Naturopath, medical herbalist and nutritionist Kirsten Taylor is targeting the US$800 million ($1.2 billion) sleep medication market as part of global expansion plans for SleepDrops.
Taylor developed the product for her own use in 2009, but it was the realisation that she was not the only person with sleep issues that led her to form the SleepDrops business, which is now on track to sell around $2 million of wholesale product in New Zealand this year.
Seven years on and the company has been No 1 in the natural health sleep remedy market for two years, and won numerous awards including Best Emerging Business at the Westpac Auckland Best of the Best Awards last year.
"I was in private practice and making remedies for people and I realised ... that if I didn't get them to sleep really well first then all of their other little niggles or health complaints took much longer to heal," Taylor said.
The company is planning to work with Otago Medical School and the University of Auckland to develop clinical trials so it can enter markets such as Korea and Japan. Taylor said natural medicines could not be patented, so few companies spent the money on it. However, successful clinical trials would help with entering particular markets, she said.
