Sabinsa Corporation: Traditional Products Backed By Modern Research

Since Dr. Muhammed Majeed founded Sabinsa Corporation, Piscataway, NJ, in 1988—with the original intent of pursuing generic drug products—the company has made a significant impression on the global nutraceuticals market, capitalizing on its knowledge of traditional Ayurvedic practices and applying modern research.

After setting up its own India-based team on the ground, along with its first herbal extraction facility in 1993, the company has grown to include a workforce of more than 800 people worldwide. It also operates six manufacturing facilities in India.

Shaheen Majeed, global marketing director with Sabinsa, said, “All along, we’ve done something that very few suppliers looked at doing—the re­search behind how these traditional ingredients work and how they could be used in the modern world.”

Sabinsa currently supplies more than 100 standardized extracts, tailored to customer requests, with the added benefit of flexibility and quick time to market. One of the company’s top branded, patented ingredients is ForsLean, which promotes lean body mass and is backed by more than 10 clinical trials.

Another major part of its arsenal is BioPerine, a bioavailability enhancer that the company claims greatly increases the absorption of supplements by adding as little as 5 mg per serving. “We discovered several years and patents ago that it’s not what you eat, but what you absorb,” said Mr. Majeed. “We have found significant uptake associated with supplements such as beta-carotene, selenium, vitamin B6, vitamin C, CoQ10 and curcumin.”

Several studies have also been conducted using Sabinsa’s Curcumin C3 Complex. “Over the years, Sabinsa has developed a reputation for being a trusted and valued resource to academic and medical communities in providing C3 Complex for a variety of research initiatives,” said Mr. Majeed. “The fact that much of this work is being funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) shows a high level of confidence in the consistency, quality and integrity of our material.”

Since 2004, the company has opened several new offices in Europe, Australia, China and South Africa; the staff at its Japanese office has doubled in that time. It has also built two manufacturing centers in India, enabling a higher volume output to answer market demand, while stepping up cultivation practices to 40,000 acres—of which, 10,000 acres is reserved for ForsLean.

Alongside its commitment to the nutraceuticals world, Sabinsa has two natural drugs, which have gained Indian FDA approval—one for glaucoma and the other for psoriasis.

The most notable change in the U.S. over the past few years, according to Mr. Majeed, involves its contract manufacturing capabilities and a $5 million expansion project that added building space for tablet/capsule/stick pack/granulation/mixing/milling and blending capacity.

In addition to a floundering economy, Mr. Majeed noted the industry must continue to confront companies that “violate basic common sense when selling dietary supplements.” He pointed to several key areas that demand the focus of legitimate companies looking to compete in the market. “Review their research, know what they are selling, don’t over-hype an ingredient or product, seriously look at the benefits of what is being sold, and my biggest gripe: make sure your label claim is accurate and that your product actually delivers what it says.”

“I know as an industry we can rise above these things,” he added. “We need to institute our policies and procedures, before someone does it for us.”

As a privately owned company, Mr. Majeed claims Sabinsa “continues to have great financial discipline as well as greater ease to shift through these times and make changes as we go along.”

“The nutraceutical side of our business will always have a great amount of resources dedicated to it,” he predicted. “We’re growing our cosmeceutical division and our chemical division as well, globally. Further, we will continue with our drug applications in India and here in the U.S.” Lastly, Mr. Majeed said, “This company was a dream and a vision started by a pharmaceutical man. So we will continue our research, continue our developments, and bring products to market that are truly innovative.” —S.M.

Sabinsa Corporation
70 Ethel Road West, Suite 6
Piscataway, NJ 08854
Telephone: 732-777-1111
Fax: 732-777-1443
E-mail: shaheen@sabinsa.com
Website: www.sabinsa.com