and enjoyable products with real consumer relevance.
At Thorne, recent launches now account for roughly 20% of sales, reflecting the value of portfolio freshness. The company launched 28 products in 2025 and expects to launch 20 to 25 this year, balancing innovation, renovation and line extensions while maintaining scientific rigor across practitioner and consumer channels.
Rowe described the innovation approach as anchored in “product excellence,” starting with science-led, professional-grade formulations, dosage delivery that supports compliance, high-quality clinical and consumer evidence, and third-party certification. Personalization has also become a key part the company’s value proposition.
Supplement brands dedicated to the healthcare practitioner channel are not immune to these same trend pressures, but the response is different. According to Freeman, rather than chase every viral ingredient, Ortho Molecular Products looks at categories methodically over 18 to 24 months and translates emerging trends into clinically responsible products and educational tools. Innovation is viewed through the lens of patient outcomes rather than product novelty.
“Innovation is not just the next novel ingredient,” he said. “It’s the next clinically meaningful way to help practitioners improve their patient outcomes.”
Communication becomes an innovation enabler
As science becomes more complex, the speakers agreed that education is becoming central to innovation strategy. Consumers may understand sleep, energy and performance, but not necessarily the HPA axis, postbiotics or pro-resolving mediators, Stephen Daniells, global editor-in-chief of NutraIngredients and panel moderator, noted.
Thorne’s approach is to start with products that work, build supporting evidence and then layer communications differently for professionals and consumers. Scientific communication, Rowe said, is no longer optional; it is an innovation enabler and a pivot opportunity.
“We have to be fresh, we have to be fast, but we also want to be rigorous in the science, scientifically sound for both our practitioner and consumer channels” he added. “I think the pivot here is on communication.”
Rather than having two different sets of products and diluting efforts, it is the scientific communication and the education around products in these different channels that allows Thorne to innovate centrally.
That communication strategy is also centered on building trust with consumers as they navigate an increasingly complex landscape of choices, trends and advice. In January, Thorne introduced Taia, an AI-powered wellness chatbot trained on more than 40 years of the company’s clinical research, practitioner expertise and education content. The tool is designed to translate complex health information into clear, personalized, science-based guidance.
Focusing on the professional channel, Freeman said practitioners can handle greater scientific complexity, but education must still be readily translatable into clinical practice.
“If you’re going to be truly a practitioner brand, the education is critical because they need to feel comfortable and confident in the evidence base of your products, but they also need to make it clinically actionable immediately,” he said.
Ortho Molecular Products uses conferences, roundtables, webinars and a trained sales team to help clinicians understand the evidence and translate it into patient-friendly explanations.
The white, the adjacent and the overrated
When it comes to deciding where to innovate within broad product portfolios, the business leaders pointed to a range of high-growth opportunities driven by consumer health needs and ingredients—from women’s health across every life stage to performance nutrition that extends beyond athletes to daily energy, focus, resilience and long-term optimization.
Among these, the microbiome has emerged as one of the most active areas of supplement innovation. Driven by the shift from digestive support to whole body health and systems thinking, the category is no longer limited by ingredient type, condition or claim.
For Freeman, the microbiome should be viewed as the first “patient” a clinician treats because every oral intervention—food, pharmaceuticals or supplements—passes through and interacts with the microbiome. That interaction can influence metabolism, absorption and the production of bioactive compounds.
“We’re really looking at creating a nice clean clinical framework for clinicians to understand how to measure the microbiome and identify what’s healthy and what is dysfunctional,” he added. “The biggest opportunity here is to give doctors a clear path to helping patients regain a healthy microbiome, which we know is a central regulatory system now.”
Among the areas Thorne is monitoring for future product development are postbiotics and the gut axes, but Rowe cautioned that confusion around definitions remains a challenge even among experts. The risk, he said, is dumbing the topic down so far that companies fail to solve real consumer and patient problems.
Iovate—known for its MuscleTech, Hydroxycut, Six Star and Purely Inspired brands—is watching the microbiome through the lens of adjacent high-impact categories, identifying opportunities at the intersection of muscle health, metabolic health, weight management and GLP-1 support.
The arrival of the GLP-1 era has reshaped the weight management category, but Bashir framed the development as an opportunity rather than a threat, with Iovate focusing on ingredients like peptides and HMB for muscle health.
“For us, I think the biggest opportunity is helping consumers during their weight management journey,” he said. “How are you helping them with not just the weight loss component energy, how are you helping them with fat loss, not muscle loss, and then ultimately long-term adherence to their plan.”
Performance nutrition is also providing innovation and messaging runway as it continues to evolve from a sports-focused category into a broader framework for everyday performance, resilience and long-term optimization.
Bashir said MuscleTech remains rooted in strength, power and body composition, but consumers—which Rowe described as the “proactive optimizer” segment—are increasingly looking for metabolic energy, recovery, muscle preservation and daily performance. Creatine illustrates that shift. Once largely associated with bodybuilders and strength athletes, it is now being discussed in relation to cognition, healthy aging and broader active nutrition.
Performance nutrition is also age-agnostic. Across consumer groups, the underlying aspirations are similar: greater strength and resilience, improved cognitive performance for that extra edge and the ability to feel, look and function at their best.
“Younger consumers may talk about performance and optimization, and maybe older consumers and patients talk about longevity and healthspan, but I think both want strength in the moment—they want to maintain their strength, they want resilience," Freeman said.
As for overrated trends, the innovators pointed to liposomal-everything, loud viral claims without sufficient evidence, “protein everything” messaging and creatine gummies or ready-to-drinks when the stability and data do not yet support the promise.
