October 28th, 2008
One a Day Mens can't meet promises
One of the big trends in the vitamin business is to make different tablets for different types of people.
That trend was blown apart today as the government stopped SELECT, the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial, after participants were found to actually be doing worse than those on placebos.
Selenium and Vitamin E have long been thought to protect the prostate against cancer. It turns out they don’t. Those on the Vitamin E actually had more prostate trouble than those taking sugar pills.
All of which is bad news for Bayer, which has been pushing its One a Day Mens’ Vitamin, with extra Vitamin E and selenium “for prostate health,” for some time.
Whether it will halt the trend toward segmenting the vitamin market is unknown. There are vitamins “specially formulated” for every age and sex. What good does it really do, except make multi-vitamins cost more?
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist since 1978, and has covered technology since 1982. He launched the Interactive Age Daily, the first daily coverage of the Internet to launch with a magazine, in September 1994. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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| 10/28/08
