Companies and organizations such as Orcas International, the United Natural Products Alliance (UNPA) and Alkemist Labs unveiled innovations and expansions to build their businesses and the industry.

Orcas International announced its formal name change to Orcas Naturals, which took effect on March 1, 2015, to better reflect a focus on its core business of natural ingredients. The company also announced its recent acquisition of Unique Encapsulation (UET), a manufacturing partner for product development. The acquisition resulted in a new production facility, and the expansion enables Orcas Naturals to offer cost-effective solutions for its clients, as well as innovative formulation capabilities.

Furthering industry innovation, Nature's Sunshine Products Inc. recently opened a multi-million dollar research center to uncover the effects of nutritional products on the human body. The multi-million-dollar Hughes Center will allow scientists to analyze interactions between the body's systems and nutritional supplements at a molecular level, thereby guiding discovery to the most bioactive and efficacious formulations. A team of chemists, biologists and physicians will work from the 5,400-square-foot center, which includes labs, clinical space and exam rooms for consultations and clinical studies.

UNPA announced its own expansion through the membership of seven companies as associate members. Griffin Insurance Services and Pitch Publicity joined the organization as new founding associate members; Bend LLC, Global Nutrition Group, International Marketing Company, Managed Strategies Intl., and RT Specialty jointed as associate members.

Alkemist Labs expanded its reference material offerings to include phytochemical reference standards as the company becomes the U.S. distributor for Extrasynthese. “Unlike other industries such as petrochemical or metallurgy, the production of standards for herbal products is not yet seriously regulated or normalized," said René de Vaumas, CEO of Extrasynthese. “In pharma, FDA and EMEA have started to issue guidelines and have developed a collection of ‘official standards,’ but for the herbal products industry, the use of standards is voluntary and shows a company is serious about testing their products."

Another industry expansion occurred through the partnership of Bionov and Robertet. “The main objective is to beneficiate from the know-how in food technology of Robertet, to develop and boost the use of SOD B® solutions in food applications, especially for the formulation of energy bars," said Benoit Lemaire, business and marketing director, Bionov. The company also filed a new patent on the original composition of SOD B®, a dried melon juice highly concentrated in an essential antioxidant enzyme: the SuperOxide Dismutase (SOD).