Too supplement to be pharma, too pharma to be food

Supplements, pharmaceuticals and functional foods are in a full-blown situationship — and it’s getting messy. As brands blur lines across categories and take space in wellness, performance and even disease-adjacent benefits, the question of “who gets to play with what ingredient” is heating up. Drug preclusion rules are being tested, pharma collabs are popping up and regulatory gray zones are getting grayer. This session will spotlight real-world examples — ingredients like NAC (N-acetyl-cysteine), NMN (nicotinamide mononucleotide) and CBD (cannabidiol) — where regulatory red flags, pharma filings or shifting FDA interpretations threw a wrench into innovation.