Beyond Ingredients

If two supplements contain the same bioactive at the same dose, are they really the same product?

At first glance, the answer may seem obvious. The ingredient is the same. The amount is the same. Yet what happens after the supplement is swallowed may be very different.

The reason lies in the fact that a bioactive’s performance emerges from the interplay between its intrinsic properties and the microstructure of the formulation that carries it.

Nutritional science has already identified thousands of bioactive compounds capable of influencing human physiology. Some are produced naturally by the body, while others are found in plants, marine organisms or foods that have formed part of the human diet for centuries. Every year, new studies expand our understanding of how these molecules interact with biological processes involved in sleep, metabolism, inflammation, cognition, healthy ageing and many other aspects of health.

With so many bioactives already supported by experimental and clinical research, it would be reasonable to assume that the next major challenge is discovering the next important ingredient. Our research gradually led us to a different conclusion.

For many bioactives, the limiting factor is no longer understanding what the molecule does. It is understanding how to formulate that molecule so that its biological properties have the greatest opportunity to be expressed after oral administration.

That distinction is easily overlooked. When two supplements contain the same ingredient at the same dose, they are often assumed to be functionally equivalent. Chemically they may be. But the way they are formulated, and therefore how they behave after ingestion, may be very different.

Every oral formulation begins a sequence of events that takes place before absorption is even possible. The bioactive must remain stable throughout manufacture and storage. After ingestion it must disperse within gastrointestinal fluids, remain available as it passes through the small intestine and encounter the absorptive surface under conditions that favour uptake. Beyond the properties of the bioactive itself, each of these steps is governed by the way the substance has been formulated.

This is where material and formulation science becomes important.

Different bioactives present distinct formulation challenges depending on their physical and chemical properties, stability during handling, storage, and delivery, and the mechanisms and sites of action in the body. For instance,

• Lipophilic compounds have little affinity for the aqueous environment of the gastrointestinal tract.
• Oxidation-sensitive molecules may gradually lose activity during storage.
• Oil-based ingredients often require specialised approaches before they can be incorporated into conventional capsules or tablets.
• Other compounds dissolve rapidly but remain available for absorption only briefly before progressing further through the digestive tract.
• And so on.

These are formulation challenges that arise before receptors, signalling pathways or metabolic processes become relevant.

For us, that observation shaped the direction of our research. Instead of searching exclusively for new bioactives, we began investigating how the formulation of existing ones could be improved to support their stability, dispersion and availability before absorption. That work ultimately became Dual Vector™.

Dual Vector™ is a formulation platform and not a bioactive ingredient on its own. It was developed to address challenges related to the dispersion, stability and delivery of lipophilic and oxidation-sensitive compounds before absorption takes place.

The platform distributes bioactives throughout a hydrophilic carrier system that disperses readily after ingestion, increasing the surface over which the bioactive becomes available within the gastrointestinal tract. As the carrier gradually dissolves, additional bioactive continues to become available further along the small intestine instead of being released at a single location. The same platform also converts oil-based ingredients into stable free-flowing powders while helping protect oxidation-sensitive compounds during manufacture and storage.

Importantly, none of these mechanisms change the biological properties of the molecule. They address the formulation surrounding the molecule, but its functions in the body remain exactly the same.

We aim to reduce the formulation barriers that may limit a bioactive molecule’s ability to perform its natural function, without changing its structure or biological properties.

This principle continues to guide every formulation developed at Fortivion Labs. We begin by identifying bioactives supported by sound scientific evidence and a clear physiological rationale. We then examine whether the formulation itself may be limiting their performance after oral administration. Only when a genuine formulation problem exists do we consider whether Dual Vector™ offers an appropriate solution.

At Fortivion Labs, formulation is fundamental to the science of every product we develop.