Consumer-centric R&D: Bayer Consumer Health talks localized self-care solutions

Bayer Consumer Health has reshaped its R&D strategy to enable localized product formulations that meet consumers’ specific health needs. We uncover how Bayer’s new operating model and consumer-centric R&D drive innovations in self-care solutions in Brazil and Singapore.

Continuing our conversation with the company’s VP of R&D LATAM and Global Vitamins, Minerals, and Supplements, Julia McCalmont tells Nutrition Insight about the importance of building intelligent formulations. 

“We understand how these ingredients work together in your body, and we have decades of proven evidence to help us build the best synergistic formula.” 

She spotlights the company’s recent Redoxon Energy and Move Well launches: “We’ve engineered these formulas based on how your body processes and uses them, not just what sounds good or looks trendy on a label. It’s not about selling ingredients — it’s about solutions that work, because we understand the underlying biology.”

“Both products use strategic blends of ingredients that address those specific health needs,” she explains. Redoxon Energy includes B vitamins, small amounts of caffeine, and supporting micronutrients, while Redoxon Move Well combines calcium with vitamin D3 to support bone health. 

Meanwhile, McCalmont observes that other products on these markets may focus on solutions that don’t optimize bioavailability or capitalize on that synergy. Sometimes, products include trending ingredients with health benefits that don’t have sufficient scientific support yet. 

Learning from biology

The science behind both products is not revolutionary, underscores McCalmont. There aren’t specific clinical studies that tailor these solutions to market-specific needs. 

“It’s about the foundational biochemistry applied intelligently, and that’s where we give your body’s infrastructure all the tools that it needs to work the way it’s supposed to.” 

“Think of your body as a sophisticated infrastructure system,” she illustrates. “Like any good infrastructure, it needs the right materials delivered to the right places, with a reliable power source to keep everything going.” 

McCalmont explains that the Redoxon formulas are engineered based on how the human body processes and uses them.Suppose the body is like a busy city with a complex transportation network. In that case, calcium is an essential cargo that must reach all construction sites throughout the skeletal system to support bone health. However, the nutrient is bad at navigating that on its own. 

“Our studies show that without vitamin D3, your intestines only absorb about 10–15% of dietary calcium,” details McCalmont. “Vitamin D3 acts as a GPS logistics coordinator that increases the calcium absorption up to 30–40% and directs it effectively to your bone tissue. That’s the difference between getting your cargo trucks completely lost versus having a real coordinated delivery system getting to where it needs to go.” 

Meanwhile, she likens energy to upgrading the body’s power plant, where Redoxon Energy’s B complex vitamins act as technicians to optimize cellular energy production. These vitamins help convert food into ATP — the body’s energy currency. 

“The caffeine that we add acts as a smart grid system. It blocks adenosine receptors that signal you’re tired, while our additional micronutrients ensure that all the metabolic machinery in the background runs smoothly,” McCalmont highlights. “Instead of flipping a switch for a temporary power surge, we’re upgrading your electrical system so you have sustained output throughout the day.” 

Uncovering unmet consumer needs

Although the Redoxon Energy and Move Well formulas may be adapted for other markets, McCalmont underscores the importance of consumer understanding in building authentic, proven, and safe new formulas and tools. 

“What’s most important for us is identifying region-specific unmet needs and thinking about where there is a genuine consumer need these solutions can address. Our product solution comes in once we hit that sweet spot of understanding what the consumer requires and determining the right hardware to address that.” 

Bayer Consumer Health aims to uncover consumers’ unmet needs where self-care solutions can offer a meaningful difference.She adds that self-care products have substantial potential to reach more consumers, as these have a lower market penetration than other categories. Bayer Consumer Health aims to uncover consumers’ unmet needs where self-care solutions can offer a meaningful difference. 

“That’s our goal, to get those types of solutions for unmet needs into the hands of consumers so they can manage their health in the best way.” 

Dynamic operating system

Both Redoxon product launches illustrate Bayer’s new operating model, which McCalmont says is the company’s “superpower.” To improve agility and operational performance, Bayer recently moved to a model that decentralizes implementation and leverages opportunities in individual markets and regions instead of responding to demand signals at a global scale.

As a result of the new model, the company focuses its innovation resources regionally, with regional representatives and R&D teams who analyze local markets and consumer needs. 

“They’re going into stores in Brazil to see what the energy segment looks like, to understand the products on the market and consumer habits and behaviors, and they talk to consumers to help develop the right solutions,” details McCalmont.

“For us, the real benefit is being able to pull out those unmet consumer needs that exist at the local level and understand what that looks like compared to what those individuals are offered day in and day out, so we develop the right solution that meets their needs.” 

With the new operating model, the company focuses its innovation resources regionally, with representatives analyzing markets and consumer needs.She says the new model has opened opportunities to understand market needs and differentiation better. “One of the key principles for us is being more dynamic — recognizing that markets, businesses, and consumers are going to change and enabling ourselves to use that as a strength.” 

Self-care solutions

McCalmont highlights several recent self-care product launches in cognition and healthy aging. 

“Berroca Mind, which was launched last year in the UK and Australia, takes the core of our sustained energy technology and uses Spanish sage, which has been clinically proven to help improve cognitive outputs.” 

This brand has a heritage within energy solutions with offerings to boost energy or support sustained energy, daily routine, and recovery, while some focus on single ingredients. 

“Supradyn, one of our brands in Italy, has an aging solution called PRO B12,” McCalmont adds. “This opportunity is more focused on the aging population that blends the vitamin B12 complex with probiotics and gives advanced aging solutions in that area.” 

In other health areas, Bayer Consumer Health’s brand One A Day recently unveiled a kids multivitamin with a stable source of iron in a tasty gummy, which she says are two of the main challenges in iron fortification. The UK brand Canesten launched CanesMeno, a range covering menopause.