Micronutrients as an Innovation Opportunity for the Pharmaceutical Industry: A Case Study of Vitamin D in Brazil

Abstract

This paper aims to demonstrate the micronutrients as an attractive alternative of innovation for Pharmaceutical Industries with limited resources. A case study of vitamin D as a pharmaceutical supplement is launched in the Brazilian Market. The results demonstrate that some opportunities of several new products for populations with nutritional deficiency—the so-called micronutrients for hidden hunger, that is any deficiency unnoticed where micronutrients assume metabolic functions in humans. This deficiency unnoticed lead to disease onset or an organism dysfunction. WHO estimate that more than 2 billion humans are affected by hidden hunger. Scientific studies show that these ills cause serious problems for pregnant women, elderly and children. Thus, the micronutrients in a normal diet comes up the news opportunities for pharmaceuticals industries as well as vitamin supplements. Pharmaceutical industry is the most innovative company in healthcare. Launcher a blockbuster as a new product through of radical innovation is so hard and with higher costs. In this sense, the micronutrients are an attractive alternative of innovation for pharmaceutical industries with limited financial resources. So, pharmaceutical supplements appear as an incremental innovation of known chemical substances.