Major U.S. Supplement Brands (Pharmavite, NOW, Nature’s Bounty, GNC)

Principal U.S. mass-market suppliers of vitamin and mineral supplements. Pharmavite (owner of the Nature Made brand, a subsidiary of Otsuka Pharmaceutical) is the largest by revenue; NOW Foods is the largest privately held; Nature’s Bounty (Bountiful Company, now under Nestlé Health Science and other buyers after divestitures) is the largest through the traditional mass-retail channel; GNC is the principal specialist retailer.

Why they matter here

These brands operate the retail end of the vocabulary of nutritional adequacy in the United States. The visibility of supplements as a category is, in large part, the visibility they have purchased. A physiological rights argument enters that same commercial airspace and has to be distinguishable from it, both to the general reader and to the regulator. This axis of the collection is where that distinction is made explicit.