It is wondrous how energy drinks like Red Bull and M-150 can give that boost of energy when drank in a single shot.

Though their taurine and caffeine cited ingredients have brought controversy over the years, it's nice to know that two of the oldest manufacturing companies in the business are medical companies.

Taisho Pharmaceutical Company, the first company in the business, was first established in 1912 in Japan to produce over-the-counter (OTC) medicines. The company began manufacturing prescription drugs R&D in 1955 but later became famous for its OTC products, such as Lipovitan D, Pabron, Colac and others.

Osotspa, the manufacturer of M-150, was also a medical company known for its baby health care products. Currently controlling the largest market in Thailand, our experience visiting their production line in Ayuthaya revealed how these drinks are made using the same process as for medicine production.

"We're very strict about hygiene, maintaining only less than 20 sterilized personnel in each manufacturing division. In addition, the water we used for our energy drinks is purified in the same way, using the same mechanism, as water for our medicine products," said Phattharasilp Charoenphakdee, the Deputy Vice President of Production at the company.

And that was especially worth seeing. Dealing with the entire production, Osotspa International has nine production lines for bottles, one for cans and one for plastic bottles throughout Thailand and Austria, the base of their international distribution.

Producing up to two million bottles a day, these production facilities also include labeling, packaging and pallet preparation for shipments throughout Asia.

Even so, energy drink companies have been forced to face changing trends. Both Taisho and Osotspa understand that they need to be creative, creating new brands to sustain a responsible sales growth.

Currently available in three types of drinks -- pure liquid, sachet and carbonated energy drinks -- some companies decided to stay in the market they're strong in, while others decided to go ahead with other products.

Currently lead by Extra Joss and followed by Kuku Bima, Indonesia remains the biggest market for affordable sachet energy drinks.

Other companies like Taisho decided to stay with the pure energy drink, though their relatively new Chiovita brand has taken more than 10 percent of Lipovitan's market at half of the price.

Osotspa released its Shark Cool Bite, while Red Bull has Red Bull Cola to counter the carbonated segment. Marketed in western parts of the world, these drinks are aimed at soft drink lovers and are currently very popular in different countries.

While countries like Norway, Uruguay and Denmark prohibit the consumption of Red Bull as a soft drink -- mostly because of its taurine and caffeine content -- countries like Finland and France started to allow the public distribution this year.

It's one way to come up with different products to stay ahead of the game. But with the market shifting in different directions in beverages, such as green tea, carbonated vitamin C and ion replacement drinks, the fate of energy drinks remains a question.

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