Effinov: smart and meaningful To implement its range of food supplements in pharmacies, the Breton SME Effinov has rolled out effective tools that allow pharmacists to provide valuable advice to their patients. More than that, the company has walked off the beaten path through its disruptive formulations. Effinov’s existing ranges were smart etc.) explaining their reasons and presenting the and meaningful”saysBéatrice Poisson, food supplements capable of providing answers, CEO of E ffinov, “that’s why I took up the challenge of either alone or in “relevant” combinations like- steering the company in order to further develop it”. ly to improve efficiency; dietary advice that can be As it is such smartness and meaningfulness that she matched accordingly with the suppements are alol s has been looking for throughout her entire career in included. The pharmacist has the possibility of d-i the pharmaceutical industry. In particular, Béatrice rectingthe patient towards a nutritionl assessmenta Poisson participated in the creation of NutriSanté afterwhich, a personalized plan can be establisedh (former Ponroy Group, currently Havea), before depending on the identified nutritional status and successively working for the laboratories Wyeth and 14 (possibly) physiological dysfunctions. An “individu- Expanscience (notably as Chief of Operations for nu- alized micronutrition” approach for which Effinut®, traceuticals). She was then Business Development a nutritional analysis software accessible to con- Director at Natural Distribution (Santé Verte and Protocols sumers was developed from the first years of activity Diet Horizon brands). combining food supplements and of the company. At the head of this company since May 2016, fol- dietary advice. By providing pharmacists with the keys to their new lowing its takeover by regional investment funds, mission, Effinov has been able to successfully im- Béatrice Poisson has continuously developed the plement its ranges in a thousand pharmacies. While activity of a company set up by a nutritionist in 2010 it relies internally on a sales team that includes eight and which essentially offered formulas for sports representatives, the company has outsourced the or individuals via an e-shop. “Sports nutrition is at training of the pharmacy teams and works in part- the very core of our DNA, with references such as nership with the company Gayet-Métois Formation, Hydraminov or Minéralinov.” The references were a specialist in this field for twenty years. great, but the company lacked operability. As a result, the pharmacies which deployed the pro- “I therefore reviewed the company’s strategy and ject proposed by Effinov saw their sell-out and stock rolled out the necessary means to get it out of its com- turnover increase by 70% on average. fort zone,” Béatrice Poisson adds. Emphasis was therefore laid on a pharmacy-centred development, 70 % BREAKTHROUGH REFERENCES with the main difficultybeing “how to explain that a The food supplements developed by Effinov “have young laboratory can differentiate itself”. Such diff er- been formulated to provide solutions to a specific entiation is based “first and foremost” on micronu- increase of sell-out problem, underlines Béatrice Poisson, while being trition, but “ in a different manner”. and stock turnover as disruptive as possible”. “Off the beaten path”: this is in pharmacies. the mission statement of the company. Effinov was ENROLLING PHARMACISTS IN A PROJECT the first brand in France to be offering vitamin D3 of After the feedback collected following the first tests herbal origin in pharmacies. It is also one of the first conducted in pharmacies, “we decided to co-opt food supplement players to be offering its capsules pharmacies with whom we were going to work in a and tablets (80% of its references) in PLA pillboxes project with a specific mission: analysing and under- (Editor’s note: polylactic acid, a biodegradable pol- standing consumer needs, offering nutritional ad- ymer that may be composted even by individuals vice, and preventive healthcare”. and is obtained from corn starch, therefore being Pharmacists and their pharmacy teams are pro- the first natural alternative to PET). vided with a booklet of “counselling protocols” And Béatrice Poisson does not hide it: “we have which describes the main pathologies encoun- our ethics for our approach to prevention and tered (fatigue, digestive comfort, women’s health, health”. And this is also reflected in their choice of sdnarB — seuqraMVONIFFE SUCOF- 64 -