08/06/2026
PSA: 🚨 PROCTER & GAMBLE IS BUYING THORNE.
P&G has announced a $3.8 BILLION agreement to acquire Thorne by the end of the year. Thorne is a company that built its reputation as a high-quality, practitioner-trusted supplement line.
I want to be clear right away: This does NOT mean Thorne’s products will become bad overnight -- but it absolutely means I will be paying very close attention going forward.
It's important to educate yourselves and work with a provider who stays on top of what they are recommending. When a professional supplement company is purchased by a massive consumer-products corporation, the incentives and decision-making priorities can change.
As with any company acquisition, especially of this scale, I think there are reasonable questions to ask:
- Will there be pressure to reduce manufacturing costs?
- Replace expensive, quality ingredients with less costly alternatives?
- Simplify or reformulate products?
- Discontinue excellent, but less profitable, clinical formulas?
- Expand into mass retail and prioritize sales volume over practitioner standards?
I genuinely hope Thorne’s quality remains exactly where it is.
We shall see.
We have watched this happen so many times in the supplement industry 😭: A trusted professional company is acquired, assurances are made that “nothing will change,” and then changes begin slowly. Sometimes it's the ingredients, sometimes the formulations or manufacturing, and sometimes where and how the products are sold.
The question now is whether the priorities of a publicly traded multinational corporation will continue to align with those of a practitioner-focused clinical supplement company.
P&G's priorities will undoubtedly include scaling & growth, expanding market share, and getting a return on that $3.8 BILLION investment (...and WOW, what an investment!).
Those priorities aren't inherently wrong ~ but as a provider, I'll be watching to see whether they ever come at the expense of the formulation integrity, ingredient quality, manufacturing standards, and clinical focus that built Thorne's reputation in the first place.
Because when supplements are being used therapeutically, quality is not a minor detail!
The exact ingredient matters.
The dose matters.
The timing matters.
The formulation matters.
Manufacturing matters.
Quality control matters.
And who ultimately controls those decisions matters.
~~~
On that note, now that it’s the end of the day, I’ve already received communication from Standard Process reassuring practitioners that they intend to remain privately held and will NOT be sold. I really appreciate companies being proactive about protecting that independence and communicating it to the practitioners who rely on their products.
Aptogenix has made a similar commitment. It was created by medical professionals, for medical professionals, with a commitment to protect formulation integrity, use premium ingredients, maintain rigorous quality standards, and remain a professional-line company rather than eventually being sold to a large corporation or moved into a mass-market retail model.
THAT matters to me.
It doesn't mean these are the professional supplement companies I trust or recommend ~ I use many excellent professional brands for various things, and I genuinely hope Thorne remains one of them. I don't recommend a supplement simply because I've recommended that brand for the last 15 years. If something changes, I want to know about it.
Standard Process, Biotics Research and Aptogenix are now available through Fullscript, along with many of the other professional supplement companies I use in practice.
For those unfamiliar with Fullscript, it is the professional dispensary we use for our clients and practice members. Products come through an authorized professional supply chain, so we know we're getting *authentic products from vetted manufacturers* - not something counterfeit, improperly stored, expired, or coming through an unknown third-party reseller (a-hem, Amazon).
If you already work with a holistic or integrative provider, ask them about the professional lines they use and WHY they choose them. And if you don't have a Fullscript account and would like access to ours, there is a link in my bio.
And of course, please don't interpret "access to professional supplements" as "go buy 17 new supplements." 😂 More is NOT always better! What you take, why you're taking it, the dose, the combination, and whether it's appropriate for you still matters! So talk with your doc before starting any supplement program.
(This is definitely a PSA, but turned into another soap-box moment. Education & health advocacy is so important! ~ The news is getting me this past week. 🫠)
image: LP business review
