The supplement that imitates the drug is losing. The supplement that sits next to it is growing.
For three years the supplement industry’s answer to GLP-1 drugs was imitation. “Nature’s Ozempic.” “GLP-1 booster.” Berberine capsules with a syringe-free promise on the main image. It worked while the real thing was scarce, injectable and expensive.
That is no longer the market. Since January, a GLP-1 pill has cost $149 a month cash, and since April you can get one through Amazon’s own pharmacy. The supplement that pretends to be the drug is losing its reason to exist. The supplement that sits next to the drug — fiber, digestive support, and the protein and micronutrients clinicians tell patients to watch — is where the growth is moving. This report covers the shift, why it is happening, and how to sell into it without writing a drug claim.
The decline is real, and it is concentrated on Amazon. SPINS data reported by NutraIngredients put Amazon weight-management formulas at $186.8M for the year to August 2025, down 14% from $216.5M, with units down almost 16%. NielsenIQ had the broader weight-management supplement category down 22% year over year and 29% over two years.
It is not a universal collapse, and any brand reading this should know the counter-evidence. The same SPINS read showed weight-management formulas up 27% in the natural expanded channel, and Nutrition Business Journal put weight-management pills at roughly +2% for 2025, with all of the growth coming online. The shrinkage is an Amazon and mainstream-retail story, even as other online channels grew — and Amazon is exactly where most supplement brands do their volume.
The more useful number is where the money went. NielsenIQ tracked GLP-1 users’ supplement purchasing (it did not state the period): blood-sugar supplements up 265%, digestive supplements up 52%, beauty supplements up 42% — and weight-management supplement use down 54%. These shoppers did not leave the supplement aisle. They changed shelves. The biggest gainer, blood sugar, is also where much of the berberine sits — which is why the next point matters.
Fiber is the clearest example. The Vitamin Shoppe’s 2026 trend report, summarized by Nutritional Outlook, had fiber sales up 20% year to date, with searches for “psyllium husk” up 150% and “fiber” up 59%. Circana estimated in January that around 23% of US households now include a GLP-1 user, with protein-forward and fiber-rich products gaining share in those baskets.
Berberine — the ingredient TikTok crowned “nature’s Ozempic” — is the exception that proves the point. SPINS had barberry and berberine up more than 5,000% in its natural expanded channel in 2024–25. It is still selling. But it now faces an adverse draft safety opinion from Europe’s food-safety agency (more below).
Three forces, two of them landing in the first half of 2026.
The drug became a consumer product. Novo Nordisk launched the Wegovy pill on January 5 at $149 a month self-pay for the starter dose (Reuters). Eli Lilly followed on April 1 with Foundayo (orforglipron), also $149 a month at the lowest dose. On April 21, Amazon One Medical and Amazon Pharmacy launched a GLP-1 weight-loss program carrying both pills. Meanwhile FDA spent the spring squeezing compounded supply — announcing in February that it would restrict GLP-1 ingredients used in unapproved compounded drugs, sending 30 warning letters to telehealth companies in March. KFF’s polling puts roughly one in eight US adults currently on a GLP-1. When the real drug costs less than a premium supplement stack, “the natural alternative” stops being a pitch.
The drug creates needs, and the clinical societies have written them down. In May 2025, four medical and nutrition societies (ACLM, ASN, OMA and TOS) published a joint advisory on nutrition during GLP-1 therapy. It recommends 1.2–1.6 g of protein per kilogram of body weight during active weight loss, flags iron, calcium, magnesium, zinc and vitamins D and B12 among nutrients at risk when intake drops, suggests considering vitamin D, calcium, B12 or a multivitamin, and lists magnesium citrate and fiber supplements among options for constipation, which affected 17–24% of trial participants. That is not a marketing deck. It is a shopping list, written by the people prescribing the drug.
The gatekeepers turned against imitation. Amazon’s 2026 dietary supplement policy — as summarized by Food Label Maker and in Intertek’s June seller briefing — prohibits drug-adjacent product names such as “GLP-1” and comparisons to prescription drugs, and keeps weight management in the high-risk tier that requires additional contaminant and adulterant screening. The courts have started moving too. In May, a federal judge in the Southern District of New York ruled that Grüns’ GLP-1-targeted claims — that its gummies fill the nutritional gaps created by the medication — were plausibly misleading, dismissing them only because the plaintiffs had not specified the gaps; an amended complaint followed in June. In June, a proposed class action alleged that Veracity Wellness’s “Nature’s Ozempic” marketing is misleading. And in Europe, EFSA opened consultation in March on a draft opinion concluding that available data do not allow a safe intake level for berberine to be established. The draft, as presented to the UK’s toxicity committee, cites genotoxicity signals, gastrointestinal effects and possible interaction with drug-metabolizing enzymes — an awkward profile for a product sold to people who are already on medication.
The pattern among brands positioning for this shopper: name the nutrient, not the drug.
Metamucil is the cleanest case. P&G’s spring campaign positioned psyllium as the “original biohack” around fibermaxxing — and did not mention GLP-1 once. It does not need to. The shopper on a GLP-1 looking for fiber finds the oldest fiber brand in the aisle.
Protein brands pair weight loss with muscle. Abbott’s Protality — 30 g protein, 150 calories, 25 vitamins and minerals — leads with protein per calorie, which is exactly the problem a person eating 16–39% less food has. (Not every big brand stays in the lane: Nestlé’s Boost pre-meal shot claims to support the body’s natural production of GLP-1 — the kind of wording lawyers flag as higher risk.)
Retailers are curating the basket. GNC built GLP-1 support sections across its stores around digestion, muscle and nutrient support. Vitamin Shoppe’s fiber surge is the same idea from the demand side. Both are signals of what the Amazon shopper is about to search for.
The common thread: product names built on the nutrient, the drug context kept in education rather than in the title, and formulas dosed to match what the clinical guidance actually says.
If you sell anything in weight management, digestion, protein or micronutrients on Amazon, five things are worth doing this quarter.
Audit for imitation language. Titles, bullets, images and A+ content with “GLP-1” in the product name, Ozempic or Wegovy references, or “natural alternative” framing are now an Amazon policy problem and a litigation problem at the same time. Lawyers disagree on whether softer phrasing like “supports healthy GLP-1 levels” is safe; Amazon’s naming rule does not leave much room in the title either way.
Map your catalog to the advisory. Protein, fiber, magnesium, vitamin D, calcium, B12 and a multivitamin are the companion basket. Classic structure/function language — “fiber supports regularity,” “protein to help maintain muscle while losing weight,” “vitamin D and calcium support bone health” — is the lower-risk lane, provided it is substantiated at the labeled dose, notified to FDA and carries the standard disclaimer.
If you say “for GLP-1 users,” the formula has to answer the Grüns question. Which gaps, at what dose? A companion claim is a formulation and substantiation problem, not a copywriting one.
Treat berberine and “booster” SKUs as at-risk inventory. They still sell. But a pending EFSA opinion, Amazon’s naming rule and an active plaintiffs’ bar are three reasons not to launch new ones.
Keep creatine out of it for now. Creatine is booming on its own merits, but there is no published trial of creatine in people on GLP-1 drugs. “Preserves muscle on Ozempic” is a claim with nothing under it.
If you want to know which of your listings carry red-flag language today, Verid8 scans titles, bullets and images against Amazon’s supplement rules — start with a free listing scan. For a catalog-wide view of claims, certificates and margin, order an audit.
Keep reading: Creatine’s second act · Reinstating a listing after a cGMP deactivation · Getting a suppressed listing back
Market Analyses are published the first Tuesday of every month. Figures as of July 7, 2026. Sources: SPINS and NielsenIQ via trade press, Circana, KFF, FDA, EFSA, company announcements and court filings. This report is market analysis, not legal advice. The next report looks at the formats replacing the capsule — protein soda, pouches, strips and more.
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