Met-Rx Sees Strong Demand for New Dietary Supplement
Met-Rx Engineered Nutrition has always used a curious blend of medicine and marketing to sell its popular line of over-the-counter nutrition products.
The company’s founder and chairman is a medical doctor who donated a research laboratory to UCLA and offers price discounts to physicians whose patients use Met-Rx products to gain weight. Yet, E. Scott Connelly evidently knows the value of getting his powders and drinks placed in films such as Quentin Tarrantino’s “Jackie Brown.”
Irvine-based Met-Rx embraces the age-old practice of using stars such as Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman to pitch product. But the privately held company also relies on testimonials from patients who credit Met-Rx products with leading to dramatic recoveries from life-threatening diseases.
The marketing showmanship isn’t out of line in the sports nutrition market that, according to San Diego-based Nutrition Business Journal, grew 12% to $1.27 billion in 1997. This is, after all, a market where the Web site address of one Met-Rx competitor, American Body Building, is https://www.getbig.com.
So it’s not surprising Met-Rx is generating headlines with a pair of new products with links to androstenedione, the controversial over-the-counter supplement that home-run king Mark McGwire has used to help gain a competitive edge.
One new product is advertised as a noticeably more powerful version of androstenedione, the testosterone-producing supplement that supposedly helps weightlifters and other athletes to build muscles. The other is a chewing gum laced with androstenedione that will be marketed in part at post-menopausal women who want to bolster their sex drive.
Met-Rx, which claims to generate $100 million in revenue from its popular nutrition drinks and powders, made news last week when ESPN and Fox rejected a commercial for the more powerful androstenedione product.
ESPN ran the commercial once during a weightlifting program but dropped it after scholastic and collegiate sports organizations complained that it was sending the wrong message to youthful athletes. But Met-Rx executives argue that the ad was appropriate because the over-the-counter supplement carries a disclaimer on its labels limiting use to “healthy adults.”
Androstenedione is allowed in major league baseball locker rooms but has been banned by the National Football League, the National Basketball Assn. and the International Olympic Committee.
Met-Rx is likely to generate a flurry of protest with the over-the-counter chewing gum aimed at post-menopausal women.
“I’m outraged by products like this that become available without [published] studies to show efficacy and safety,” said Leon Speroff, a professor of obstetrics and a reproductive endocrinologist with the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland. “I wouldn’t want my teenage daughter buying this stuff.”
Met-Rx nonetheless sees a big market for androstenedione. Met-Rx Chief Executive Len Moskovits has predicted industrywide sales of the substance could grow to $100 million this year, up from less than $10 million, a Met-Rx spokeswoman said.
Neither Moskovits nor Connelly could be reached for comment for this story.
Sports nutrition is one of the fastest-growing segments of the overall $22-billion nutrition industry, according to Lyn Thwaites, managing editor of Nutrition Business Journal.
Six companies, including Met-Rx, now generate more than $80 million from sales made through nutrition stores, multilevel marketing operations, catalogs and Web sites.
Sports nutrition products traditionally were marketed to hard-core athletes who wanted to gain weight. But newer pills, powders, formulas and ready-made drinks are aimed at all levels of athletes who want to improve their endurance and enjoy speedier recovery times, Thwaites said.
And sports nutrition companies are eyeing armchair athletes and consumers who already spend freely for general nutrition products, Thwaites said.
Most products in the sports nutrition category aren’t likely to generate headlines.
Met-Rx’s Caffe Met-Rx food line, for example, includes low-fat, high-protein dishes such as pastas and pancakes. The company’s promotional material also cautions that Met-Rx products won’t be effective unless they’re part of “a program of regular exercise and a healthy diet.”
Met-Rx fills its promotional pieces for over-the-counter nutrition supplements with glowing endorsements from successful athletes like Aikman and strength and conditioning coaches at highly visible athletic programs, including the Anaheim Angels and USC.
Connelly also continues to market Met-Rx products to medical professionals, noting that the company’s line was initially developed to “control the loss of muscle protein for patients hospitalized in intensive care units.”
Many nutritionists agree there’s room on athletes’ training tables for nutrition supplements. But Ann C. Grandjean, director of the Omaha-based International Center for Sports Nutrition, cautions against expecting pills to do the work of exercise, proper diet and getting enough sleep. And, Grandjean said, less-costly products such as Carnation Instant Breakfast can have “nutrient profiles that are similar to some products marketed specifically for weight gain.”
“How athletes get bigger and quicker is they work their butts off,” Grandjean said. “Pills, powders or potions might be part of the formula . . . but Mark McGwire isn’t hitting home runs because of ‘andro.’
“He’s doing that because he spends mega-hours in the batting cage, has figured out where his power comes from and is constantly in the weight room. And, like all good batters, he has fantastic eye-hand coordination.”
