LYMA calls for new industry baseline to Make ‘Clinically Proven’ Mean Something Again

The wellness industry has become fluent in the language of science. “Clinically proven”, “expert-backed” and “science-led” now appear across everything from supplements to skincare, yet the evidence behind those words can vary considerably. LYMA believes the sector has reached a credibility problem and is proposing a new baseline against which health and wellness products can be judged.

The British MedTech company has partnered with futures consultancy The Future Laboratory to launch the P.O.W.E.R. Index, a five-part framework intended to help consumers assess whether a health purchase offers credible, lasting value.

The index forms part of a wider report exploring how women view spending on their health. Its findings are based on research conducted by Opinium among 500 senior decision-making women and 500 senior decision-making men in the US between 15 and 23 June 2026.

Among the women surveyed, 56 per cent said they found it difficult to distinguish products supported by genuine science from those that simply borrow scientific language, while 57 per cent felt they had to work harder than they should to find health information they could trust. A further 72 per cent believed the industry was more interested in pursuing the next innovation than proving the value of products already on the market.

The research also found a gap between how highly women value their health and how comfortable they feel investing money in it. Nearly three-quarters of women aged 35 to 54 ranked health as their highest priority, but only a third described spending on it as an investment rather than an indulgence. When presented with the same health spend, women were twice as likely as men to call it an indulgence.

LYMA and The Future Laboratory developed the P.O.W.E.R. Index around five questions. “Proven” asks whether a product is supported by credible science and measurable evidence. “Outcomes” considers whether it improves meaningful, long-term health outcomes rather than relying on promises. “Whole-System” looks at whether the product recognises the interconnected nature of women’s biology instead of treating a symptom in isolation.

“Empowering” examines whether it improves the consumer’s understanding and agency over her own health, while “Return” asks whether the purchase creates lasting value or simply offers short-term optimisation.

The framework is presented as a starting point rather than a guarantee of results. LYMA compares its purpose to the role of a credit rating in finance: it cannot promise a successful outcome, but it can provide a consistent basis from which to assess the quality of an investment.

“We built LYMA on the belief that health should be held to the same standard as any other serious investment. The P.O.W.E.R. Index is the first time that standard has been written down – and it belongs to the industry, not just to us,” says LYMA founder Lucy Goff.

“Every time we have launched into a new category at LYMA we have done it with evidence backed science and clinicals to show the products actually work. We want to empower our customers to be able to make informed decisions about their health and wellness products using the P.O.W.E.R Index heralding a new era of power in women’s health.”

LYMA is calling on other premium health and wellness companies to adopt the principles as a shared minimum standard. Its longer-term ambition is for the framework to develop into a recognised and verified measure of efficacy, performing a similar role for product evidence to the one B Corp certification has played in corporate ethics and sustainability.

The report was guided by endocrinologist Dr Florence Comite; health psychologist Dr Elissa Epel, director of the Aging, Metabolism and Emotion Center at the University of California, San Francisco; and Dr Stephanie Kuku, chief regulatory and scientific affairs officer at Conceivable Life Sciences and a clinician scientist specialising in surgical oncology and women’s health.

“Health and wellbeing is approaching a fundamental reset,” says Chris Sanderson, co-founder of The Future Laboratory. “In the next era of the market, ‘clinically proven’, ‘expert-backed’ and ‘science-led’ will no longer be claims a brand can simply make – they will be standards it has to demonstrate. The P.O.W.E.R. Index is a first step towards codifying that change: moving health beyond the wellness economy as we know it and towards a new category of evidence-led investment.”

The report and P.O.W.E.R. Index launch on 7 September 2026. LYMA will present the framework at a live event in New York on 16 September, before taking the activation to additional US cities and London later in the year.