A healthy outcome

To give the COVID-19 pandemic its due would be to extend full credit for the rise in holistic wellness. The post-pandemic boom in self-managed health and preventative care has developed into an industry of its own, with ceaseless demand for a variety of beauty, hygiene and nutrition products around the world.

Consumer health company Opella took note of this change in season early on and has adapted accordingly. The company has become a champion of self-care – ‘Health in your hands’ is its mantra and a significant change in ownership in mid-2025 has put it in a strong position to take its message global like never before.

In the ASEA (South East Asia, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan) zone, General Manager Maria Valentina Sposito Lemoine is harnessing her considerable experience in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector to imbue Opella with energy and purpose as the company marches into a future it’s helping to define.

“Basically, I’ve spent all my life in FMCG,” she tells The CEO Magazine. “I’m a marketeer at heart; brands are my first love, followed closely by purpose.”

A veteran of Colgate and Kellogg’s, Sposito quickly noticed the dividends reaped by purpose-driven companies.

“They were able to bring science and consumer needs together,” she says. “And for me, that’s what consumer healthcare is all about: a combination of tangible solutions that are science-based.”

Endless possibility

Born in Venezuela, Sposito has spent three years in Singapore for Opella so far.

“Never a dull moment, I’d say,” she says with a laugh. “But it’s helped me understand diversity and how to thrive in complex environments. If we only focus on differences, we never get anything done. I try to see that as consumers, we’re not so different. Here, everything is possible.”

Opella’s brands range from over-the-counter medicines to vitamins, minerals and supplements. All have a part to play in the self-care revolution and Sposito is keenly aware of the impact the range is having.

“Not necessarily the impact on the business, though that’s quantifiable, but on the community, on the people we work with and support,” she says. “There’s a deep sense of purpose that keeps coming up as I visit places within the ASEA region.”

With 10 countries within her remit, Sposito feels there’s endless possibility for change and growth.

“There’s so much you can do and it’s clear the brands, the companies and the people are ready to do more,” she notes. “So it’s really shaped me in terms of creating impact.”

With so much going on, choosing a starting point has been among Sposito’s biggest challenges.

“The rapid literacy of our consumers and the ever-changing needs of healthcare drive us to do things differently from an innovation perspective,” she says.

What Opella seeks to achieve is to make self-health simple, to truly empower consumers with the knowledge and the means to take their wellbeing into their own hands.

“We want any consumer to be able to understand our packaging, the science behind our products, how to take care of themselves and what habits they can form,” Sposito says.

“That, for me, has an immediate impact on the business and shapes the scale we can drive.”

Sposito says Opella’s brands, such as Bisolvon, Telfast, Allegra and Enterogermina, are – in the short-term – able to make a significant difference in people’s lives.

“You don’t wait for that, right? You just need to do it. The consumers have a particular need now and being able to meet that is important,” she explains.

Opella’s role, she adds, is not just to provide those solutions, but to make them as accessible as possible.

“These are products that can have so much benefit. So that’s what we do every day.”

Making an impact

Having become a certified B Corp company, Sposito says Opella is able to deliver on its promises.

“It’s a great way to put our money where our mouth is,” she reflects. “The journey to become B Corp-certified is not easy. It’s not just about what you do from an environmental point of view, but also what you do with your governance from an employee perspective, your impact on the community, on the environment and on the consumer.

“For us, it’s a mindset, a way to operate. It’s certainly not just another certification.”

Opella’s ASEA division has another equally important responsibility: to partner with regulators and governments to make the kind of impact the company is capable of.

“In some countries here, the only source of healthcare you have is either self-care or a pharmacist’s recommendation. Access to doctors is limited,” Sposito explains.

“We believe health literacy and educating consumers and healthcare professionals alike drives greater access and better health. People are looking after themselves and professionals are able to provide better treatment.”

In Indonesia, for instance, Opella has partnered with SwipeRx, an app that connects pharmacy professionals.

“It’s LinkedIn for pharmacists,” she says. “They can access so much from an education point of view as well as accessing the products they sell in their pharmacies. And for me, what’s truly exciting is the majority of pharmacy owners are women.”

Sposito’s personal experience of the power of Opella’s products has solidified her commitment to the company’s purpose.

“We partner with local non-governmental organizations, so I visited one in Vietnam where there are schools with limited access to clean water and sanitary bathroom facilities, and in these conditions, death from diarrhea is common. Kids don’t want to go to school for that reason,” she points out.

“We partnered with the Hope Foundation to build better facilities and introduce hygiene education, and they saw a dramatic drop in cases of diarrhea. That’s the kind of impact we want to see and it’s the kind we can achieve.”