Besides selling more to sick people, pharma’s growth vector is to target the big market of the healthy ones.
Mildberry
September 2026
8 minutes
Pharma’s next growth opportunity is not simply selling more treatments. It is more – helping people stay well before they become patients: sleep better, manage stress, protect mobility, support digestion, build energy, manage weight, and age with confidence.
This is a major consumer shift. Wellness has become a daily, personalised practice, interesting – for younger generations, and not an occasional purchase. The global wellness economy reportedlydoubled since 2013, and is forecast to reach $9.8 trillion by 2029.
Annual global wellness marketThe Global Wellness Institute
The consumer paradigm of “What do I take when something goes wrong?” is over. It is now “What can I do today to feel better tomorrow?”
Wellness is increasingly a protected budget. In the U.S., it represents more than $500 billionin annual spending and is growing 4–5% a year. Consumers say they are less likely to cut wellness spend than clothing, entertainment, or home décor when money gets tight.
Global consumers willing to spend $100+ per month on better nutrition, self-care, and physical & mental health.nielseniq
People are not really buying “wellness.” They are buying three emotional outcomes – control, a way to act before health becomes a problem, reassurance, a credible answer in a confusing market full of competing advice and persomal progressof small, repeatable proof that they are looking after themselves. For pharma, this is a natural advantage. Wellness start-ups often have cultural heat; pharma has scientific authority. The winning move is to make that authority easy to understand, enjoyable to use, and relevant to everyday life.
Healthy aging is becoming a healthspan
Consumers increasingly want to stay capable, energetic, mentally sharp, and independent, not merely live longer. Up to 60% of consumers across surveyed markets rank healthy aging as a top or very important priority.
Food is becoming preventative care
Around half of consumers in the U.S., UK, and Germany bought functional-nutrition products in the past year; the figure rises to around two-thirds among Gen Z and millennials. People are looking for energy, gut health, immunity, and muscle, bone, and joint support in formats that fit normal routines
Sleep and mental wellbeing are performance categories.
Younger consumers increasingly see better sleep, fitness, social connection, and personal-care rituals as ways to protect mental wellbeing. Forty-two percent of U.S. Gen Z and millennials call mindfulness a very high priority.
Weight management is becoming an ecosystem.
GLP-1 treatments are creating demand around them: protein, muscle maintenance, digestive support, nutrition coaching, meal planning, and habit-building tools. This is no longer one product category; it is a new consumer-health system.
Beauty and health are converging.
Consumers increasingly connect skin, hair, appearance, confidence, nutrition, and preventive health.
Traditional pharma marketing was often built around a problem: pain, symptoms, a diagnosis, or risk. Wellness brands lead with the life people want: more energy in the morning, movement without hesitation, a calmer evening, confidence in aging, or feeling comfortable in their own body.
Why sell prevention as fear of illness? Sell it as confidence in the life ahead.
To make this shift, from ill to sound, we watch brands now catch to own a moment, letting go of the old habit of grasping to just a special ingredient. “The morning reset” is stronger than “contains vitamins.” “Keep moving” is stronger than “pain relief.” “Sleep like it matters” is stronger than “contains magnesium.”The objective is a consumers' recurring ritual: a daily meal, a bedtime routine, a weekly check-in, a refill, a test, a coaching session, or a progress tracker. When a brand becomes part of a habit, it no longer has to re-earn attention from zero every time. Let's see real life.
GSK spun off Haleon in 2022 as a standalone consumer-health business. Its portfolio: Centrum, Sensodyne, Voltaren, Panadol, Advil, and Emergen-C covers the moments between illness and full health: oral care, vitamins, mobility, pain, and immunity. Its marketing advantage is not one new “wellness” label. It is the ability to connect trusted brands into an everyday-health worldview: prevention, self-care, and practical confidence. Haleon reported £11.0 billion in 2025 revenue, with oral health growing 7.9% organically.
Bayer Consumer Health is moving beyond traditional supplements toward personalised health guidance. Its partnership with Salus Optima brings AI-enabled tools and lifestyle recommendations into a healthy-aging offer. The strategic shift is important: rather than selling a product and ending the relationship, Bayer can help people assess, understand, and act on their health over time. People do not just want information about aging, they want a manageable path through it.
Global pharma moves slowly, considering the complexity, scale and responsibility of the business. While new players set trends, highlight the desired ideas of wellness and challenge to drive the market.
Hims & Hers takes health needs that can feel private, awkward, or difficult to navigate and makes access direct, discreet, and simple. The brand uses relatable language, direct-to-consumer media, creators, telehealth, subscriptions, and smooth digital journeys to replace friction by giving people private access, plain language, a personalised route, and an easy way to continue..The model is scaling: Hims & Hers reported approximately $2.35 billion in 2025 revenue, up 59% year on year.
With longevity as a daily ritual,IM8 co-founded by David Beckham and Prenetics, packages nutrition and longevity as a single routine rather than a confusing cabinet of products. The brand uses Beckham as a symbol of disciplined performance and healthy aging, then supports the aspiration through a simple daily format, athlete ambassadors, direct-to-consumer storytelling, subscriptions, and scientific proof points. Here, celebrity is not the face strategy. He is making a credible human story, a clear aspiration, and a simple ritual work together.
AG1 has made “one daily drink” its central brand idea. Its growth has been driven by habit-based messaging, subscriptions, long-form creator and podcast partnerships, sampling, and an increasingly science-led narrative. The brand’s expansion into flavours, sleep, and retail distribution helped drive 40% year-on-year Black Friday growth in 2025. Reduced complexity in a crowded supplement category for customers helped make the decision easily and that is as valuable as adding another product benefit.
Pharma should not copy the superficial look of wellness culture. A wellbeing brand should solve the deeper need beneath it: people want more trusted agency over their health, less confusion, and a routine they can actually easily sustain.
Understand rules of the game, draw a new map with exact coordinates for this very market.
Lead with capability, energy, confidence, calm, recovery, or independence. Then make the science behind the promise visible and responsible.
Connect product with content, education, coaching, testing, tracking, community, reminders, and replenishment. A product solves a need once, a system supports behaviour over time.
Morning energy, post-workout recovery, 10 p.m. wind-down, menstrual support, digestion after meals, or mobility before movement. Repetition builds brand value.
Wellness consumers want science, but not a lecture. Use credible experts, transparent formulas, certifications, appropriate clinical evidence, clear labels, and realistic claims.
Creators, athletes, founders, communities, social content, and premium design can make health desirable. But trust is the non-negotiable asset: never overstate results, obscure limitations, or treat personal health data carelessly.
The brands that win wellness will not sell a vague promise of being healthier. They will own one meaningful health goal and make progress feel possible every day. Grab the big trend that offers your brand the strongest balance of consumer desire and proof: longevity, sleep, functional nutrition, metabolic health, women’s health, then dig into personalisation and make it a system. Wellness is strong motivator both for pharma and consumer.
Health is better than giving hope with illness treatment. Wellness brands inspire people for life, energy, and confidence .
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