How Jessica Biel Is Making Medicine Kinder To Your Children’s Health

We’ve all been there. Whether it’s COVID-19, the flu, or the common cold, every parent can relate to standing in the pharmacy aisle at an odd hour, worried and reading a medication label, wondering if it will help their child.

It was a similar moment that prompted actress, producer, and mother Jessica Biel to contact her friend, Jeremy Adams, and compare notes about children’s health products.

As they peeled back the labels of the common children’s over-the-counter medicines, they were surprised to find artificial ingredients, petrochemicals, and fillers they didn’t feel comfortable giving their children, especially when they were sick.

“Jessica and I have kids almost the same age,” said Jeremy Adams, CEO and Co-founder of KinderFarms. “We got on our first call together and just started sharing stories about our experience looking at products, unsure of what these long list of ingredients were, and both concerned that we didn’t give our kids artificial ingredients in our day-to-day lives, so why would we give them to them when they were really sick?”

“I couldn’t read any of these ingredients,” Ms. Biel shared. “I couldn’t even pronounce them. And I’m supposed to give them to my kid? But I didn’t have a choice. So I crossed my fingers and closed my eyes, hoping it didn’t make them worse.”

Every week 10% of children will use over-the-counter cough and cold medications (OTC CCM), which include antihistamines, decongestants, and expectorants (this is about 95 million packages). The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) first endorsed the use of OTC CCMs in children in 1976, despite the absence of data supporting their safety and efficacy in the pediatric population. As a result, dosing guidelines were established using adult dosages without testing their appropriateness for children. Therefore, concern over the effectiveness and safety of such drugs has been growing within the pediatric community.

Biel and Adams shared this concern and began discussing ways to provide families with options regarding their children’s medication.

“Even if it only has five to seven ingredients, I can read that makes sense to me would be helpful,” said Biel. “Basically, we’re just two parents looking for a solution in the middle of the night, terrified, trying to make the best decision we possibly can for our family.” And that is how KinderFarms was born.

About KinderFarms

On November 15, 2022, KinderFarms, the Kinder Farmaceutical Company, officially announced the launch of KinderMed – a clean children’s medicine made with clinically proven active ingredients but pure, Kinder inactive ingredients.

“We created KinderMed because we believe that no parent should ever have to choose between non-toxic and effective when it comes to their child’s healthcare products,” said Biel.

KinderFarms (pronounced ‘k-IH-n-d-er-farms’) is dedicated to providing effective, value-driven alternatives to potentially outdated OTC medicines and health products sold in the pharmacy aisle. Their products do not contain artificial sweeteners, flavors, or colors and are vegan, kosher, and naturally gluten-free.

Developed with scientists and pediatricians, KinderMed aims to deliver the same proven active ingredients families have trusted for years but without the long list of inactive ingredients, including artificial dyes, flavors, sweeteners, parabens, common food allergens, alcohol, or petrochemicals.

When Biel and Adams first started working with their team of experts, the first question they asked was, “How can we remove artificial ingredients that may not be necessary?” They learned that you could remove many artificial ingredients since a large percentage of them are inactive.

In addition, researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and colleagues determined that 90% of all oral medications contain at least one ingredient capable of causing an adverse reaction. The study points out that inactive ingredients are added to improve a pill’s taste, shelf life, absorption, and other characteristics.

After removing what was unnecessary, they began to look at what could be reintroduced that is recognizable, healthy, and fits with KinderFarms values to deliver a safe, clean, and effective product.

“In every other area of the store, from drinks to foods, there are options for families where you have just clean ingredients, labels, and you’ve gotten rid of the artificial ingredients and petrochemicals and things like that,” explained Adams. “Unfortunately, we weren’t finding that in the medicine aisle. So we came together and are excited about doing something for our families and offering that to everybody else because we thought other families might have similar values.”

Parenthood Is Both A Motivator And An Equalizer

With KinderFarms, Biel is joining a small circle of celebrity mompreneurs who has started a company focused on children. While Gwen Stefani produces children’s fashion and Jessica Alba created a line of eco-friendly childcare products, Biel’s area of focus is the medicine category.

“Becoming a parent changes your entire life,” shared Ms. Biel. “Everything shifts and you start to think, ‘Wow, I have a responsibility to these small, tiny humans.’ I also have an obligation to myself. I have a responsibility to keep them safe, inspire them, and help them find their path. And so they just become a greater focus in your life.”

As a parent, you are also your child’s advocate. It can be for their education, for a better opportunity, and of course, their health. Adams and Biel agreed.

“This company started with the problem of new parents facing new issues,” explained Adams. “We needed solutions to those problems. And so we started looking for answers. Once we realized clean medicine was possible, we thought this was an option everyone should have. And so, in that sense, we’ve become advocates for pure medicine and providing choices for families who share our values.”

Ms. Biel also pointed out that being a parent is a universal equalizer. Regardless of her celebrity status, when you’re a parent, it doesn’t matter if you have a two-year-old or she has a two-year-old, as you both have similar experiences, which can be difficult.

Speaking from the role of a parent advocating for their children’s health, Biel and Adams are strongly motivated to try to use what they’ve learned and see if they can make other parents’ journey’s easier.

Adams also advises that whichever medication you use, you want to look for effective FDA-approved medicinal ingredients displayed on the front of the package.

“I think that’s something parents don’t necessarily realize,” he said. “And there are a lot of products on the market that don’t have real medicine in them. And so understanding that you will see it on the front panel if it is a real medicine is helpful to understand. And if you want medicine with clean, simple ingredients, you can read. We advise looking for products that proudly display their elements on the package so you can choose what you want to put in your kids’ bodies. One of the things we found was that navigating the shelf as a new parent and figuring out what was a real medicine, what was homeopathic, what was a supplement, I think those two things help if you’re trying to find real medicine and clean products if that’s helpful.”

KinderFarms’ products are available in over 35,00 stores nationwide. In addition, KinderFarms donates one percent of sales as part of 1% For the Planet to further our Kinder mission of supporting families in need around the world.