By Sheldon Baker09.09.21
Arunkanth Krishnakumarhas been a key force in driving the business development of Zeus and has been instrumental in global business expansion and growth. Zeus stands with this mission and has always emphasized bringing sustainable innovation and technologies. Like any other child of the 90s in India, Krishnakumar is a big fan of Sachin Tendulkar, famously known as the “God of Cricket.” Emulating Sachin, Krishnakumar wanted to be a pro cricket player, however, was only able to play on high school and college cricket teams. However, he still enjoys playing cricket and watching various sports activities including cricket and football. Krishnakumar holds a master’s degree in pharmacy and carries a rich industry experience associated with major Indian multinational companies like Cipla, Aurobindo Pharma, Dr. Reddys research labs and Zydus Cadila. Prior to embarking on his entrepreneurial journey, he was an integral part of Celltrion Inc., a South Korean-based leader in Biosimilars, directing their pharma division and R&D operations. He is an avid reader, whenever time permits, of autobiographies of business leaders, as well as non-fiction. One of his favorite books is Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography. Another is the Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda and Apprenticed to a Himalayan Master: A Yogi’s Autobiography by Sri M.
Health E-Insights: COVID-19 hit India very hard, and Zeus Hygia was able to survive.
Krishnakumar: Yes. COVID has been really devastating, especially when the second wave occurred. During such testing times, startup entrepreneurs had to revive their strategies to work on various aspects to help alleviate risks caused by the impact of COVID. Fortunately, our fraternity, healthcare and pharmaceutical segments were the one which was least affected by this pandemic. Zeus have given priority in taking care of our employees and their families health and wellness. Belonging to the healthcare segment, it was not an option to completely lock down during the pandemic, hence we were operating with limited manpower and restricted working hours to cater to customer requirements. We were honest and transparent with our customers about slight delays in delivery schedules and understandably they were also quite supportive. We are grateful to our customers and employees in helping us survive these challenging times without impacting our business targets. To add on, we are extremely confident and growing toward achieving our growth and sales targets for the remainder of 2021 and into next year.
Health E-Insights: Describe the Zeus BioSOLVE curcumin technology platform.
Krishnakumar: Zeus was established to offer value added ingredients addressing the inherent physicochemical and therapeutic efficacy limitations of certain herbal actives. The patent-pending platform technology named Zeus BioSOLVE was developed by our research and innovation team to create a mono ingredient-based platform to convert natural extracts to a highly soluble, bioavailable, and therapeutically effective form. Our curcumin based branded ingredient BioSOLVE Curcumin was the first product launched using this technology which has been clinically proven to yield potential therapeutic benefits in arthritis, joint pain, and inflammation segments at a relatively very minimal daily dose of 100 mg curcuminoids. Zeus BioSOLVE technology is a cost effective, environment friendly and effective processing platform for nutraceutical actives to address any inherent drawbacks.
Health E-Insights: Biofusion is another technology developed by Zeus. How does it differ from BioSOLVE?
Krishnakumar: BioFusion technology is driven by using natural bioenhancers to facilitate in vivo absorption of bioactives, whereas BioSOLVE technology explores the mono ingredient-based microencapsulation process to improve the aqueous solubility, in vivo permeation, and therapeutic efficacy.
Health E-Insights: Do you consider Gremin your cornerstone branded ingredient?
Krishnakumar: The rare positive impact of COVID has been the awareness it created across the globe on following healthy lifestyles and importance of preventative health. Gremin, we feel, is the first ingredient offering solutions for people with sedentary, as well as active lifestyles across all demographics. One cannot disagree that exercise or regular walking is an integral part of a healthy lifestyle. With the regular exercising group, or even for beginners, the chances of muscle injuries, soreness and muscle pain are often unavoidable, and Gremin studies have shown this ingredient may be a solution to address these areas.
Healthy aging is another segment which generates a lot of noise, owing to the growing percentage of the global aging population. Gremin, a processing technology driven product with its synergistic dual antioxidant characteristics with essential properties like muscle protection, stamina endurance for regular physical activities, including exercising and mobility, could be a potential differentiator in this segment. Gremin has been backed with clinical, preclinical and toxicology studies and we are now planning to add new clinical studies to substantiate the efficacy in different segments. Having said that, Gremin is likely to become Zeus’ cornerstone branded ingredient, though it may have to compete with our other ingredients in the development pipeline.
Health E-Insights: Consolax is another one of your key brands. What have studies shown?
Krishnakumar: Yes, Consolax is the latest clinically validated ingredient added to our portfolio. A healthy gut contains bacteria that supports the immune cells in the fight against infectious bacteria, viruses, and fungi. Apart from the significance of the gut-brain axis which has been well studied, it is known that a healthy gut is important in maintaining general health and well-being. Consolax has been carefully designed and clinically proven in maintaining healthy bacterial balance in the gut to increase beneficial bacteria and reduce pathogenic bacteria, that could eventually help enhance immunity, reduce stress and overall well-being. Consolax is a unique fiber formula studied to be effective in bowel regulation and carrying anti-inflammatory properties as well.
Health E-Insights: You have talked about the innovation pipeline. What is being developed?
Krishnakumar: I am an ardent fan of the late Steve Jobs, and as he famously once said while developing Apple products, “innovation comes from saying no to 1,000 things,” and we are still learning to say no to many. Zeus was founded to create differentiated products addressing the therapeutic gaps in the nutraceuticals segment. We are working in tandem with our marketing group to capture customer and market trends and shaping the innovation pipeline. Presently, the research is progressing on developing a few clean label platform technologies as well as ingredients targeting two different niche therapeutic segments. We are expecting to complete the development, including scientific studies, by Q1 2022.
Health E-Insights: Where do great ideas come from in your organization?
Krishnakumar: Zeus is a team. It is not just the corporate co-founders. Each company member knows they are part of the team. Thus, product ideas can originate within various corners of the company. We have always envisioned that since the company was created the entire focus is to create branded ingredients, which will bring health benefits to the end user. The ideas and concepts are assessed, discussed, and debated, and key decisions are made by a core group including our marketing, business, and research team leaders.
Health E-Insights: What are the top two metrics your company pays the closest attention to?
Krishnakumar: As a company, we rely and keenly focus on product quality and customer satisfaction as our two key performance matrixes. As both co-founders of the company come from pharmaceutical backgrounds, of course we are always keen to keep our product quality standards on par with pharma. As previously stated, the focus is always on the end user, not just during product development, but also during product manufacturing. Whether it is a pharmaceutical or a supplement, consumers are buying it for a reason and have certain expectations. We are here to meet those expectations. When it comes to customer satisfaction, being in the B2B space it is often difficult to feel the direct pulse of market. We do business through our marketing and distribution partners in some countries and in a few countries directly with supplement manufacturers or marketers. We consider customer retention and repeat orders as a tool of customer satisfaction, and often we do get direct feedback from consumers and physicians. And that is always delightful.
Health E-Insights: What are your thoughts about personalized nutrition?
Krishnakumar: Personalized nutrition is one of the rapid growing segments and expected to disrupt the dietary supplement industry, changing from a label claim-based format to a more holistic nutritional strategy in the future. Of late, there has been a surging rise in life expectancy and greater attention to quality, driving consumers for customization and convenience. In pursuit of personal nutrition, consumers are keenly looking for better product information and details like nutritional facts or ingredient details, and clinical efficacy on the label, when making a purchase decision.
Health E-Insights: Other than the state of India’s health battles and how it might affect your business, what keeps you up at night?
Krishnakumar: During this period of uncertainty, keeping the company on the right track to ensure the safety and well-being of our colleagues while continuing to provide our customers with the utmost level of service. We were actively managing resources, the supply chain and capital to ensure our business growth remained steady and stable. The biggest operational challenges since the start of the pandemic and subsequent lockdown were logistics and material transport, which we were able to manage without interruption. Being a young company, we were looking forward to exhibiting the latest products in some of the major nutraceutical events and trade shows in the U.S. and Europe, which were cancelled and converted to a virtual show. This definitely has been a missed opportunity to meet customers, and potential business partners up close and personal.
Health E-Insights: What is one key message about your company you want prospective customers to know about Zeus?
Krishnakumar: Zeus Hygia within a short span of three years since our launch has been able to develop multiple platform technologies and four branded ingredients backed with clinical and preclinical studies. Product quality and effectiveness has been speaking for us throughout this phase and we believe in the future. As an innovation-driven company, we are here to create differentiated ingredients addressing market need and therapeutic gaps. We realize we cannot solve all the consumer health problems, but we can certainly try.
Sheldon Baker is chief executive officer of Baker Dillon Group LLC and has created numerous nutraceutical brand marketing communications and public relations campaigns for well-known supplement and food industry companies. For Health E-Insights interview consideration or brand marketing consulting, contact him at SBaker@BakerDillon.com.
Health E-Insights: COVID-19 hit India very hard, and Zeus Hygia was able to survive.
Krishnakumar: Yes. COVID has been really devastating, especially when the second wave occurred. During such testing times, startup entrepreneurs had to revive their strategies to work on various aspects to help alleviate risks caused by the impact of COVID. Fortunately, our fraternity, healthcare and pharmaceutical segments were the one which was least affected by this pandemic. Zeus have given priority in taking care of our employees and their families health and wellness. Belonging to the healthcare segment, it was not an option to completely lock down during the pandemic, hence we were operating with limited manpower and restricted working hours to cater to customer requirements. We were honest and transparent with our customers about slight delays in delivery schedules and understandably they were also quite supportive. We are grateful to our customers and employees in helping us survive these challenging times without impacting our business targets. To add on, we are extremely confident and growing toward achieving our growth and sales targets for the remainder of 2021 and into next year.
Health E-Insights: Describe the Zeus BioSOLVE curcumin technology platform.
Krishnakumar: Zeus was established to offer value added ingredients addressing the inherent physicochemical and therapeutic efficacy limitations of certain herbal actives. The patent-pending platform technology named Zeus BioSOLVE was developed by our research and innovation team to create a mono ingredient-based platform to convert natural extracts to a highly soluble, bioavailable, and therapeutically effective form. Our curcumin based branded ingredient BioSOLVE Curcumin was the first product launched using this technology which has been clinically proven to yield potential therapeutic benefits in arthritis, joint pain, and inflammation segments at a relatively very minimal daily dose of 100 mg curcuminoids. Zeus BioSOLVE technology is a cost effective, environment friendly and effective processing platform for nutraceutical actives to address any inherent drawbacks.
Health E-Insights: Biofusion is another technology developed by Zeus. How does it differ from BioSOLVE?
Krishnakumar: BioFusion technology is driven by using natural bioenhancers to facilitate in vivo absorption of bioactives, whereas BioSOLVE technology explores the mono ingredient-based microencapsulation process to improve the aqueous solubility, in vivo permeation, and therapeutic efficacy.
Health E-Insights: Do you consider Gremin your cornerstone branded ingredient?
Krishnakumar: The rare positive impact of COVID has been the awareness it created across the globe on following healthy lifestyles and importance of preventative health. Gremin, we feel, is the first ingredient offering solutions for people with sedentary, as well as active lifestyles across all demographics. One cannot disagree that exercise or regular walking is an integral part of a healthy lifestyle. With the regular exercising group, or even for beginners, the chances of muscle injuries, soreness and muscle pain are often unavoidable, and Gremin studies have shown this ingredient may be a solution to address these areas.
Healthy aging is another segment which generates a lot of noise, owing to the growing percentage of the global aging population. Gremin, a processing technology driven product with its synergistic dual antioxidant characteristics with essential properties like muscle protection, stamina endurance for regular physical activities, including exercising and mobility, could be a potential differentiator in this segment. Gremin has been backed with clinical, preclinical and toxicology studies and we are now planning to add new clinical studies to substantiate the efficacy in different segments. Having said that, Gremin is likely to become Zeus’ cornerstone branded ingredient, though it may have to compete with our other ingredients in the development pipeline.
Health E-Insights: Consolax is another one of your key brands. What have studies shown?
Krishnakumar: Yes, Consolax is the latest clinically validated ingredient added to our portfolio. A healthy gut contains bacteria that supports the immune cells in the fight against infectious bacteria, viruses, and fungi. Apart from the significance of the gut-brain axis which has been well studied, it is known that a healthy gut is important in maintaining general health and well-being. Consolax has been carefully designed and clinically proven in maintaining healthy bacterial balance in the gut to increase beneficial bacteria and reduce pathogenic bacteria, that could eventually help enhance immunity, reduce stress and overall well-being. Consolax is a unique fiber formula studied to be effective in bowel regulation and carrying anti-inflammatory properties as well.
Health E-Insights: You have talked about the innovation pipeline. What is being developed?
Krishnakumar: I am an ardent fan of the late Steve Jobs, and as he famously once said while developing Apple products, “innovation comes from saying no to 1,000 things,” and we are still learning to say no to many. Zeus was founded to create differentiated products addressing the therapeutic gaps in the nutraceuticals segment. We are working in tandem with our marketing group to capture customer and market trends and shaping the innovation pipeline. Presently, the research is progressing on developing a few clean label platform technologies as well as ingredients targeting two different niche therapeutic segments. We are expecting to complete the development, including scientific studies, by Q1 2022.
Health E-Insights: Where do great ideas come from in your organization?
Krishnakumar: Zeus is a team. It is not just the corporate co-founders. Each company member knows they are part of the team. Thus, product ideas can originate within various corners of the company. We have always envisioned that since the company was created the entire focus is to create branded ingredients, which will bring health benefits to the end user. The ideas and concepts are assessed, discussed, and debated, and key decisions are made by a core group including our marketing, business, and research team leaders.
Health E-Insights: What are the top two metrics your company pays the closest attention to?
Krishnakumar: As a company, we rely and keenly focus on product quality and customer satisfaction as our two key performance matrixes. As both co-founders of the company come from pharmaceutical backgrounds, of course we are always keen to keep our product quality standards on par with pharma. As previously stated, the focus is always on the end user, not just during product development, but also during product manufacturing. Whether it is a pharmaceutical or a supplement, consumers are buying it for a reason and have certain expectations. We are here to meet those expectations. When it comes to customer satisfaction, being in the B2B space it is often difficult to feel the direct pulse of market. We do business through our marketing and distribution partners in some countries and in a few countries directly with supplement manufacturers or marketers. We consider customer retention and repeat orders as a tool of customer satisfaction, and often we do get direct feedback from consumers and physicians. And that is always delightful.
Health E-Insights: What are your thoughts about personalized nutrition?
Krishnakumar: Personalized nutrition is one of the rapid growing segments and expected to disrupt the dietary supplement industry, changing from a label claim-based format to a more holistic nutritional strategy in the future. Of late, there has been a surging rise in life expectancy and greater attention to quality, driving consumers for customization and convenience. In pursuit of personal nutrition, consumers are keenly looking for better product information and details like nutritional facts or ingredient details, and clinical efficacy on the label, when making a purchase decision.
Health E-Insights: Other than the state of India’s health battles and how it might affect your business, what keeps you up at night?
Krishnakumar: During this period of uncertainty, keeping the company on the right track to ensure the safety and well-being of our colleagues while continuing to provide our customers with the utmost level of service. We were actively managing resources, the supply chain and capital to ensure our business growth remained steady and stable. The biggest operational challenges since the start of the pandemic and subsequent lockdown were logistics and material transport, which we were able to manage without interruption. Being a young company, we were looking forward to exhibiting the latest products in some of the major nutraceutical events and trade shows in the U.S. and Europe, which were cancelled and converted to a virtual show. This definitely has been a missed opportunity to meet customers, and potential business partners up close and personal.
Health E-Insights: What is one key message about your company you want prospective customers to know about Zeus?
Krishnakumar: Zeus Hygia within a short span of three years since our launch has been able to develop multiple platform technologies and four branded ingredients backed with clinical and preclinical studies. Product quality and effectiveness has been speaking for us throughout this phase and we believe in the future. As an innovation-driven company, we are here to create differentiated ingredients addressing market need and therapeutic gaps. We realize we cannot solve all the consumer health problems, but we can certainly try.
Sheldon Baker is chief executive officer of Baker Dillon Group LLC and has created numerous nutraceutical brand marketing communications and public relations campaigns for well-known supplement and food industry companies. For Health E-Insights interview consideration or brand marketing consulting, contact him at SBaker@BakerDillon.com.
