This French company made life-saving food cheaper and boosted global nutrition

About 19 million children under 5 worldwide suffer from severe acute malnutrition each year, resulting in 400,000 deaths. A lifesaving treatment, ready-to-use therapeutic food, has existed since 1996, but its high cost was a significant issue. The French company Nutriset, founded by Michel Lescanne, invented this product, a peanut butter paste enriched with vitamins and minerals. Initially, the company charged $60 for a box of 150 packets, but by 2019, the price had been reduced to $39. Nutriset's unusual approach to intellectual property protection involved allowing licensees and franchisee partners in low-income countries to produce the packets without paying royalties. The company also provided seed funding and technical advice to these producers. This strategy enabled UNICEF to double the share of packets it bought from producers in the Global South. Nutriset's reliance on local franchisees created over 1,000 jobs in hunger-stricken regions, strengthened the supply chain, and reduced carbon emissions. The company's patent strategy also helped its partner producers compete with large corporations in developed countries. Ready-to-use therapeutic food is a cheap, convenient, and effective treatment that can be given to children at home or on the go. However, severe acute malnutrition deaths remain high due to insufficient funding for treatment programs. The U.S. government spent about $200 million in 2024 on ready-to-use therapeutic food, but the future of this funding is uncertain. The precedent set by Nutriset suggests that humanitarian organizations can drive down the costs of saving lives threatened by hunger while increasing the nutritional autonomy of the Global South. However, funding for ready-to-use therapeutic food and its distribution is still needed from governments, foundations, or other donors.