Nestle plans to add a health food wing to its global empire after receiving $28.3 billion in a majority stake sale of its Alcon eye-care division to Novartis Last month.
Nestle is the world’s largest food-producing company, and plans to use the revenue of the sale to invest in nutritional products to combat disease, including products to prevent obesity, diabetes and Alzheimer’s. The makers of favorites like NesCafe coffee, myriad baby food products, cereals and confectionary icons like Kit-Kats and Milky Bars are ready to take the world of health food head on.
Nestle is set to overtake the world’s leading health-targeting company, Group Danone, after Danone was forced to withdraw its bid to the European Food Safety Authority for its yoghurt drink claims, saying it needed clarification on the Authority’s rules.
Analysts believe that with the food giant taking on health-related products, it will be the leader in this sector within a couple of years, even with regulators coming down hard on health claims for food products. The new health unit will include existing health care products produced by Nestle, which net around $1.6 billion a year. Nestle is also planning to create the Nestle Institute of Health Sciences to be based at the premises of research partners Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne.
Nestle has brought in Emmanuel Baetge to head the new research institute, he is a former chief scientific officer for a Californian company, ViaCyte, which looked into developing diabetes treatments based on stem cell research.
