What is in this article?:
- Claims, RX fish oil drugs challenge the heart-health supplement market
- Roadblocks ahead for heart-health supplement market
U.S. consumers spend nearly $2 billion a year on supplements specifically targeted to heart health, Nutrition Business Journal reports. But this continues to pale in comparison to the money Americans fork out for statins and other prescription cardiovascular drugs. And now the drug companies are moving in on the leading heart-health supplement: omega-3s.
U.S. consumer sales of dietary supplement products aimed at heart health grew 8 percent to nearly $2 billion in 2009, according to Nutrition Business Journal estimates. Omega-3 supplements, not surprisingly, generated the lion’s share of these sales. Other top cardiovascular-health supplements include CoQ10 and vitamin E.
In the world of supplements, heart health is a leading condition-specific category. However, supplements claim only a small fraction of the overall dollars U.S. consumers spend annually on cardiovascular health products. Cholesterol-lowering statins and other prescription drugs make up nearly 90% of sales in this category, NBJ reports.
This could shift, however, as consumers grow increasingly wary of the side effects associated with cholesterol-lowering drugs and shift their focus to heart-disease prevention. The expanding body of science demonstrating the cardio benefits of such as omega-3s and CoQ10 and and the development of new natural cardio ingredients and products is also likely to continue driving sales of heart-health supplements.
