Dr Swami Subramaniam, head of R&D Abbott Nutrition India, will be talking about “Nutrition – Opportunities for Startups”. Abott labs is a worldwide leader in diagnostics, medical devices, nutrition and pharmaceuticals with a presence in more than 150 countries. Dr. Subramaniam is a medical doctor and a Molecular Pharmacologist (PhD, U Penn) who has worked in the Indian Pharmaceutical/Lifescience sector since 1995. He has been involved with two Startups, one as a Founder – Managing Director (Aurigene).

“Nutrition – Opportunity for Startups” gave an overview of nutrition as an entrepreneurial space and its importance in the future.

Some key takeaways:

1) While nutrition products seem to abound, the general customer sentiment is that these are expensive

2) Companies that produce these products experience margin pressure despite this customer perception

3) Unlike pharmaceutical products, side-effects are completely unacceptable in the nutritional products space

4) Markets where people consider nutritional products to improve and optimize their quality of life is an interesting area for new startups (this being different from the traditional market segment that uses nutritional supplements to come to par, per physician’s advise).