WHO OWNS OUR SUPPLEMENT COMPANIES?

big pharma’s big deals and big agra’s big steals

i stopped taking Pure Encapsulations bone support 2 or 3 years ago. A sudden suspicion struck me which i still can’t explain - a sort of under the skin knowing one day, when i just suddenly out of the blue asked myself “Who made these little white capsules in this little white jar?” and i froze.

This scam really burns my wheels to a seething rage…and this scam is worse than (or at least as bad as) the shots.

i intended to research this sooner, as i couldn’t prove my suspicions in any measurable way; and be forewarned there’s no shortage of articles and reports covering corporate buyouts of trusted natural companies over the last 25 years.

i shot right out of the starting gate this morning, no sugar coating or fancy hellos - because i’ve meant to bring this subject up for a long time. Today’s that day.

As of 2022, supplements were a 51 billion dollar industry with an annual growth rate of 5.7%, and that’s the free lunch bell for big pharma and big ag - music to their ears. And it’s nothing new either - the “acquisitions” and “buyouts” began at least 25 years ago. 

They own everything. It’s so wrong. They can put whatever they want in their product lines; and by changing moneys with the right hands, they become absolutely exempt from quality standards, the product’s actual effects, and lack of promised results.

They own everything. It really is all one big industrial corporation self-positioned for complete domination of the market and control over people’s lives (and their sudden deaths too!).
Big companies can afford to pay to play, which is the only road to the top.
How sad, huh?
Let’s dig into who bought what, and when…

1) According to Wellness Resources:

Nestle Health Science, a division of Nestle, bought Pure Encapsulations and Douglas Foods, along with a host of other supplement companies, including Garden of Life, Vital Proteins, Nuun, Wobenzym, Persona Nutrition, Genestra, Orthica, Minami, AOV, Klean Athlete and Bountiful. Bountiful itself owns Solgar, Osteo Bi-Flex, Puritan’s Pride, Ester-C and Sundown, which are now all under Nestle’s control.

Otsuka, a pharmaceutical company, owns MegaFood and Innate Therapeutics; Schwabe, another pharmaceutical company, owns Integrative Therapeutics, Nature’s Way, and Enzymatic Therapy.
Unilever owns Onnit, OLLY, Equilibra and Liquid I.V., and SmartyPants Vitamins.
Wall Street is also getting in on the action, with private equity groups purchasing brands like Nutraceutical and Metagenics.

Several of these brands are higher quality supplement companies, such as Pure Encapsulations, Douglas Laboratories, MegaFood, and Metagenics. What will happen to them now that they are owned by mega-corporations???

NDI guidance could lead to the elimination of over 41,000 products from store shelves.(NDI = “New Dietary Ingredient”)
…and without their approved studies, every plant, mineral, and herb becomes an NDI - walling off the entire supplement market for themselves.
https://www.wellnessresources.com/news/who-makes-the-vitamins-you-take 

2) Here’s Dr Smoller’s personal account of his ethical conflict over Nestle’s purchase of Pure Encapsulations and Douglas Labs; and disapproval of Nestle’s rebranding as a health science and water company, with chocolate left to ancient history on the wind…
https://drnealsmoller.com/rant/the-14-mega-corporations-that-own-your-supplement-brand/ 

3) Clean Living mom Meredith did her research and gives us a big bite of what she found. These are just a couple screenshots from her blog:
https://cleanlivingmomblog.com/100-supplement-vitamin-brands-bought-out-by-large-companies/

4) Sandra Hearth still trusts and endorses Pure Encapsulations and Douglas Labs; but that doesn’t negate the knowledge she shares.
https://wellbeingport.com/which-supplement-companies-are-owned-by-big-pharma/ 

5) Health Unlimited reported this:
https://unlimitedhealthy.com/portfolio/who-owns-the-big-supplement-brands/

6) NBC NEWS said in 2009:
https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna31188920
And like a hiccup, the whole story was gone, and the ugly truth rolled silently and profitably on.

7) Nutriceuticals World is in favor the Nestle acquistions, which leads me to imagine some coins clinking behind closed doors, somewhere the public sector is not privy to see:
https://www.nutraceuticalsworld.com/contents/view_breaking-news/2021-08-10/nestle-health-science-finalizes-acquisition-of-supplement-brands-from-the-bountiful-company/ 

8) Kristin the sassy holistic penned these thoughts in 2022:
https://www.sassyholistics.com/who-owns-popular-supplement-companies/ 

All these articles - and the many more still searchable on the web - are well worth reading, but i believe the highlights provided by the links above will scoop some of the mystery out of the way, and unveil yet deeper levels of control and deceit hard at work.

When i queried what supplement companies Pfizer owns, the search was mangled by redirecting the question to Pfizer’s complete portfolio acquisitions, and read like the propaganda it no doubt was. So far, i’ve only learned that Pfizer bought Emergen-C, a California company, in 2012; and that Centrum is their product too.

https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer_acquires_alacer_corp_a_leading_vitamin_supplements_company
and this Reuters’ report (Bloomberg blocked theirs):
https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE81Q22T/ 
But, there was still this one screenshot from mom Meredith with some hints:

In 2018, Johnson and Johnson bought a supplement manufacturer named Zarbees.
nutraingredients-usa.com/Article/2018/07/30/Johnson-Johnson-acquires-Zarbee-s-Naturals 

Acquisitions are by the thousands, it appears. Here at this point, my searches were altered to go fuzzy and wide, steering me forcefully away from the next bull’s eye. So i share this final link with one helpful tip: “Acquired” means that big pharma or big industry bought those companies along with any subsidiaries that they own:
https://www.inven.ai/company-lists/top-24-dietary-supplement-companies 

My advice? Rethink all your supps. Stick with small companies. Call an herbalist.

That’s what i have for you today. As always, leave your comments; and if your search for Truth is more fruitful than mine, please do share!