The APAC probiotics industry has seen a significant boom in the recent past, driven by rising awareness of health and wellness amongst consumers – but according to Life-Space Group Lead Scientific Educator Jessica Simonis, there is still a very real need for better probiotics education amongst healthcare providers (HCPs) to really ensure consumers are receiving the right products.
“Probiotics have the potential to play a significant role in modern medicine [but currently] we are seeing a lot of confusion amongst HCPs regarding this sector – and confused HCPs lead to confused patients,” she told the floor at our recent Growth Asia Summit 2024.
“Using Australia as an example, we know that some 68% of HCPs are interested in probiotics and prebiotics but 48% feel they need further education before recommending these to their patients – and no one is educating them, nor do they have the time to go through existing studies.
“HCPs and patients alike are confused by the plethora of products, claims and research available, how to choose the probiotic with the right functions for a health condition and what works for the particular physiology of a particular patient.
“This confusion is made worse by a lack of consensus between medical organisations, as different organisations can publish different information on the efficacy of probiotics for the same health condition.
“For example, the National Institutes for Health (NIH) states that there is sufficient evidence that probiotics works for Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) – but at the same time and for the same condition, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) says the evidence is inconclusive; and the American Gastroenterologist Association (AGA) says there is definitely not enough evidence to make this link.
“So it really is just very confusing for HCPs to know what conditions can be helped with a probiotics prescription, and also which probiotic strain or product to use, which translates into confusion amongst patients as up to 63% of probiotic users rely on their clinician for advice.”
It has also become quite common for HCPs to leave decisions surrounding probiotic consumption to their patients, particularly when it comes to product selection.
“Studies have shown that out of 61% of HCPs that prescribe probiotics to their patients, 40% tend to leave the choice to the patient after prescription,” Simonis added.
“The main issue to consider here is that the efficacy of probiotics is very strain-specific, so if consumers go to their pharmacies and just choose any probiotic product without understanding which strain they need, they may not get any benefits from it.
“As such it is clear that there really needs to be better clarity amongst HCPs so they can prescribe probiotics [with greater precision] so as to get the right strain to the right person at the right dose for the right length of time [and we must get them] non-promotional ”
Role of industry
To this regard, she believes that probiotic industry players also have a very important role to play in order to ensure HCPs receive the information and clarity they need, particularly from a product perspective.
“When developing probiotic products, the industry must ensure that any information on the ingredients and dosages used are the same as that in the supportive clinical trials, and the format of delivery must also be the same,” she said.
“In addition it is crucial not to make any misleading claims that do not match the associated evidence, both in consumer and HCP-directed marketing e.g. this product ‘relieves symptoms of medically diagnosed IBS’.
“This is all very important in order to reduce confusion and potential mistrust amongst the HCP community.”