During the week of October 4th, I attended my second CRN Conference at the Hyatt Tamayo Resort & Spa, just north of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Including speakers, sponsors, attendees and staff, 160 people joined together to network, enjoy themselves and attend sessions lead by an impressive list of industry leaders.

The Council for Responsible Nutrition out did themselves this year, producing a conference that I feel was an improvement upon a very good event last year in Arizona. The networking began Thursday evening, but the education sessions began Friday morning with a keynote from David Acheson, the Associate Commissioner for Foods at the FDA who outlined their Food Protection Plan introduced in November 2007. With an emphasis on prevention, FDA hopes their new plan will allow them to get ahead of food contamination and adulteration issues that have plagued the U.S. in the last 48 months.

Following David was Dr. Josephine Briggs, the Director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) who presented the results of the new National Health Interview Survey. Surveying 30,000 households and 75,000 people, NCCAM asked about CAM use in 36 therapies and across 81 conditions. The results found that the use of CAM has increased from 36% of the population in 2002 to 38.3% of the population in 2007. Non-vitamin and non-mineral dietary supplement usage remained relatively flat during this time. Interestingly, among other things, the found that CAM use strongly correlated to advanced education, even with income corrections. Most common CAM use was in the western part of the U.S., while consumers in the South were the least likely to use CAM.

One of the most interesting sessions for me was the consumer research panel staring Thom Blishcok of Information Resources Inc. and Maryellen Molyneaux of Natural Marketing Institute. Thom talked mostly about the dynamics of the greater economy in crisis, while diving deep into the surprisingly strong performance of dietary supplements in the food, drug and mass merchandiser markets. Maryellen presented NMI’s 10-year consumer panel research with a focus on defining the “Dr. Me” health opportunity in the United States. Randi Neiner finished up the session presenting CRN’s annual Consumer Confidence Survey that found supplement usage trends flat at 65% versus last year with a small rise in confidence most likely reflecting a drought of negative media coverage of supplements in 2007.

Saturday’s speaking highlight was Dr. Mimi Guarneri of the Scripps Institute for Integrative Health, who presented a holistic review of health and health conditions in the United States. Dr. Guarneri is a true thought leader in the medical field when it comes to integrative health and it shows in her pragmatic and open approach to healthcare, not sickcare.

The 2008 CRN Conference was great for networking and content and I thank the staff at CRN for producing another great event. I look forward to next year’s event, which is rumored to be moving to the West Coast.

Below are a few videos from the event, including a testimonial from Steve Mister, President & CEO of the CRN.

-Patrick

Terms were not disclosed, but North Castle Partners has brought in Nature’s Way owner, Schwabe Pharmaceuticals, to buy the outstanding shares of Enzymatic Therapy.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but NBJ pegs Nature’s Way sales in the $130-150 million range and Enzymatic Therapy sales in the $100-130 million range. The combination of Nature’s Way and Enzymatic Therapy creates a major force in the high-end supplement sector, and a new leader in the natural retail channel. Many have wondered if Enzymatic Therapy has thrived under ownership by North Castle Partners who may have found the perfect partner in Nature’s Way/Schwabe - a leader in the category and channel with access to foreign currency.

Lincoln International, a leading mid-market investment bank, acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Schwabe and Nature’s Way on the deal.

The press release noted, “Initial focus will be to further advance product development in bringing highly effective natural health solutions to market to elevate wellness for those critical health concerns of consumers.”

Dr. Dirk Reischig, Chairman and CEO of Schwabe: “We are very delighted that Enzymatic Therapy, Inc. joins the Schwabe group of companies. We do believe that the complementary product portfolios and marketing know-how of Enzymatic Therapy and Nature’s Way will significantly strengthen our presence in the US market, which is one of Schwabe’s strategic key markets for future growth. Natural health care solutions will become increasingly important over the next few decades. The joined forces of Enzymatic Therapy, Nature’s Way and Schwabe will therefore contribute significantly to consumers in the USA and abroad in achieving the best possible health and quality of life.”

Rory Mahony, CEO of Nature’s Way: “We look forward to leveraging the knowledge and expertise resident in our companies and to further enhance the significant business growth that both Nature’s Way and Enzymatic Therapy have enjoyed over the past several years. We believe the dedication of the companies to the development of quality products will benefit our customers in many ways.”

Randy Rose, CEO of ETI: “We are very pleased to align with Nature’s Way and Dr. Willmar Schwabe Pharmaceuticals in elevating the health and well being of consumers and patients by combining the very best know how of each of the companies. The highly ethical approach to delivering true natural medicines that improve lives is a consistent core value for all three entities and we look forward to advancing the natural health care solutions for the benefit of all.”

More to come soon.

St. John’s Wort sales declined 3% to $56 million in consumer sales in the United States in 2007. In 1999, sales were $243 million. What happened, you might ask? To put it simply - alot of bad press is what happened. For years, St. John’s wort couldn’t catch a break, with one negative news story after another eating away at sales at the shelf.

Yahoo! News reports that the Cochrane Review just published a study that finds St. John’s wort effectively treats symptoms of major depression.

To read more, to here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081007/hl_nm/us_depression_stjohnswort_1

I was pleased to learn last week that Kimberly Stewart, Editorial Director of Functional Ingredients Magazine, was named chair of the Healthy Foods Conference. Kim is the bright and thoughful leader of FI’s editorial team and a progressive thinker when it comes to healthy foods. In fact, she’s the author of Eating Between the Lines: The Supermarket Shopper’s Guide to the Truth Behind Food Labels.

In addition, Kim is a former contributor for Natural Home Magazine and editor-in-chief of Dining Out Magazine. She is also the recipient of two Association of Food Journalists awards for Food News Reporting in 2004 and the Jesse Neal Business Journalism Award in 2002. Before joining FI, Kim regularly contributed to Alternative Health, Better Nutrition, Delicious Living, Denver Post, Eating Well, Vegetarian Times, and numerous other publications.

Kim will make the Healthy Foods Conference a truly unique event for food brand managers and formulation experts, but don’t take it from me, here’s Kim discussing what you will learn at the Healthy Foods Conference on October 14th and 15th at The Westin Boston Waterfront in Boston, MA.

Join NBJ and Nutrition Capital Network, the leading venture capital and private equity investor network in the nutrition industry, as they present investment opportunities and strategies at Expo East. The 1 hour breakfast meeting will be held on Thursday at 8am.

Designed for investors in the nutrition, natural products, healthy foods and green products industry, this NCN Investor Forum will present current perspective on industry trends and the investment climate, case studies of representative recent deals, and a qualified list of companies exhibiting at Natural Products Expo East that are also interested in raising capital. The Forum is free and open exclusively to investors registered for Expo East.

Presenters include:

Tom Aarts and Grant Ferrier, Nutrition Capital Network

Patrick Rea, Nutrition Business Journal

John Barrymore and Scott Winship, 6Pacific Partners

Registration is free to qualified attendees from investment firms or strategic investors.

You must be registered to attend this event. Please click to fill in the brief investor form

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=DkZLDGNf1sKg10S4yZwtPQ_3d_3d

To learn more about NCN, click on the video below from Tom Aarts, Co-Founder, Nutrition Capital Network.