The boundaries between pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals continue to blur. This year’s CPHI 2025 trade show highlighted innovations that bridge efficacy and formats between both industries. On the showroom floor, Nutrition Insight discussed industry convergence and new delivery formats with PharmaLinea, Lubrizol, Sirio, Corbion, and Bioiberica.
Matevž Ambrožič, marketing director at PharmaLinea, noted that the pharmaceutical industry is continuing to push the supplement industry toward its standards. “They have substantial marketing power and are applying pressure to the supplement industry to develop higher quality and proof of efficacy.”
PharmaLinea is working on clinical substantiation as a key step toward pharmaceutical-grade supplements. Ambrožič detailed: “While branded ingredients are increasingly backed by clinical studies, finished-product clinical validation is still rare — and that’s where we focus.”
“We already have several product lines clinically studied at the finished-product level, and a large pipeline of upcoming trials. Our goal is to have our entire portfolio clinically substantiated.”
“That’s our way of adapting to the future that will probably be more pharmaceutical-grade standards — at least for a part of the supplement industry.”
Kevin Song, senior director in Global Pharmaceutical and Nutraceutical Businesses at Lubrizol, added: “Pharma and nutraceuticals are very close-knit in terms of applications and dosage formats. What we’re doing is reimagining what the consumers are looking for.”
“We’ve always worked closely with our pharma partners, but now we see an opportunity to bring that technology and insight into the nutraceutical space.”
For example, at CPHI, Lubrizol highlighted its polymer excipient Carbopol. With a long history of use in the pharmaceutical industry, it offers nutraceutical solutions with benefits in format flexibility, taste masking, and controlled release.
From pharma to nutra
Song highlighted that Carbopol is a multifunctional excipient, enabling multiple format types, from solid doses to liquid formulations, thereby delivering consumer-friendly products that meet efficacy.
At CPHI 2025, Song told us how Lubrizol bridges pharma and nutraceuticals with advanced delivery systems.“Beyond format flexibility, it gives our formulators and customers a broad range of capabilities to work with,” he detailed. “For instance, Carbopol in a solid dosage format enables sustained or controlled-release properties, while in a liquid formulation, it can be used to develop a suspension that keeps the active ingredient suspended in a media for the entire duration of a product formulation.”
“This is how we’re leveraging our technology to drive innovation in the nutraceutical space.”
In nutraceuticals, the excipient’s technology enables innovations in taste masking, which Song emphasized is a critical benefit consumers look for in an end-product. In addition, its benefits in controlled release help Lubrizol to develop prototypes of “perceivably different” products for its customers.
“It’s not just about the science behind the technology — it’s also about the visual cues we’re able to deliver through our technology. That’s how we’re bringing pharma-grade insight into the nutraceutical space.”
Song added that this approach also extends to the company’s nutraceutical active ingredients. “Our minerals and botanicals aren’t just raw ingredients — they’re functionalized to deliver added benefits like taste masking or delayed release.”
Magnesium format innovations
Sirio launched a new magnesium portfolio at CPHI, offering supplements in various dosage forms to target specific health benefits. Sara Lesina, Sirio Europe & Americas’ general manager, told us that the company began developing these forms two years ago following discussions with its customers.
“We launched a portfolio, with multiple dosage forms, like softgels, gummies, and fizzy formats,” she detailed.
“Magnesium is an all-around ingredient: mood, relaxation, sleep, and even brain health because some forms have a bioavailability advantage to cross the blood-brain barrier. When you put it in a format and combine it with others, you can enhance the absorption.”
Sirio’s magnesium portfolio offers supplement concepts in softgels, gummies, and fizzy formats, each with a specific health benefit.Some of these concepts, the X3 Mg Relax gummy and X3 Mg Active softgel, combine three sources of magnesium. Lesina explained that this helps with bioavailability as they reinforce each other.
The Xtra Magnesium gummy offers a high dose of the mineral. “It’s a very challenging format because high-dose magnesium makes gummies sweat and get sticky,” detailed Lesina. “But the team got it to a really good place. It’s still a bit shiny — which is normal — but it actually looks nice.”
Her favorite is the X Mg Recovery FizzyBits, a hydration instant fizzy tab with magnesium glycinate for fast, post-workout recovery. Sirio introduced this format at Vitafoods Europe 2025.
“It’s a fun, convenient format, no water needed, perfect for after a workout,” Lesina commented. “This one is getting a lot of interest from the market.”
Although magnesium is becoming an increasingly popular mineral in supplements, Lesina noted that the nutraceutical industry may need to do more work in translating the distinct health benefits of each type and form of magnesium, as discovered through new research.
“Minerals have been around forever, but science has evolved with new clinicals and benefits.”
Pharma’s little brother
PharmaLinea’s Ambrožič noted that the nutraceutical industry is the “little brother of pharma,” with much looser regulation. Although this offers benefits in terms of ease of innovation and speed to market, he noted that, for food supplements, the vast majority of countries don’t require proof of stability at the end of shelf life, which is mandatory for all medicinal products.
He believes this is the root cause of a growing number of reports on quality issues in supplements, which state that products on the market don’t meet label claims.
Ambrožič said that PharmaLinea stopped developing some formats because it was not satisfied with the stability profile of active ingredients.“A product may meet its label claim at the beginning of shelf life, but due to poor stability, active ingredients degrade over time.”
Ambrožič highlighted two methods to improve this: either stronger regulations (“the stick”) or consumers pressuring companies into developing more stable products (“the carrot”). “I believe the more effective one, which is lacking more, is the regulatory part.”
He added that PharmaLinea focuses on balancing efficacy and stability with interesting and enjoyable products, offering new delivery formats, tastes, and textures.
“We’ve been expanding into new formats like chewables, jellies, and gummies, but some we had to stop in their tracks because we weren’t satisfied with the stability profiles of the active ingredients,” detailed Ambrožič. “Our strategy is to have a responsible limit to what we develop in delivery formats, so we do not compromise on efficacy.”
Preventive wellness
Lucas Wiarda, strategic director of marketing at Corbion, highlighted how the company applies its pharmaceutical expertise, knowledge, and way of working to supplements.
“I see quality as a key common denominator our customers can trust us for,” he detailed. “Quality, especially in pharma — and increasingly in nutraceuticals — is a very important element, as is reliability, particularly with all the supply chain challenges we’ve faced in the past.”
Corbion offers biomedical polymers for applications such as long-acting injectables and active ingredients used in treatments for patients in renal care and dialysis.
“For many years, we’ve offered active ingredients in the form of sodium lactate, and we have developed technologies to turn our lactic acid compounds into biomedical polymers,” explained Wiarda.
Corbion offers biomedical polymers for injectables, active ingredients used in renal care and dialysis treatments, and omega-3 for nutraceuticals.“More recently, we developed a nutraceutical in the form of omega-3, which symbolizes one of the key trends in health and nutrition — health-conscious consumers increasingly taking nutraceuticals to stay healthy and prevent illness.”
Levering pharma expertise
Celebrating its 50th anniversary, Bioiberica highlighted its expansion from pure pharmaceutical ingredients to include nutraceuticals, animal feed, and plant health solutions.
Jaume Reguant, Human Health director at the company, referenced Bioibierca’s long-held expertise in active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and branded ingredients. “We plan to continue expanding in both segments, building on our expertise and supported by strong investments.”
“We apply the same quality, regulatory, and safety standards from our pharma-grade manufacturing to our nutraceutical portfolio,” he detailed. “We combine our regulatory expertise, industrial capabilities, scientific knowledge, and collaboration structure with our entities to grow the business of APIs and nutraceuticals.”
Meanwhile, Javier Velasco-Álvarez, R&D and quality director at Bioiberica, presented a functional food concept at CPHI: collagen milk. The company aimed to provide consumers with a new, convenient way to consume its native type II collagen, under the Collavant n2 brand, by incorporating it into a daily product that maintains its functionality and properties for joint health.
“We realized that the market potential for our ingredients grows significantly when they’re integrated into functional foods, in a product that is already healthy and provides functionality, such as dairy products.”
Velasco-Álvarez highlighted the importance of collaboration in Bioiberica’s R&D and product development. “We have deep expertise in the extraction and characterization of complex molecules — the same skills used in our API and functional ingredient production. But we also recognize the value of working with external experts, for clinical trials and the validation of our ingredients.”
“For example, we partner with key opinion leaders and research institutions in areas like mobility and dermal health,” he added. “At the same time, for application development, such as the collagen milk concept, we collaborate with leading food industry partners who bring expertise in incorporating an ingredient into a final product.”
