In a $1.5 trillion industry where every other business seems to want to sell you a “wellness” product or service, who can you trust? That’s the question that Wellness Access Institute (WAI) wants to answer – partly to help customers make informed decisions, but also to support those businesses that are bringing genuinely useful products to the market.
Founded earlier this year by Greg Macpherson and Warren Liu, WAI’s objective is to help the industry, its regulators, and consumers to reach a better understanding of what a focus on wellness could achieve. Despite obvious benefits for people’s health – ultimately, the opportunity to live a longer life – policymakers are not providing the broad support that the wellness sector needs, WAI argues. In particular, too many obstacles stand in the way of innovation.
“First, there is the issue of industry trust and transparency – how we create a stronger link between the science and the shopper,” says Liu. “Next, we want to address the speed of innovation and the accessibility to everyday people. Real solutions to health and wellness issues today can be accelerated by solving those challenges and creating frameworks for education and access to knowledge to support health and wellness.”
WAI envisages setting up an industry body, funded by the wellness sector, but acting independently of it. It would pursue initiatives such as certifications for products properly backed by science-based evidence and real-world proof, helping businesses to establish trust. It also plans to launch a WAI accelerator programme, connecting innovators and entrepreneurs in the sector with leaders in areas such as the supply chain, marketing and R&D.
The organisation will operate as a not-for-profit, Liu explains, becoming self-funding in time through charges for memberships, certifications and other services. Any surplus cash generated will be reinvested in the organisation and its programs.
Wellness Access Institute founders Greg Macpherson and Warren Liu
Both Macpherson and Liu have long track records working in the wellness and preventative health fields, and previously collaborated on a supplement brand designed to help people manage the ageing process. Building that brand required overcoming a number of frustrating challenges, which the duo discovered were common when they talked to others in the sector.
“Breakthrough innovations are getting stuck in the lab,” Liu says. “Genuine solutions are not getting to people who could benefit from them fast enough, and sometimes not at all. And even where products do get commercialised, they are sometimes too expensive or not widely available.”
Macpherson argues WAI can help organisations break some of those logjams, to the benefit of all. “An urgent paradigm shift is needed if we are to support an ageing population sustainably and improve our collective and individual health as we age,” he says. “WAI aims to accelerate our understanding and access to wellness and wellness innovation in a way that is trusted and available to all.”
To make a start on those goals, WAI has appointed an advisory board consisting of eight prominent leaders in the wellness field. They include Aubrey Levitt, founder of microbiome start-up Postbiotics Plus, Dr Matt Yousefzadeh, a prolific contributor on wellness to scientific publications, and Michael Heinam, who works on patent applications and contracts with leading universities.
“It’s not just businessmen and scientists trying to create new products to sell,” Liu adds. “It’s an open dialogue and vision-setting agenda involving people at every stage of the journey; it starts with making knowledge of the primary factors for wellness accessible to all.”
WAI points to basic misunderstandings among consumers, built up over many years, as evidence of the need for an organisation to promote education and awareness. The idea of “eating your greens”, for example, is based on an outdated campaign and overlooks fruit and vegetables of different colours.
Ultimately, WAI’s founders believe that if they can help innovators make high-quality new products available more quickly and equip consumers with the help and understanding to recognise such products, the big-picture potential is to drive better health outcomes. “The benefits of health and longevity programmes have never been clearer,” argues Liu.