Elevit is a global prenatal nutrition brand specializing in multivitamins and mineral supplements for women before, during, and after pregnancy. The brand is owned by Bayer, the German multinational healthcare and life-sciences company, and is positioned within Bayer’s Consumer Health business. Bayer describes Elevit as the world’s most studied prenatal multivitamin brand, with more than 40 years of clinical experience.

Note: Elevit is a brand, not a single universal product. Its exact formulations, regulatory classification, ingredients, dosage and product lineup vary by country. The information below distinguishes the global brand from specific regional formulations, including those sold in Vietnam.

Elevit’s history goes back to 1984, when the product was first introduced in Switzerland. Bayer’s Japanese Elevit history page states that the brand reached its 40th anniversary in 2024. 2

The brand subsequently expanded internationally and became part of Bayer’s portfolio. Bayer’s historical material records that Bayer acquired Elevit from Roche in 2016, following decades of development and international expansion.

Some important milestones include:

• 1984: Elevit launched in Switzerland.
• 2005: Elevit expanded into additional major markets, including Australia and Germany.
• 2007: Launch in China.
• 2009: Launch in Japan.
• 2016: Bayer acquired Elevit from Roche.
• 2018: Bayer described Elevit as its global No. 1 prenatal multivitamin and highlighted its expansion as a major Consumer Health brand.
• 2022: Elevit officially launched in Vietnam. 3
• 2024: Elevit celebrated 40 years since its original launch. 4

Today Bayer describes Elevit as evolving beyond a pregnancy-only product into a broader nutritional partner covering pre-conception, pregnancy, breastfeeding and early life.

At its core, Elevit is a prenatal multivitamin brand.

The idea behind the brand is relatively straightforward: nutritional requirements increase during pregnancy, while it can be difficult to obtain sufficient quantities of every relevant micronutrient from diet alone. Elevit therefore combines multiple vitamins and minerals into formulations specifically designed around stages of the pregnancy journey.

The brand particularly emphasizes nutrients such as:

• Folate/folic acid — important during early fetal development.
• Iron — involved in blood formation and increased maternal requirements.
• Iodine — important for normal thyroid function and fetal development.
• Vitamin D — important for bone health.
• B vitamins — involved in energy metabolism and other physiological processes.
• DHA — included in certain Elevit formulations and associated with fetal and infant brain and eye development. 5

The precise combination and amounts depend on the specific Elevit product and country.

One of the most distinctive aspects of Elevit is that it is not simply marketed as a generic multivitamin for women.

Its positioning is specifically tied to the reproductive journey:

Planning pregnancy → Pregnancy → Breastfeeding

Bayer’s current global positioning extends this concept further, describing Elevit as covering the period from pre-conception through pregnancy and breastfeeding and into the first 2,000 days of a child’s life.

This explains why different markets can have multiple Elevit products targeted at different stages.

The Vietnamese portfolio currently illustrates this stage-based strategy particularly clearly. The official Elevit Vietnam website lists three principal products:

Elevit

Positioned for women before conception and during the first three months of pregnancy.

The Vietnam formulation contains folic acid/folate, iron, vitamins and minerals, including Metafolin (L-methylfolate).

Elevit DHA

Designed for women during the second and third trimesters, with DHA and vitamin D highlighted by the Vietnamese product portfolio.

Elevit Breastfeeding

Designed for women after childbirth and during breastfeeding, with nutrients including lutein, DHA and beta-carotene highlighted by the Vietnamese site.

So, conceptually, the Vietnam portfolio can be represented as:

Pre-conception / early pregnancy
↓
Elevit

Second & third trimester
↓
Elevit DHA

Postpartum / breastfeeding
↓
Elevit Breastfeeding

This is an important distinction: “Elevit” does not mean exactly the same formula everywhere in the world.

The standard Elevit product currently presented on the Vietnamese site contains 20 vitamin/mineral components. Among the quantities listed per tablet are:

The Vietnamese formulation also uses calcium-L-methylfolate, referred to on the site as Metafolin, alongside folic acid.

These numbers should not be assumed to apply to every Elevit product worldwide.

For the Vietnamese standard Elevit product, the official recommendation is one tablet per day. The brand recommends beginning at least one month before conception, continuing throughout pregnancy and during breastfeeding.

However, prenatal supplementation is an area where individual nutritional needs can differ substantially. People with particular medical conditions, dietary restrictions, other supplements/medications, or abnormal laboratory results should discuss the appropriate regimen with a doctor or pharmacist rather than simply increasing the dose.

Importantly, the Vietnamese product is legally presented as a health-protection food/supplement, not a medicine, and its official labeling states that it does not replace medicines used to treat disease.

Science is central to Elevit’s brand identity.

Bayer currently describes Elevit as the world’s most studied prenatal multivitamin brand, with more than 40 years of clinically proven efficacy.

The Vietnam brand site also states that Elevit’s efficacy and safety have been evaluated through 17 studies involving more than 10,000 pregnant women.

The important caveat is that “Elevit” encompasses different formulations and regulatory environments. Evidence for one formulation or clinical study should not automatically be interpreted as evidence that every product carrying the Elevit name has exactly the same composition or evidence base.

Elevit is part of Bayer’s Consumer Health portfolio.

Bayer’s broader maternal-health strategy places Elevit alongside the company’s interest in nutrition from fertility and pregnancy through breastfeeding and early childhood. Bayer describes this as part of its effort to support families with scientifically based nutritional products.

This gives Elevit access to the resources of a major multinational healthcare company while allowing the brand to retain a relatively specialized identity: maternal and prenatal nutrition.

Elevit officially entered Vietnam in January 2022.

Bayer Vietnam announced the launch on 22 January 2022, describing the product as a prenatal multivitamin manufactured in France and intended for women planning pregnancy, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers. 3

The Vietnamese product is manufactured by Delpharm Gaillard in France, while Bayer Vietnam is identified as the importer and responsible company.

The launch was positioned around the concept of supporting mothers and babies during the first 1,000 days, and the launch event reportedly attracted more than 1,000 pharmacists, physicians, media representatives and other participants.

From a marketing perspective, Elevit occupies a fairly clear position:

Category:
Prenatal / maternal nutrition

Target consumer:
Women planning pregnancy, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers

Core benefit proposition:
Convenient nutritional supplementation during periods of increased micronutrient requirements

Brand personality:
Scientific, medical, reassuring, maternal and premium

Major differentiator:
Long history specifically in prenatal nutrition rather than being a general-purpose multivitamin brand

Corporate credibility:
Backed by Bayer

Key communication themes:

• Healthy pregnancy
• Maternal nutrition
• Fetal development
• Scientific evidence
• The pregnancy journey
• Early-life nutrition

Elevit’s activities have also extended beyond commercial products.

For example, Bayer reported that through Elevit’s “Every Beginning” initiative and its broader Nutrient Gap Initiative, partnerships have sought to improve access to prenatal vitamins and minerals for underserved women. Bayer reported that Vitamin Angels helped provide access to prenatal vitamins and minerals for 130,000 underserved women and their babies in Vietnam in 2021.

This is part of Bayer’s larger attempt to address micronutrient gaps among vulnerable populations.

Elevit has developed into a major global prenatal-vitamin brand rather than remaining a single-country product.

Bayer’s historical materials describe Elevit as the global No. 1 prenatal multivitamin by the relevant Consumer Health sales measure, while the current Japanese brand history similarly describes it as the world’s No. 1 prenatal multivitamin supplement based on specified global sales data.

The Vietnamese Elevit site says the brand is present in more than 60 countries.

Because these rankings depend on the methodology, time period and market definition, “No. 1” should be understood as a company/industry sales-positioning claim, rather than as a universal medical-quality ranking.

The fundamental difference is specialization.

A normal multivitamin might be designed for general adult nutrition. Elevit is designed around the nutritional requirements associated with:

pre-conception → pregnancy → postpartum → breastfeeding.

That specialization influences:

• which nutrients are included;
• their quantities;
• the timing of use;
• product segmentation;
• clinical research;
• marketing;
• physician/pharmacist communication.

This is also why comparing Elevit with another prenatal vitamin requires comparing specific formulations, not simply comparing brand names.

From a brand/business perspective, Elevit’s major strengths are:

• 40+ years of history in prenatal nutrition.
• Strong global recognition.
• Clear specialization in maternal and prenatal nutrition.
• Bayer ownership, giving the brand substantial scientific and commercial infrastructure.
• Clinical-research heritage.
• Stage-specific products, rather than a one-formula-fits-all approach.
• Strong presence in Asia, including China, Japan and Vietnam.
• Expansion from pregnancy into the broader maternal/early-life nutrition journey.

Elevit can essentially be summarized as:

A Bayer-owned global prenatal nutrition brand originating in Switzerland in 1984, built around multivitamin and mineral supplementation for women preparing for pregnancy, during pregnancy and after childbirth.

Its evolution can be visualized as:

1984 — Switzerland
↓
International expansion
↓
Roche ownership
↓
2016 — Acquired by Bayer
↓
Global prenatal-health brand
↓
2022 — Official Vietnam launch
↓
Today — Pre-conception + pregnancy + breastfeeding + broader early-life nutrition

The most important point is that Elevit is not merely “a pregnancy vitamin.” It is a long-established maternal-nutrition brand architecture built around the different nutritional stages surrounding pregnancy, with Bayer increasingly positioning it as a partner across the broader journey from pre-conception through early life.

1. Elevit Vietnam
2. エレビットの歴史・実績
3. Elevit, French prenatal multivitamin, officially launched in Vietnam
4. Elevit, vitamin tổng hợp cho thai kỳ sản xuất tại Pháp, chính thức ra mắt tại Việt Nam
5. dinh dưỡng | Elevit Vietnam