Overall sales of clinical nutrition products are rising with an aging population in the U.S. and EU as well as rising incidence of illnesses and conditions that require clinical nutrition. But sales of clinical nutrition products containing probiotics and prebiotics are outpacing sales of conventional clinical nutrition products, opening up a new market that is dominated by a handful of players, according to a recent report from Business Insights.

Nearly all of the major manufacturers of enteral nutrition products—Abbott Nutrition, Danone, Fresenius Kabi and Nestlé—are currently working to expand their offerings of products containing probiotics and prebiotics. Currently, several clinical nutrition products are formulated with prebiotics and one major product contains probiotics.

Several special patient populations are especially good candidates for clinical nutrition products containing probiotics and/or prebiotics as they have specific and/or greater nutritional needs than non-elderly adults. They include the elderly, patients with compromised gastrointestinal systems, the critically ill and infants.

Although there is interest and activity in the development of enteral nutrition products containing probiotics, a lack of basic research establishing the clinical performance of probiotics in enteral nutrition patients is limiting further new product activity.